NC State is better than UNC-Chapel Hill. I am sure that every person reading this would expect me to say as much given my attendance here. However, in this instance, I am not referring to athletics, school culture or academia, though we most definitely are better.  I am talking about something much more valuable to those seeking to build careers at one of the best schools in the world. What I’m referring to are second chances.

 I am a “second-chance student,” which is a phrase that I like to attribute to myself and others who are in school for the second time, or more, trying to change their fortunes and create a life that is worthwhile to them. It has been a long, difficult road, but one which I find comfort in taking as NC State has offered me the opportunity to do more — to be more.

As a 2013 graduate of East Carolina University, I can be the first to tell you that the dead-end job does indeed exist and that I lived it for years before I reached this point. I had a degree in political science and a terrible GPA to go with it, due to a lack of drive to do anything significant and a party culture that emphasized more of doing less. That is not a knock against ECU, but rather insight on the mindset that I had toward what I thought college was.

Ultimately, it took the wrong job at the right time to show me that I desired more out of life — something more fulfilling. That’s when I decided that it was time to step back into the world of education. This time, I would complete my degree as someone with something to prove, and I discovered that I was actually not alone.

Though limited in number, David Koeppel, of Fortune.com, stated that studies show an astounding 8 percent of community college students already have their bachelor’s degrees. Additionally, Alexandra Pannoni, of USnews.com, reveals that data collected by a study in Texas had 6 percent of community college students already having their bachelor’s degrees there. These are reflections of a job market that pressures us to evolve just as it does, or get left behind. Failure was not an option for me. At least not for a second time.

So, to give myself the best chance of succeeding, I turned myself into a statistic. Yes, I am now one of those numbers in someone’s computer system and I could not be more happy about it. I came back both motivated and determined to prove to the world that my former GPA was not indicative of my intellect. I would return to school as a more mature student with a penchant for success.

Thus, I started to attend Wake Technical Community College in Fall 2015 and, with a boost from my ECU credits, ended up graduating a year and a half early with a 3.68 and my associate’s degree in Fall 2016. So what happened next? Well, I seemingly returned to the ripe ol’ age of 17 as I begrudgingly began to complete my barrage of college applications as time spun back to 2008.

I applied to quite a few schools for the fall 2017 semester including Carolina — yes, you read that correctly — NC Central University, William Peace and, obviously, NC State. Of course, NC State was my first choice as my friends and family knew but I would have been just as happy to get into any school at that point. To my surprise, I got into almost all of the schools even though State did take its sweet time letting me know right on April 15, 2017 — the decision date. The only holdout was Carolina.

Not for long, though, as I received an email that same month saying that my application had not been rejected but had instead been withdrawn. With my ego raised from my abundance of “yeses,” I simply had to know why they would pass on a “reformed academic” such as myself and I called them up to inquire as to why. I soon discovered that I was ineligible due to my previous degree at East Carolina and that the only exceptions for a second degree were those pursuing a health-related field.

At that moment, my mind immediately went to all of the people, just like me, looking at schools who would go without the opportunity to capitalize from attending some of the best. All I could think was that Campbell University offered a second degree program as did East Carolina and NC State, but I lived in Raleigh so the former two were not really an option. I was happy to get into the school of my dreams, but no matter where rejection comes from, it’s still never preferable to face in the first place. I suppose that all I wanted was to show myself that I could get into the best schools and I did.

There are many reasons why NC State is superior to UNC-Chapel Hill but this is the reason that counts most for me. Out of 1,327 transfer students, with over half coming from in-state community colleges alone, I was given a chance to really make something of my life, even though some of you, including myself sometimes, may feel as if I do not deserve it. So Joel Berry II was right. This is definitely not a rivalry.