Samantha Zimmerman

University of North Dakota

MGMT 310

Dr. Sheila Hanson

November 4, 2022
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Decision to leave California

For two years I went to school at California State University East Bay where I also played

volleyball. It was the end of my sophomore year of college, and I was named captain of my

volleyball team. Since I was named captain, I met every week with my coaches and fellow

captains to discuss any updates on the season. During the summer we would also meet bi-weekly

with the team to keep them updated and to make sure that we kept our team chemistry alive.

Each week we were told something new or different about the upcoming season. Due to covid,

we had a crazy year of only being able to practice in the fall for six weeks and then for two

months during the spring semester. Covid had caused us not to have any type of season play and

we had online school for a full year. Due to the many uncertainties, my head coach wanted to

make sure she was meeting with the team every other week and the captains every week so that

we could stay connected.

My coaches were saying that the school decided to stay mostly online for another semester and if

you wanted to attend class in person you would have to wear a mask and submit your vaccine

card. If you weren’t vaccinated, then you couldn’t attend in-person classes. Not only could you

not attend classes but as an athlete they were constantly changing the rules. At one point we were

being told that unvaccinated athletes would travel separately to games, be the only ones masked

at practice, and they would have to buy weekly covid tests to test if they were positive. It was

really tough being a captain and hearing how separated some teammates would be based on their

decision to be vaccinated or not. Having to do a full year of school online was also tough for me.

So hearing all the rules and restrictions of attending an in-person class was also hard for me to

accept. Knowing how much stress and struggle was brought by taking online classes in the

previous year did not make me excited for the upcoming semester.
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After about a month and a half of hearing information constantly changing, it became really

frustrating for me. Part of me was ready to leave it all behind. I spent a few weeks praying and

made numerous plans in my head of what it would look like to stay or leave my school and team.

I didn’t want to quit too close to the season and leave my friends that I was supposed to room

with no time to find another roommate. I gave my coach and the school a certain timeline and if

they didn’t have the clear and semi-concrete answers that I was looking for, then I knew I had to

leave. The time came and unfortunately my coaches could not give any definite answers, so I

decided it was time to make a decision for myself. Right after that meeting with my coaches I sat

my parents down and told them that I was going to leave my school. I could tell they were a little

surprised, but I told them that I had been thinking about it for a few weeks and it just didn’t feel

right going back. My parents asked me what my reasons were, and they told me they supported

my decision.

I had played volleyball for 12 years and I had to be ready to give it all up without closure or

goodbye. That may sound weird but when you play a sport for that long it can be easier to leave

when you know every practice or game is going to be your last. I also had to leave the title of

being named captain and a scholarship that I was grateful to have to help pay for schooling. I

told my parents that I would enter the transfer portal which helps student athletes find another

school to play at. I knew that entering the transfer portal would be stressful and my decision to

find another school would be fast as the season was already approaching.

Finding My Next School

The transfer portal was difficult for me. Long story short I didn’t feel that any of the schools I

was talking to would be the right fit. I then had to start thinking about the options of just going to
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school to finish my degree or maybe even taking a semester off to find the right school. I knew

no matter what I would not go to school in Washington, Oregon, or California. I applied to Boise

State University in Idaho because my parents had a few connections and could ask some people

for advice on where to live and what not. I was hesitant at first because it was a school that some

people from my high school went to, and I didn’t really want to go to a school where I knew

people from my hometown. The reason I only applied to California schools while in high school

was to get away from my hometown. I realized I was being silly, and that Boise was big enough

to not run into old classmates.

Choosing UND

It was in July that my brother and sister-in-law were visiting, and they said that I should go to the

University of North Dakota since they still had some connections. Never in a million years did I

think I would move to Grand Forks North Dakota. I thought my brother was crazy when he went

to school at UND, and I had no desire to experience a Midwest winter. When they told me about

UND I was at the point where I wanted to get as far away from home and even though moving to

North Dakota would be crazy, I needed a little crazy in my life. I had also been living at home for

too long and as much as I love my parents, I needed some space. My brothers were also all

getting married and having kids. Even though I love them all so much and I was so excited to be

an auntie, it was hard to be around them when I was in a totally different stage of life. I knew

moving to Grand Forks would give me space to start new.

The day after my brother and sister-in-law mentioned UND I applied without telling anyone in

my family. I didn’t know how to quite tell my parents since they had a hard time letting my

brother move that far away. I knew that before telling them I needed to have a few reasons why
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going to UND would be a good choice. After I applied, I made a pros and cons list for both Boise

State and UND. Since I wouldn’t be a part of a team, I knew that whichever school I went to I

would have to find ways to get involved. I looked online for both schools on what clubs and

organizations they had to offer. I looked to see if they had a campus ministry, intramural sports,

or Greek life that I could get involved with. I made a list of all the potential extracurriculars and

also where I could potentially find housing. I was down in California getting the remainder of

my things to bring home when I got the acceptance letter from UND. Due to the connections and

the location, I knew that I wanted to move to Grand Forks. I had two weeks to find housing,

schedule classes, and book a flight out there. Thankfully one of my brothers lives in the

Minneapolis area and I was able to fly to the cities and have him drive me up to UND. He

showed me all he could in 24 hours before he had to leave, and the rest was up to me.

Factors That Helped Make My Decision

I have always been a person who likes to plan and organize. One of my Clifton Strengths is

being strategic. As a strategic person, this helped with making the decision to transfer to UND in

many ways. Strategic people think about all the details that go into accomplishing their goal.

Being a strategic person helped me plan out what I wanted from my next school and how I was

going to accomplish getting there. The textbook Organizational Behavior talks about emotional

intelligence and how it can lead to “toggling back and forth between emotions and logic so that

we analyze and understand our own emotions” (Organizational Behavior, 2019). As I was

making my decision there were moments where my emotions were definitely leading the way but

then I would have to step back and think logically about how to move forward. The ORGB

textbook states that intuition is “the ability to know or recognize quickly and readily the

possibilities of a situation”(Nelson, 2018). Looking at my situation I think intuition was part of

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my decision-making process. When I decided to leave my last school, I think my intuition was

telling me it was time to leave. I made the decision quickly in a matter of weeks. Some may

think my decision was irrational based on how quickly it all happened. But I think that my

decision to leave California and move to North Dakota was rational based on the many reasons I

came up with to leave and to move.

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References

Gallup, I. (2022, June 2). What are the 34 CliftonStrengths themes? Gallup.com.

https://www.gallup.com/cliftonstrengths/en/253715/34-cliftonstrengths-themes.aspx

Nelson. (2018). Ebooks.cenreader.com.

https://ebooks.cenreader.com/reader/83f7b01c-7d8e-4e64-90e8-84468a4f6a1a/page/c

c85ebfa9ebe8ae5796e6a689eb89a51

Organizational Behavior (2019, June 5) Free textbooks online with no catch. OpenStax.

(n.d.). ://openstax.org/details/books/organizational-behavior