During my four years here at Ohio State University I have gained many new friends and experienced many different things.
As I was preparing for my freshman year in 2005, one of my high school friends was shot and killed. Upon hearing the news I was very distraught which led to my depression. I would often miss class, fail to turn in assignments on time and get bad grades on my exams. One day my friend invited me to go to a campus Bible study with her called Renewed Vessels. It was here where I grew closer to God in my time of need and met many great people.
Due to my depression I ended up setting a record for lowest grade point average with 1.0. Following this bad news, I decided to go talk with my advisor Yolonda Kelly. She told me plain and simple that if my grades did not come up during the current quarter, which was Winter Quarter, then I would be at risk of losing my full scholarship. This was huge because my funding for college strictly came from this scholarship.
To overcome my bad quarter, I signed up for tutoring through The Office of Minority Affairs for my math class and began to attend class regularly. As a result, I earned a 3.5 grade point average for Winter Quarter, was selected for The Dean’s List, and was inducted into two national honoraries. After this experience, I learned that I can conquer any obstacle no matter how difficult it is if I just have faith in God.
Throughout the remainder of my college years I gained many new friends and got involved with many different organizations.
Two things I will never forget is 1) the day I jumped in Mirror Lake and 2) my official Facebook name “Ilovemysmile”. To have been apart of such a great tradition really helped me to overcome my fears and stand out among my friends.
For most of my friends jumping in Mirror Lake was not an option because “it was too dirty” and it meant “I wasn’t black if I jumped because black people didn’t do stuff like that”. Well, that was not the case. I enjoyed it. My time here at OSU has been fun and a life changing experience. Being a first generation college student means so much to me.
I want to thank EVERYONE who has supported or held Sie’ara “Ilovemysmile” Williams down over the years!
Until we meet again… GO BUCKS!!
Sier’ara Williams can be reached at [email protected].
