 Yo, what's up, everyone? I know you're watching the video hoping you're enjoying it, but it's jossie from the past It's literally like April 3rd Five more weeks and I'm out of this boy What is going on everyone, I hope you all are having a great day My name is jossie for those of you all who are new here. Welcome to my channel I have been binging this podcast and the podcast is called tech ish and The person who started it also started this site called people of color and tech and they talk about different You know obviously like topics within tech and they also talk about like what it's like what their experiences are as a minority in tech And they also interview people who are minorities in tech and you just learned so much information about tech It just motivates you to be a better techie, but this is the podcast super duper cool I'm trying this new thing where my intros consist of Flashback videos because I have so much content that just won't make the vlog so I figured why not just add it to the intro I apologize I know I haven't posted in multiple weeks But I just needed some time to just relax and think through some things like the direction I want to take my YouTube channel and also work on my software engineering portfolio But I'm much better now all is good with that being said I tried to be as productive as possible those two weeks even the week when I was sick So I did some wedding videography and photography I Spent some quality time with my lovely girlfriend And I tried to act like I was LeBron James in the backyard of my girlfriend's house For those who don't know I played football in high school as a matter of fact My team was the first team in 10 years from my high school to actually make it to the playoffs So shout out them Raiders class of 14 They even got recruited to go play football in college are recruited by smaller schools like Davidson You know where Steph Curry went and schools like Fordham Which is in the Bronx like primarily division 1 double a schools and division 2 and division 3 schools None of those schools. I just mentioned was a school. I actually went to go play They actually didn't work out. I didn't go visit Fordham University when the coach asked me to come visit And that's apparently a no-no Especially in the football world if you don't go visit sometimes schools will not have any more interesting you like one of my Friends didn't make a visit and that school just lost all interest and stopped responding to him as a matter of fact The same thing happened to me ironically Davidson wanted me to have higher test scores And they wanted me to take more AP courses I also got invited to their campus for a camp and I didn't go I probably should have I probably would have gotten an offer to go play for them had I went to go visit the campus It seems like the theme of this video is me not going to visit Colleges that are interested in me, but it all works out in the end when I was in ninth grade I was inspired by a senior football player who used his Academics so his good grades and a skill in a football field to get him into a prestigious University at that moment. I realized what I wanted to do I wanted to get good GPA try to get the best test scores I can and use that as leverage to get in a really good university like Harvard University Chicago University of Rochester believe it or not that plan worked out and at the end of my senior year I committed to the University of Rochester to go there not only study I think it was computer engineering the major I picked but also to play wide receiver for those who don't know the University of Rochester Is a very prestigious University? U.S. News has it ranked as the 33rd best university in the nation and the 45th best engineering college in the nation. I Even have the letter and everything for proof This letter is actually really important Because my story will make more sense Dear Jocelyn J Congratulations, I'm pleased to offer you an opportunity to start your journey at the University of Rochester this fall through the early connection opportunity program. So what exactly is that bro? I'll read it to you often as part of the admission evaluation process We identify applicants who will benefit from our assistance with the transition to the University's rigorous academic environment thus as a condition to our offer to you you are required to participate in the early connection opportunity program and on campus educational experience scheduled for July 13th through August 9 2014 your enrollment at Rochester is contingent on your success at this program airphrase bro I still don't get it those big words are just beyond me right now Basically Rochester wants to make sure that its minorities like myself had a successful transition from high school Academics to Rochester academics which happen to be very rigorous the admissions team has a whole probably believe that I could do The work at Rochester, but they wanted me to show them that I could before school starts. I got you I enjoyed my time at Rochester. I was literally only there for a week But the people were so cool a lot of the people were from the New York City area And they are just a blast to hang around so many jokes. I just had so much fun So I show up to campus July 13th I'm sitting there at this little dinner that the football team was having and I was just like what have I done I'm all the way in another state at a university that I went to or its academics But more so because of its prestige and not as much to do with how much I really really like it And I get a chance to tell people that I'm about to go play football there So in high school, I thought it was a win-win, but when I was on campus I quickly realized that it was a mistake. Ohio University was only about 45 minutes Closer to my house than the University of Rochester was so it still was far enough away from home that my parents Just couldn't drop by when they wanted to and I had the freedom that I needed as a college student to become an adult Ohio University made me feel like a big fish and a small pond even though the University is much Bigger, but I felt like a big fish in a small pond because not only did I have a relationship with the Dean of academics But I also had an engineering scholarship that I knew would motivate me And I just felt like as an African-American man being on scholarship for engineering I felt like I was just paving the way for not only myself But people who are younger than me people who may look up to me that I don't even know look up to me I just felt like I was making a difference So I came to the realization that I don't want to play football anymore. I just want to be a student I want to go to a big campus at big college town. I want to experience that computer science is hard enough I could barely probably get through that without football and then you add the extra job of being a football player And being a work study student. It just didn't make sense I honestly felt like in my heart that I just knew God didn't want me to be there And I know deep down inside that I didn't want to be there. I think that experience helped me become an adult I got some pushback from family members and some family members who doubted my decision But I knew that I was gonna go to another good university in Ohio University another great university study computer science there Just focus on my academics and become the best student that I can be I'm not going to the NFL But you know what I can become an engineer I chose my own path regardless of what other people had to say ended up working out great God bless me with an internship freshman year and the rest was history Well, the story is despite adversity if there's something that you believe in you hold on to it And you continue to believe in it you continue to believe in yourself trust in whatever God has for you because whatever He has for you it is for you Regardless of what anyone else has to say and if you trust in him it will work out that wraps up this video You are still here give this video a thumbs up Comment below what you thought about it or if you have any recommendations for future videos And I will see you all later have a blessed week and remember all is good and faith over fear. Peace