educate
J
College Life Skills
SPRING 2018
maskmatters.org
75
PHOTOGRAPHY
Courtesy of ASU
on the Tempe campus. And she’s
looking at Clemson for graduate
school, and Louisiana State
University for law school, with the
goal of working in environmental law.
Williams looks forward to
graduating in spring 2019 with her small
group of ASU friends who have been
together since they met in her freshman
residence hall as a study group. It will be
special to attend commencement together,
because they have gone through all the
ups and downs as a group, she says.
“My friends and I, we all know when
we’re feeling overwhelmed because we
stop talking or we’re short with people.
We can tell if it’s just food
‘hangry’ or if it’s sadness.That’s
when we decide it’s time to
go the library or to the coffee
shop, where we can do our
homework together and talk,”
Williams says.
While her friends have played a key
role in her college success, Williams
credits her parents as being her biggest
supporters. Whether it’s “FaceTiming”
with her mom at 2 a.m. for advice or just
receiving a gift basket from home, her
mother and father have helped her every
step of the way.
Her advice for other parents—besides
sending gift baskets—is just to be there
for their student.
“When something goes wrong, you’re
their fall back, because you’re there to
reassure them they’re on the right path,”
she explains. “Whether they see it or not,
you’ve been down the same road and have
experienced the same things they’re going
through now.”
“I felt like the pressure was
overwhelming. I knew I wanted
to continue on with my studies,
but just not in the way that I
was dealing with it.”
