Darcy Stubbs
I am from the little village of Homer, which is tucked in behind the corn fields and forests of southern Michigan. My parents both encouraged me to go to college after high school, but none of us really understood what that entailed. Yet they also warned me against taking on debt, and so after I got through a year of school on scholarship, I left college and became a meter reader when it seemed that I would have to take on loans to continue. After my first foray into college I spent half a decade inspecting gas meters before enlisting in the U.S. Navy, where I worked on three different air craft carriers, met and married my husband, and met people from all across the U.S. and around the world.
Before college, did you know what you wanted to do?
I feel like this is the perennial question demanded of the graduating senior that all feel coerced to answer, but few have the competence to tackle. The main occupations in my hometown were farming, industrial manufacturing, and technical trades, and so I had a rather narrow scope of what was possible, but I was also brimming with curiosity. Really, what I wanted to do was know more about the world and the people in it. I thought perhaps the practical elements necessitated by that curiosity would fall into place along the way.
Where did you go to college and how did you achieve that? What was the application process like? Any challenges?
My college process has been anything but linear, beginning at Western Michigan University following my graduation from high school. I spent a year as a student before deciding I was ready for a real job, so I started working at a natural gas company in southern Michigan, and then joined the Navy several years later. Both the gas company and the Navy offered to pay for college while I worked, so I first completed an associate’s in business management, then a B.A. in Psychology before transitioning out of the military and back to school full time. At that point, my husband and I matriculated into a small liberal arts college together, and I added a B.A. in Classics before finishing an M.A. in Classical Archeology. Initially the college process was full of mysteries and riddles as well as a fair bit of discomfort, but along the way I gained a certain mastery. I suppose practice usually helps grow one’s confidence.
What was your motivation during your college years?
After I married my husband, I discovered a source of endless encouragement, and I am sure I would have quit long ago had he not been there to tell me I could do it. Mr. Roger’s said that when tragedy struck, he always looked for the helpers, and the helpers have always been there for me when life seemed overwhelming and impossible. I have had plenty of people in my life who have told me I can’t, but when I needed them I had ones telling me I can, and that has made all the difference.
What did you do after graduating from college?
I am still trying to graduate from college! After I completed my M.A. I came here to U.D. to work on a PhD in Politics, and along the way I was hired into the office of Academic Success where I have taught Seven Arts and served as an Academic Success Specialist.
What’s some advice you would give to your past self?
As Saint Paul says in Philipians, "have no anxiety at all." You can always find something to worry about if you have it in mind to worry, but if you are always worried you will miss the incredible things of this world. Enjoy the process, and don't try to go as fast as you can just to get to the end.
