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I really let my student involvement and activity get in the way of my academics

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and I can't undo that but at the time I was so involved and really enjoyed being in the mix

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that I let school slide and I let my load go down and I didn't finish on time.

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So '86 to '90 was my four-year stint here as a full time undergraduate,

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so I should have graduated with my class in 1990,

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but by the time that spring semester rolled around

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I was the equivalent of about a semester's worth of hours shy of a degree.

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So I had taken a job at that time and thought well, I'll come back

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and do some night classes and get this knocked out.

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Easier said than done.

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First of all the job required some travel, that made it hard, since most of the evening classes are one night a week

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and if you miss one you've missed a big chunk of the course.

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So I really struggled to come back over a period of several years and get the course here and the course there to finish up.

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So I regret not graduating with my class,

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I regret that it took me longer to finish than I wish it had,

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and I know full well it was because I was so engaged in what was going on.

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This whole Valvano and chancellor thing was layered on top of what was already an extremely involved student life,

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so I just didn't manage it as well as I should have.

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I often talk to student leaders along the way, both in the fraternity, which I still advise,

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and even the current-. The newly elected student body president is a college of humanities student

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so I've had a chance to get to know him and meet him,

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and I've had that conversation with him:

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As smart as you are, as great as your grades may be, and as on top of the world as you might be,

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it is very easy to suddenly find yourself behind, and don't let that happen

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because it's hard to make that up quickly and you end up being unable to go back and undo it later.