Getting It Right (an essay published in the book, Winning the Future Though Education)

My name is Carlos Jiménez Flores. I have a Bachelor’s degree in human resource development, with a minor in sociology. I have published several books and have produced several feature films. Yet, my successes do not reflect the academic hardships, struggles and obstacles I had to overcome in order to accomplish something.

My study habits were forged early on at the elementary school level. Unfortunately, they were bad. When my family moved to the United States, we did not speak English. I did not have anybody at home who could help me with homework.

I did not have any friends or relatives who could come over to help. I did not belong to any study group made up of peers since I did not make those connections in school. Consequently, I was left alone to fend for myself.

Going solo is what I knew. I did my best to complete the tasks given to me at Christopher Columbus Elementary School. Whatever instruction I did not understand, I simply ignored. The unfinished homework would get done the next day by copying from another student or I just straightforwardly did not do it. This was my modus operandi until I learned English.

Once I learned English, my grades improved. I was an honor student in Puerto Rico while attending a school named Felipe Gutierrez in the town of Rio Piedras. I knew I could succeed. However, I was still doing it wrong. I was still going solo; no study groups. What I did not understand, I merely passed over. I was still cheating by copying answers from my friends. I asked my father to build a desk for me so I may study and he did. Sadly, the desk was in the living room and the television was always on, so I could not concentrate. I retreated to my bedroom and my bed became my desk.

It took me a couple of years, but I finally came into my own. I was succeeding academically. I made the honor roll. I stopped cheating by copying from my friends. Just when I was getting into the groove of things, my mother (who was now divorced) decided to enroll my sister and I in a private school, St. Hedwig. My mother’s decision was based on safety, not on academics. She was afraid that I would succumb to the violent, gang-infested, drug-ridden world we were living in.

So here I am, starting all over again. New school; I did not have any friends, but at least I spoke the language. I quickly realized that I was behind academically. There was a big gap between private and public education and I had just become its latest victim. I was trying to keep up, yet I was drowning. I was completely unprepared and my survival instincts kicked in. I resorted to my old modus operandi. Whatever instruction I did not understand, I simply ignored. The unfinished homework would get done the next day by copying from another student or I just straightforwardly did not do it.

I became an average student at that private school. Making the honor roll was beyond my reach. I was good enough to pass, not bad enough to fail.

I spent the three years at that school in the middle of the pack. I was always playing catch-up, seemingly viewed as mediocre by peers and faculty. My study habits were horrendous. I studied alone all the time. If I studied in the living room, it was with the television on. If I studied in my bedroom, it was lying on my bed with the stereo on.

I went to a public high school with my study habits intact. Surprisingly, I found my first two years, freshman and sophomore, to be extremely easy at William H. Wells High School. The unbalanced difference between a private and public school education reared its head again. However, this time around it was “in my favor.” I was essentially repeating what had been covered in private school during seventh and eighth grade at the public high school. My first two years of high school, I had a 3.9 grade point average and became the Salutatorian of my class during that span. I was academically ranked as number two in a class of nearly a thousand students.

This was the worst situation that could have happened. I already had bad study habits. Now, I was getting A’s without having to study. I was acing exams simply because I already had learned the material in elementary school.

High school was simply not challenging. I became bored. For the first time, I began cutting class. I stopped doing homework. There was no need to do homework if I was getting A’s on the exams. I used study periods to hang out, loaf around. I engaged peers in the same destructive behaviors, except my grades were not reflective of my habits and delinquency.

It would finally catch up to me my junior and senior years, when I transferred to another public high school, Roberto Clemente Community Academy, in order to play baseball for them. No longer able to ride on previously learned material at the elementary level, I quickly found myself drowning academically once more. I was doing homework and studying again, but I was doing it solo. The stereo or television or both would be blaring. I started another bad study habit. I waited until the night before to study for an exam. I was still cutting class and I was still goofing around during study hall periods. My grades were dipping fast those last two years of high school. I eventually graduated. My report card was very reflective of my bad study habits and behavior. I graduated with D’s and F’s.

I entered college, bringing along with me my arsenal of bad habits and behaviors, which included studying alone, not showing up (cutting class), studying with the television on, hanging out in the places of study (i.e., library, designated study areas), studying with music on, going to class without having read assigned chapters or articles, goofing off in class/not paying attention, not completing homework assignments, and when I did, it was turned in late. I was also an expert crammer.

To make matters worse, I found like-minded peers on campus at Northeastern Illinois University. Our spot was near the bookstore. There was a seating section that was shaped in a square, eight by eight feet. It had seat cushions all around and the center was wood. Our group had about twenty core members. It was not a study group. We would have other students come and hang from time to time. We used the middle wooden area for our bags, coats and books.

With our clique being Latino, we called the area we sat in the Bochinche Box. Bochinche means “gossip” in Spanish. Box, because the seating area was square.

We would hang out there Monday through Thursday 8a.m. - 2p.m., which was when the majority of us attended the university. No one was ever late.

At any given time, there would at least be 10 of us hanging out at the Bochinche Box. Most times we went to class, although there also was a lot of skipping class. Aside from the gossiping, there was a lot of just hanging out. Not a lot of activity. Just sitting around, cracking jokes, playing around, planning our evenings and weekends.

We would also bring liquor on campus. Our university is a commuter college. So the girls would bring liquor in their purses, the guys would bring their liquor in their backpacks. Usually at the end of the day, we would go in a group to a nearby restaurant to eat and hang some more or we would go to someone’s house and party. To party would mean drink liquor, do drugs and just hang out.

Sex was also a factor in our interactions. Some of the guys were dating some of the girls. Some in the group hooked up and were having casual sex. Out of all the fooling around, one couple did marry.

Eventually, the Bochinche Box disbanded. Most dropped out, including me. Not many stayed behind. Those who did graduated and earned their degrees. Most of the ones who dropped out have not gone back. A handful returned. I am one of them.

It was not easy. In order to succeed, I understood I had to do away with old habits and behaviors. I developed a relationship with a former professor who agreed to mentor me. I was rewired, reprogrammed. It was a new me. I knew the right thing to do was to go to college. I just did not know how to do the right thing right. However, I was given a blueprint by my mentor, Dr. Samuel Betances; someone who had been there, someone with a similar background as mine, someone who had succeeded, someone who went from the ‘hood to Harvard.

No more cramming for me. I read all material in a timely manner and highlighted all the major points. I did all of my homework. No more hanging out. I exchanged contact information with the top students of every class I had. I formed study groups. I no longer did it alone. I took copious notes in class. I even highlighted the important points in my notes.

I never missed a class just for the sake of missing a class. I was done with partying.

When I was not studying with a group, I was either in the library or at home (without the television on or music playing) at my desk. I even sought tutoring at the university whenever I needed it. And it was free! Imagine that. I was focused. My days of loafing in the places of study were long gone. My mission was to succeed at a high level.

Mission accomplished. I graduated with high honors from Wilbur Wright Community College while earning my Associates degree. I was on the Dean’s List. I am a member of Phi Theta Kappa, which is the International Honor Society of Two-Year Colleges. I took honors courses and graduated from the same institution of higher learning I had dropped out of years earlier, earning a Bachelor’s degree at Northeastern Illinois University. I had come full circle.