I didn’t choose my college based on academics, location, or campus culture. I chose it to prove a point—and I didn’t even visit the campus. As a Gen Xer coming of age in the late ‘80s, college guidance wasn’t always about mentorship. For me, it was tangled in a mix of pride, misdirection, and a desperate need for validation from someone I shouldn’t have been trying to impress.
My decision to attend the University of Tampa wasn’t about fit or opportunity. It was about showing my JROTC commander that I could do something he never acknowledged I was capable of doing. He encouraged another cadet—someone I cared about but knew I had outperformed academically—to attend UT, and I took it personally. I saw his silence about my achievements as a challenge. So I made it my mission to go there.
I never asked about the school’s academic strengths. I never visited the campus. I never thought about whether I’d feel supported as a Black student at a small, predominantly white institution. All I cared about was proving someone wrong.
It could’ve ended terribly. But I got lucky.
The campus turned out to be beautiful. The professors were supportive. And despite feeling like an outsider initially, I thrived. I worked multiple jobs, paid my way through, and graduated. But that doesn’t change the fact that my college choice was more reaction than reason.
Looking back, I realize how many critical questions I never asked:
- Will this school prepare me for the future I want?
- Does it have the resources I need?
- Will I feel at home here?
No one asked me those questions. And worse—I didn’t know to ask them myself.
This is the Gen X story we don’t talk about enough: how many of us made life-altering decisions without real guidance, driven by emotion or ego, and somehow made it through. I was fortunate. But I’ll never forget how close I came to making a mistake that could have changed everything.
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