"How My Community College Changed My Life"

Peggy Michel, Prairie State College
2006 Paul Simon Student Essay Contest Winner

When I was about to graduate high school, my parents asked me a simple question: "Do you want to go to college or would you like to have your bedroom redone?" They knew my answer. I was a poor student, with a proclivity for "partying." Much to their delight, I chose the latter, and spent many unproductive days in my new floral bedroom sleeping off hangovers.

That simple decision three decades earlier, plus my parent's desire to keep a buck, left my life to frequent self-doubt and financial struggle. I took the road most traveled, deeply rutted with the weary footprints of others.


Prairie State College student Peggy Michel (fourth from left)accepts her $500 scholarship from Illinois Senate Majority Leader Debbie Halvorson, Illinois Community College System Foundation board member Richard Wilson, PSC president Paul McCarthy, and PSC trustee Peg Donahue.

Prairie State College student Peggy Michel
(fourth from left) accepts her $500 scholarship
from Illinois Senate Majority Leader Debbie
Halvorson, Illinois Community College System
Foundation board member Richard Wilson, PSC president Paul McCarthy, and PSC trustee Peg Donahue.

A half century is almost upon me and I have three kids and two divorces under my belt. After the second divorce, I found myself working in a grocery store wondering about my life. Did I ever think standing for hours waiting on customers would be the most creative use of my time? Was bringing home $125.00 a week satisfactory? Is this what I planned? That was the problem; I hadn't planned much. Extraneous factors prodded me to examine my choices. I grew close to a few co-workers, who were attending community college and they encouraged me to do the same. Somewhere I realized I had left my life to circumstance. I desired choices and I was inspired to go back to school.

The academic challenge forced me to examine old myths and new possibilities. I believed I was too old to return to school; fortunately, I realized it is the very nature of learning that makes a person "child-like." Curiosity is the secret to eternal youth and more beneficial than Alpha Hydroxy. Also, in high school I was a student who would not learn math because I was afraid of numbers and avoided them. When I returned to college, math was an unavoidable requirement. I had to quash my fears and decide I could learn it. Subsequently, I achieved A's and a new love -- algebra.

Originally, my major was mass communication. When I took a communications class, we were tested to determine a career that fit our personality. As I previewed my career list, I was startled to see the word "Naturalist." Suddenly, I remembered who I was. I was the girl who hung out in the forest all summer and I am the woman who likes to hike and explore nature. There, on paper was the possibility for my life's work. The next semester I changed my major to science.

Because I work ful-time and have two children at home, I will be much older when I finally see my degree. Still, it is more about the journey than the destination. In the final analysis, how has community college changed my life? I can't say it has changed it as much as it has expanded it, illuminated it and impressed wonder upon it. I'm excited again and for that I am forever grateful.