The truth was that, even though six solid months of good grades at a community college was a fine start, my efforts fell far short of eclipsing years of poor performance in high school. I can look back now and laugh—did I really think six months would be enough? The reality was, I had a debt to pay off. The years of sitting on my hands added up, and I was “in the red.” There was no shortcut around it. It was a good lesson. You have to be honest about the work you need to do to go where you want to go.
