>> Batch 8589: I came to school and initially I loved music
and I was always had played music and played in a band.
I played violin, guitar, several different instruments and so I came here
and I decided declare as a music major which didn't last very long
because it was really difficult and I think, I don't know why, but maybe that's just the nature
of an 18-year-old is that hey this hard wow, but I think part of me didn't also want to make it
so difficult that I ruined music for myself, so I switched to English literature and I switched
to English literature because frankly it was easy for me which is sort of a terrible thing
to say, but I did also really enjoy it
and I spent my time getting an English literature degree and on the side,
I already spoke some, you know, pretty good Spanish
so I started taking Spanish classes just kind of electives and one thing led to another
and I found that I was this close to getting a Spanish degree as well,
so I stayed an extra year and got a BA from Georgia Southern here in Spanish as well,
so I have a BA in English, a BA in Spanish, and a minor in mass communication.
Unfortunately, I have not used any of that other than the Spanish.
I came out of school and got a job selling mortgages just cause it was 2003 and that's kind
of where the economy was at that point and was, you know, I needed a job.
I knew somebody and I got it quick and that's kind of what led me into finance
in general, so a lot of that was OJT.
I realized after about a year and-a-half of doing the mortgage thing
that it wasn't really all that scrupulous, well I hate to say scrupulous, but you know,
I wasn't really, I wasn't really doing what was in people's best interest and I found
that what I really wanted to do was, you know, kind of create a better overall plan,
something that was really going to help people in all aspects of their life and, you know,
finances came just easy to me as anything else I suppose; I've always been of the mindset
that you can do anything you want as long you apply yourself to it.
So, I spent some time working in banks, again, a little bit more restrictive and so this most,
you know, recent career I've been at for about 5 years now
with First Investors has given me the chance to really branch out and kind of draw from all
of the different sources I possibly can to do not necessarily what, the company I'm working
for wants me to do for someone, but what really is in their best interest, so yeah,
that's kind of a roundabout way to get to where I am right now, but I don't regret any of it,
I enjoyed everything that I did and I still have a great love for English literature
and composition and also, you know, all the Spanish education and communication arts
that I've learned as well, so Georgia Southern did a pretty good job
as far as getting me a well education.