Transferring schools: How to deal with change

The decision to transfer schools can be stressful and nerve wracking. There is a lot of unknown and the process of relearning can be difficult.

My decision to transfer schools after my first year of college was not one I made lightly.

When I went applied to college, I thought I had some idea of what I wanted to do. I did have an idea. I looked at schools, but I had not idea what I was really looking for.

It wasn’t until part way through my freshman year when I realized I wasn’t where I was supposed to be. With my injury, learning takes me longer to learn than others.

Luckily, when you go to college, where you go is not set in stone. There is always the option to take a year off or change schools.

With the friends I had made at school, it was quit the unpopular choice. They did not want to see me go. I was so unsure of this decision I didn’t tell my family. They only found out when the acceptance letter from the new university came.

I was extremely nervous to make the change. I really wanted to stay at the school where I was already comfortable at and with the friend, I had worked so hard to make.

Transferring: Getting used to it

Putting nerves aside, I knew this was the right choice. In the long run it was going to safe me money and I was closer to home. It felt like the right choice.

I did have one person step out of my life because of the decision. He thought I was selling myself short and wanted nothing to do with it.

I worked hard to stay in touch with the friends I had made at the first school. We talked via skype many times throughout the semester and we talked many times during the week.

 It was difficult for me to make new friends at the new school because I had missed orientation. I was lucky enough to find one friend who I loved to hang out with. From there I met people in classes and through that good first friend.

Switching schools was the best decision I made. Do not be afraid to make decisions because of nerves. I am an anxious human. But, the ability to push through the nerves and go with what you believe is right for you.

If you are interested, please click here are read about my story.

Balancing Time: Grad School and Work

Graduate School with a full time job is difficult to make happen. It is a lot on one plate.

Balancing time: the School and Job Experiment

For six months, I attempted to hold a full-time job while trying to attend graduate school full-time which requires balancing time. My school made this possible by offering my master’s degree online.


I woke up in the morning, went to work, went to the gym (sometimes), came home, ate, and did school work. I am not sure how people do it. Some do it out of necessity and kudos to them.


It wore me out. I never took time for me and became not pleasant to be around. I was losing friends and family. Everyone in my life could tell it wasn’t working for me.

The End Result of the Experiment


If going to school and having a full-time job is required for you to be in school, I will write about how I survived this for six months in an upcoming post.

The main goal is time management and making sure self care is one of your top priorities.


This lifestyle was not sustainable for me. I ended up having to choose one or the other. Finally, I let my school slide through the cracks and needed to pick one or the other.


I picked school. School is going to allow me to move forward in my life. I changed my full-time status with my work to part-time. The status change will enable me to spend more time doing school work.


The more time is crucial for me to have because of my brain injury. I required longer to fully grasp a concept that we are learning in my classes, I need to and can now spend more of my day focused on school work and bring my grades up.

I take what I do seriously and want to be the best I can be. My lifestyle change allows me to do my best in school and decide if I am indeed cut out for it.

Please check out my story if you haven’t yet.

Time Management in School

School is the first real experience of having a deadline to get stuff done. It is important for people with brain injuries to learn the best way for them to manage their time.

We have all heard the words time management. We know what it means. It means being able to be productive promptly.

This is an important concept when there is a lot on the to-do list and deadlines to meet. The first time we learn about time management is during school.

I don’t remember specifically, but I believe that when I had to start learning how to manage my time was in high school. That is when my readings got more time-consuming, and I had to write more papers.

I believe the big thing I needed to learn with my brain injury was how long it would take me to complete a task. After that, knowing what I needed to get done was more comfortable to plan for.

This allowed me to have an idea each night how long what I needed to get done would take me. This translated into college life as well.

Time Management: Friends

The issue in high school and college was friends. I loved them to death, but they were always able to finish in a faster time than me. This allowed them to go have fun.

There were times when I had to decline because I would not have been able to finish what I needed too quickly.

Sometimes its difficult for them to understand. My friends wanted me to go with them and not ‘be lame’ and do homework.

The thing they didn’t understand was that I wasn’t trying to be lame, I was just trying to do my job. My job was school, and if I felt that it wasn’t finished, I was going to finish it.

It was vital for me to do what I needed to do and stick with it. I had a lot more fun doing stuff with friends when I didn’t have to worry about work.

Some people will never understand the importance of what you need to do, especially if it isn’t a fun choice. It is necessary to stick to what you believe is the correct choice.

If they are good friends, they will understand.

If you want to read about how my brain injury came to be, please click here.

Math: That Subject in School

We all have that subject in school that was what we dreaded going to. It is no different with a brain injury.

Everyone has that one subject in school where they struggle and are in turn not a fan of it. I struggle with math. That is okay.

Math is my subject. I have always been a slow learner, but the math seems to take a while to click in my head.

That is okay, but the frustrating part is my foundation isn’t stable. The foundation isn’t reliable because I was busy getting pulled out of math to work on my reading.

It was a vicious cycle. It’s essential for me to put in the extra time and effort to be able to do everything, but if it impedes my ability to perform another subject, that is difficult.

Math has very different subsections. Some of it clicks with my brain, and others don’t. I had a lot of sections of math that just cannot mesh with the way my mind works but other I am.

I can grasp the concepts of algebra and geometry, but calculus is not my thing. It is okay.

The goal is just to keep working and never give up. I made it through high school and college math with hard work and never gave up. That is what has allowed me to push through and get to the point where I am today.

Please read about how I got my brain injury by clicking here.