Ever since i was 12, I’d always known what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. “ I’m going to attend Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising and live in California forever!”, is what I told everyone in 7th grade. It’s 2017 and BOOM! Here we are! Move in day for college was interesting to say the least. I was so excited to meet my new roomie! My apartment was in downtown LA and all the students waited by the pool to find out who their roommates were. I was assigned to a girl who I’ll give the name, Maria. I opened my apartment door and immediately smelled a horrible stench! I look to my left and there is old food all over the counter. Disgusted, but still excited, I walk to my designated bedroom to meet my first college roommate. Instead of a welcoming roomie, there’s clothes all over my bed and no room in any of the drawers. I reported this to my RA because I obviously need storage too! Then my roommate walked in the door. “I’m Molly” she said. “Oh hey I’m Aleja!” She was 2 years older than me and smelled like cigarettes. No judgement though, I’m pretty easy-going as long as you are too. Days went by and Molly wasn’t very talkative so I secretly thought she hated me. But no, she was just very quiet. It was chill for the most part. The apartment was always so dirty! Nobody ever did their dishes and I was tired of it! So I decided to move out in December . BEST DECISION EVER. I had went home for the holiday and moved in my new complex after New Year’s. This new building was dope! We had 4 pools, a sewing studio, volley ball court, an insane gym, FREE FOOD twice a week…and more. It was a dream. Imagine living your dream life at only 19 years old. I could hop on the train and go to my friends’ apartment downtown. I had everything at my fingertips. While I was at Fidm, I struggled to keep my grades up. It tore my ego down and I continued to fail. Failure is my ultimate fear. I didn’t know what to do as it seemed like what I had waited 7 years for was a waste of money. (Check out my post on getting good grades in college) Realizing that FIDM is mostly about your skill set, I continued to strive for my excellence-even though I still got bad grades. I thought, “we all get the same degree anyway”. My mom strongly disagreed when I came home for the summer. She told me she is no longer paying for my schooling because she has wasted her money. I was having all my things shipped back to Boring, Michigan. Imagine having a stroke! Omg… at that moment I didn’t know what to do. Cry? Nervous Laugh? Be mad forever? I called my dad, my best friends and went OFF. But I had some time to think and realized if I want to go back to LA, I’m going to do it myself. So welcome to my journey of it all. Sit back and grab some popcorn while you watch me make it happen.