Our Stories
Lizzy's Story, Spring 2024
Lizzy reflects on her journey from hating school as a child due to struggles with confusing curriculum changes and being doubted by educators to gradually finding her footing academically. After being told college might not be the right path, she used that doubt as motivation to prove her capabilities. Although her first semester in college was challenging, discovering public health (specifically epidemiology) transformed her perspective and made learning enjoyable. Now accepted into a master’s program in epidemiology, she feels proud of how far she’s come and how she turned skepticism into success.
So one of the favorite things in my life right now is school. But it definitely always was not the case for me. When I was younger, I hated school with a burning, flaming passion to the point where I would pretend to be sick, so I wouldn't have to go in. And it got really bad when I was probably, I want to say, third grade. I've never been the brightest kid, but I definitely wasn't stupid. But at that point in time, the curriculum changed over in New York to what we called “Common Core”, and my teacher did not know what she was doing. And that definitely reflected poorly on me.
I think everyone was really confused as to why it just wasn't clicking for me cause it was clicking for a lot of other kids. Even my sister, who was younger than me, was reading at a higher level at that point, and they thought I had some sort of learning disability. I don't, I just don't think anyone was saying things that made sense to me, I guess. They thought I was gonna have to redo a grade.
At that point, I got into middle school, and I liked school more because it made more sense to me. I think the teacher matters a lot in that, but I definitely didn't love it. And I would still not wanna go in. And I just remember a guidance counselor meeting with me and asking me what I wanted to do in the future, and me being like, “Oh, I'm not sure,” and them just being like, “Yeah, we're not sure either. We really think you should just try and do high school and then see from there. Maybe you do trade school or something. We're not sure college would be the best fit for you.”
And that was obviously really hard to hear for me. And one thing about me is I'm a spiteful person. So I got it together just to prove a point that no, I'm smart, I'm very capable, and just because you doubted me, I have to prove a point now.
So, cut to going to college, I absolutely hated it. My first semester was really difficult. I was a Nutrition major, so I was taking chemistry, and chemistry does just not line up with my brain. It was super hard being away from my sister, my parents, and all my friends.
And then I found out what public health was, and that absolutely changed everything for me. Once I found out that I didn't have to do really hard sciences to still be a science major, and I found out what epidemiology was, it was just, oh my god, I was obsessed. It was the perfect mix of history, which has always been my favorite subject, because if we're being honest, it's just gossip. And I got to just gossip all day and learn past gossip. That's all history is, and that's honestly what public health is like when you look at the past. It's just using others' information and what they found and what they did to build on what's going on now. And that was really fun for me, and school had never been so fun.
So to the guidance counselor that doubted me, now I am accepted into a master's of epidemiology program. And I just think that's a big “haha” in their face, so feeling very proud. Definitely not the best way to live life out of spite, but I recommend doing some things out of spite because you will go places, and you will get things done. And I'm very happy with school.