Sometimes the expectations we have of life don’t turn out the way we want them to. And sometimes what expectations others have of our lives don’t turn out, either. It’s a funny thing, trying to predict the future. When it becomes the now, that’s when real introspection happens.
The 2025 Commencement student speaker, Jenna Boos, has experience when it comes to expectations – from her friends, her parents, and herself. As someone who’s always felt a little weird and not popular, Jenna was always surprised by the persona her classmates saw in high school.
“I think they saw my life as like, oh, she’s just got it. She’s going places. And I was trying to scream, no! I didn’t!” Jenna shared. “I felt like I was trying to fit society and be normal and fit a title.”
She was very outgoing and involved while she was at ROCORI. She played sports, was crowned homecoming queen, and planned to get out of her hometown. At the end, though, the pressure was overwhelming and that she always had to know what she was doing for her future.
Something snapped. Toward the end of high school, she stopped playing sports, and after graduating, Jenna’s plan was to backpack in Europe. She went so far as to spend $1,000 on a ticket to Ireland, one way. Then two days later, she got one last text message from Greg Thorstad, Cyclones Softball coach, who had been trying to recruit her to SCTCC. Her future plans took a turn.
“I was chasing this greener grass, greener, greener. I wanted something greener, bigger, better, when I don’t think my own grass was as green as it could be. I’ll be forever grateful [to Greg] because sometimes you just need someone to push you in life,” said Jenna.
Of all the plans Jenna thought she had for her life, staying in her hometown and playing sports at the technical and community college was not one. Taking a step back for the bigger picture, the plans she had were the result of expectations, and she realized that she didn’t need to prove anything to anyone. Two weeks later, she was enrolled in classes at SCTCC and ready to play Cyclones Basketball and Softball.
“I said I’m going to do what I want, and it changed my life.”
When she was young, Jenna was always willing to try new sports. She took that approach with college because she really didn’t know what her future held.
SCTCC was one place where she knew she belonged, to be able to take a few steps and not be afraid. The first semester, music classes were the new thing because she was interested in music production. While she’s a creative person and loves helping others create, it turns out that music was not the way to do that. After trying out music, sociology and psychology were up. Kathy Robinson, sociology instructor, changed her viewpoint in many ways. Going in, Jenna had no idea what sociology was. During the end-of-semester project, students told their short story, which was something new to Jenna – she had never been asked to tell her story before because everyone assumed they knew her.
“It was so personal and we had so many people from different backgrounds and different ways of life. I shared my story, and I remember bawling in class. Everyone had that vulnerability, and hearing from others made me feel like I’m normal too,” she said.
Then she started seeing a therapist, which changed things again. With new insights into her life, Jenna wanted to help other people. Despite the whiplashes she experienced in high school and into college, one thing that remained constant was support from her family. Jenna admitted that she is really lucky to have that support.
“I do always have someone to lean on. And that’s why I’m able to try new things because I know I can fail and have someone to lean on. Knowing some people don’t have that – I want to be that person in my career.” She started taking more psychology and sociology classes, and she had a plan.
She was chasing a dream to finish generals at SCTCC, transfer for a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience, and play softball. After years of not meeting expectations of others, she felt like she finally figured it out. But future plans, Jenna had learned, had a weird way about them.
“I felt like I was trying to prove myself again. I prayed and said, give me what I need right now, not what I want.”
In late November, Jenna found out she was pregnant. For a bit of time, she was focused on the things she couldn’t do: I’m not free, I can’t play softball, I can’t pursue neuroscience. But there was always something that she could do: write.
Jenna had always been a writer. She kept journals, wrote letters and goals to herself. After her experience with being vulnerable with others in her sociology class, she thought, why not share more? She wasn’t afraid of vulnerability and taking the mask off to let others see the real her was freeing. She started a blog that focuses on mental health and personal growth: Jenna Boos Writes. She shares her posts and writing meanderings on an Instagram account, and with an entrepreneurial spirit, wants to make a difference in her own weird way.
“That was something that could never be taken from me, writing. And if I can’t write, I can speak,” Jenna explained. “I can express myself, and I’m good at it. So I’m going to run with this right now.”
Already she’s received feedback from people with serious life issues who’ve said she’s been helping them with her writing. While Jenna writes about her own life and experiences, they’re expressed in a way that others can take away a message that relates to their own lives.
Jenna graduates with her Liberal Arts AA degree this May, and for now she’s looking at transferring to St. Cloud State or Arizona State University for an English degree with a creative writing focus or minor. Because classes are mostly online, it’ll an easy option for her with a baby on the way.
After that, there are many options that Jenna’s imagining: maybe a podcast, maybe public speaking, maybe a publishing house, maybe becoming an influencer. Whatever her path, the expression of her vulnerability will always be at the core, but for now, she’s staying in the present and focusing on herself and her child. Jenna has experience with how weird predicting the unknown can be, but the good news is that her story is just starting.