Being a Bad Geology Student

June 23rd, 2026

My Grandmother is the one who sparked my interest in geology when I was very young. She always had a few interesting stones and crystals around to look at. She bought me my first crystal, a palm sized piece of rose quartz. I didn't know much about the science of it at the time, but I knew I wanted to expand my treasures. To be honest, I got into collecting mostly because I wanted more of these interesting shiny objects. Little did I know, I had found my calling. Crystals are what sparked my interest, but it was the Appalachian mountains I grew up in that mostly made me start to question how everything around me formed. I spent most of my childhood playing outside on the farm, and grabbing whatever interesting rock I could find. I would tell everyone I wanted to be a geologist, and bring in crystals often to show people! My passion for geology was a big source of pride for me.

I was very lucky to be diagnosed with ADHD and Dyslexia in 1st grade. I say lucky, because I can't imagine trying to get through school without knowing for certain that's what my deal was. I had an IEP that got me a few different perks while testing, but in my head I thought I didn't need it. I was an okay student in K-12 school. My school habits were not great. I had this persistent nasty habit of doing just enough homework and attendance to get a score of 80%. I was an A,B,C student with little to no studying. The first time I received pushback about wanting to be a geologist was when my academic advisors began talking to me about college. They would say things to me like "Geology is a lot of math." and "oh, that's going to be very difficult." They definitely got to me. I tossed around the ideas of different majors a few times but quickly realized Geology is the only passion I have that I could make into a career, and I would be really upset if I didn't try to do it. Unfortunately, the seed that I wouldn't really be able to pull it off was planted. What if it is really hard? What if I can't do it?

Early college was rough for me outside of school. I could quickly summarize what was going on as a common early 20's Identity/ life crisis. I was in community college for three years, and working part time as a caverns tour guide. Everyone at the cave loved and believed in me. In their eyes I was the future scientist. I myself still needed some convincing. I was still able to get by without much studying and being a bit of a slacker. The one class where everything made sense were my geology classes. It came naturally, and I took that as my sign to keep going. I actually had a hard time getting my geology professor to write a letter of recommendation for me. I don't think I'll ever really know why she didn't want to do it. I said fuck it and got my English professor that liked me to write it. I got accepted into my 4 year university for transfer. I graduated community college in May of 2020 after half of the semester was spent online.

Finally I was at my 4 year university. I stopped seeking out accessibility options because I wanted to prove I could do school without them. At least that's what I told myself. That's when my bad habits with school came to bite me. I spent so much time staying up late, playing videogames with friends, and drinking, that my grades suffered. I remember I would stay up until 6 a.m. playing video games, then I would sleep until my first lab at 12:30 p.m. I was still a post pandemic shut in. Very isolated, very depressed. Suddenly, only trying to achieve an 80% on homework and attendance was not cutting it. Things got bad. When I would visit home, my mom would dismiss all of my school problems by saying "you're so smart." When I would visit my Dad, he would actively try to convince me to drop out of college. (My relationship with my dad is a whole separate train wreck.) He would say things to my Grandma like "It's your fault she's in this." My brain was not kind to me, and unfortunately the naysayers finally broke through. Having someone you've spent your life desperately trying to get to like you tell you to give up on college is a devastating thing. I had gotten to the point of considering dropping out. I talked to my academic advisor, and he even agreed with me that a break would be good for me. I knew deep down I wasn't coming back at that point.

It's going to sound very cheesy but hear me out, okay? I was getting suggested songs on Spotify, and I came across Could Have Been Me by the Struts. If you don't know the chorus to that song goes:

I wanna taste love and pain
Wanna feel pride and shame
I don't wanna take my time
Don't wanna waste one line
I wanna live better days
Never look back and say
Could have been me

It fucking rocked my world hearing that song. I realized that if I didn't try my hardest to do this, I would hate myself. Letting my passion pass me by, and getting a job doing whatever for some paycheck was not going to cut it. I decided that day to go all in on school for the next two years then I would be free to be a geologist. I basically that day emailed my academic advisor and said nevermind. It was time to burn the boats. If I failed, at least I would know I gave it my all. What followed was nothing short of an entire life change, but if I had to list out what got me back on track the most:

It took a lot of work. I had to yank myself out of my comfort zone. ((((The comfort zone will kill you)))) Eventually, the work started to pay off. I'll never forget the first time in my Sedimentary Stratigraphy class that I realized my peers were coming to me for help. I have never in my life been the person in class with the answers. I don't think I will ever take that feeling for granted again. I even became president of the Geology Club at my university to become more active in the department. I still struggled a lot in some areas. I was not very good in my classes that were required for my major and not geology. My hardest classes were Chemistry 112 and Calculus. It is an act of god that I passed those classes but I did! It wasn't until my last few weeks of classes that I started sobbing in my car because I realized I was going to graduate. All that hard work had finally paid off. It was the first time in my life that I had pushed myself academically and it worked. All those years ago in high school my academic advisors were right: getting my geology degree was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life, but

I did it.

At the time I was getting ready to graduate I wrote "I'll just leave you with a few things I learned in college. 1. I am smart and capable of any goal I want to achieve. 2. Life is so sweet when you're surrounded by love. 3. Some stuff about rocks." I'm so grateful for not giving up.

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