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GS Blog: Kyle Curry

Growing up and all throughout high school, I always assumed I was going to play baseball for a living. I was also a pretty decent student, but I rarely gave much thought to what I might want to study in college, or if I’d even go to college. I was much more concerned about baseball. However, things changed, and by the end of high school, my path quickly diverted away from baseball, and I found myself suddenly looking for some other purpose.

I did go to college (the first time) straight out of high school. I attended a medium-sized university located in my hometown in Oklahoma. As you might imagine, I did not have much of a plan when I got there. I truly didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life at that point. My first attempt at figuring that out was to try studying marketing, but it didn’t take a full semester of Intro to Business for me to realize it wasn’t for me. From there, I dipped my toe into psychology, philosophy, early childhood education, and probably one or two other subjects that I can’t recall anymore. Nothing stuck, though, and within two and a half semesters, I had withdrawn from school entirely. I always intended to return to school and assumed that would happen after a short break, but I knew I did not want to return until I had an actual plan.

In the years during and after my first attempt at college, I had a couple of different careers. I worked for a local retail store, starting out in an entry-level position in their warehouse. Eventually, I earned a management position, overseeing the department that fulfilled the online orders placed on the store’s website. While in this role, I designed and took on a project to optimize the company’s shipping process, including a review and overhaul of the shipping materials used and determining factors regarding what shipping carrier/option would be used based on variables such as shipping zip code, package dimensions, and several others. This is still one of my favorite projects I have ever taken on, and it sparked something in me that I believe eventually led me to where I am today.

After my time with the retail store ended, I worked for a medical supplies company for several years, mostly in team lead and supervisory roles. As a team lead for the medical supplies company (as well as when I was a manager at the retail store), a major part of the role was training new employees. I loved training others. There was always something so rewarding about helping someone learn what was often an entirely new skill for them. It gave me some sense of purpose. Getting to watch the trainee’s progress and development was something I took immense pride in.

Somewhere in the midst of my time at the medical supplies company, I started taking a more focused interest in data analysis. I was hearing and learning more about the interesting developments in the world of statistics and data science. The thing that really caught my attention was how it was being applied in the world of sports. It opened my eyes to how creative and expansive the subject could be. Statistics felt to me like something I could genuinely get into. Not just for sports, though. I felt that on some level, I had already seen firsthand how it could be applied in various ways. But, at the same time, I couldn’t help but to feel like my time for such a change had already passed, and that it was too late for me to drop everything and go back to school. The thought of such a big change was a bit intimidating, especially considering how long I had been away from school. So at that point, I decided to dismiss the idea and carry on as I was.

Big changes came anyway, though. I moved from Oklahoma to North Carolina, got married to the person I moved to North Carolina with, and after a while, it started becoming increasingly clear to me that there was a passion I was sort of avoiding and that there were opportunities for me to change that. So, after a sufficient amount of dwelling on the topic, I finally sucked it up and enrolled in community college. Eventually, I started going full-time and earned my Associate in Science degree from Wake Tech CC. Now I’m at NC State, studying statistics as a Goodnight Transfer Scholar, assessing different potential professional routes, but also considering grad school. Who knows? Maybe one day I’ll get to combine my passion for statistics and for teaching new skills to others by teaching statistics in the classroom.

I’m in a much different place than I envisioned at 17 years old, or through most of my 20s for that matter. It took much longer for me to return to school than I imagined when I withdrew at age 19. So much so that I almost convinced myself that returning was no longer on the table. My path (like everyone else’s), has not been linear, and I’ve learned that’s okay. I doubt that any other path would have led me to where I am now, and I’m more fulfilled now than I have been in a long time.