A Few Decisions Can Change A Person 's Path

At the young age of eighteen, fresh out of high school, I was confused and felt no direction in what exactly I wanted to do or be when I “grew-up”. I decided to enroll at my local community college in the liberal arts program to see what

College is an opportunity to truly discover who you are. Often enough, you hear people saying “You should really major in this field, I think you would really enjoy this career.” or, “Do you think you really want to study that? Have you thought about what you will be doing ten years from now?” filling your mind with self doubt, uncertainty, and the anxiousness of not knowing what you want to do with the rest of your life. Mark Edmundson wrote an article titled, Who Are You and What Are You Doing Here?, published in Oxford American addressing college students and their families how the most important thing college students should focus on is personal growth. When students take their courses seriously their engagement can help finding out who they really are and which future career will lead not necessarily to great financial success, but to a career and life that is very satisfying. Edmundson wants to inspire his audience and have them take what he is saying seriously. Edmundson uses satirical informal language and hypothetical situations to effectively persuade college students to focus on their personal growth in order to create a life and career that is deeply fulfilling.

Nine years ago, I never could have imagined I’d be writing this essay. I was a senior in high school, and, like the rest of my classmates, I was apprehensive about the future. Unlike my classmates, I felt like I had missed the proverbial “you need to get your life together” message. I watched my classmates apply to colleges, their majors already decided and their future careers mapped out. While I was an above average student, I felt I lacked the decisiveness my classmates seemed to have. I did not feel passionate about a career or even a field of study. I felt defective. This was compounded by the financial strain I knew attending college would have on my family. It seemed wasteful to try to “find my passion” at school while squandering

Consequently, my first two years of college were full of trial and error because I chose my own classes in search of a major, managed my installment plans through Student Services, and sent only vague updates to my parents in hopes of preventing any worry. It was not until this year that I realized an opportunity for me to graduate “on time” existed. Thus, my perspective towards on-campus resources matured into organizations willing to help anyone and everyone. Using the What-if report, I created my own 5-year planner with the rest of my requirements and went to a Psychology Advisor, Mark Van Selst, for validation which is when my 5-year plan became a 4-year plan. Financially, I learned how to afford college with help from those in the Financial Aid and Scholarship Office.

Making difficult decisions show up in life more often than realized. These choices can alter a person’s life in good and bad ways. “The Bicycle” by Jillian Horton is a story that focuses on a young talented pianist named Hannah. Throughout the story Hannah deals with the strict teachings of her Tante Rose, which leads her to make ironic decisions. Similarly, in the story “Lather and Nothing Else” by Hernando Tellez, the barber undergoes a dilemma in which he must consider his moral values before making his final decision. Both stories have a protagonist that face conflicts which lead to difficult decision making, and in the end leads the characters to discover themselves. In both stories the authors use the literary devices theme, irony

Last summer, I hiked the Appalachian Trail with my wonderful partner Travis—who graduated from WCU with a Bachelor’s in Psychology. This was our first big hike together on the AT; spanning over 400 miles in just about 30 days. It was an incredible experience that grounded me and influenced a new-found discipline that only genuinely wholehearted, physically-taxing effort can provide. I was enlightened to my own personal values, goals, and abilities in such a way that I could analyze them as a network, as opposed to individual aspects of my life. I uncovered my path to continue wholly dedicating myself to my studies and my ambitions; I found what was truly important to me and what I truly wanted. Within this experience, I resolved to have “West Chester University” on my

The transition from high school to college is a dynamic time in one’s life that parallels the change from childhood to adulthood. Both of these changes are dramatic and, as a result, feelings are difficult to put down into words. A messy combination of emotions fills the heart, surfacing in strange ways. Confident high school seniors go right back to the bottom of the chain when entering college as freshmen. These students start all over, just like entering grade school or high school for the first time. The move up from high school to college signals the switch from dependence to self-sufficiency. From a personal point of view, going through the experience of graduating high school and transferring to a residential college campus at STLCOP, made me realize I was no longer a kid and capable of making my own decisions.

Throughout my life as a child and teenager, I was told by my parents that they worked really hard to get to the safe town and community that we lived in. Growing up in Pacific Grove, California gave me lots opportunities that I didn’t even know I obtained. Unless it had happened to me personally, I didn’t really understand the full picture of what others had to go through. Having dyslexia, the only subject I felt I really excelled in was art. After high school, I still had no idea what I wanted to do for a career or even a major. Monterey Peninsula College has boosted my confidence by showing me that I can be and do much more. Two years ago I would never have guessed that I would be applying to the University of Washington.

These hours with Jerry, waiting for a ride home, or the hour we took for lunch, proved to be my favorite time of day. After graduating from Sarah Lawrence College I was desperate to go back to school, I spent hours a day applying to graduate school (for two years in a row), I wrote personal statements and essays about my academic pursuits, I wrote about the importance of an academic community for personal growth without really realizing that I was already enrolled in Professor Jarrell Jackman’s seminar “Tips to live a successful and rewarding

When furthering my education, problems within my family didn’t only occur at the idea of myself attending college but the logistics of doing so. It was this conflict of, in a way, restarting life as my hometown is Vallejo and commuting to San Jose was just not an option. Nonetheless, San Jose was first foreign to me, but thanks to the short journey from my

What I see in going down the path of a college life is not more years spent in school after high school, but what I see instead is a great potential. Colleges in both the state and all around the nation host varieties of different majors in various fields of interest. Each of these hundreds of majors has its story path, and with that, can change the course of someone’s entire life, influencing their choices for years to come. The career they decide to go in can be so groundbreaking, which it even has an impact on the very aspects of the person’s personality.

The last four years have led me to realize just how big of a mistake I had made by leaving Lasell College in 2012. As it had happened, I was put on academic suspension my first semester and at the time, I was immature, unmotivated and indecisive – unable to come to terms with the rapidly shifting dynamics of my life. I was not at all prepared for adulthood; and my adolescent mentality did not cope well with my newly founded independence. I did not know what I wanted to do with my life and career – and looking back now, I am ashamed to say that I did not care. With the mistakes of my past decisions, however, comes determination – that is, my determination to undo my mistakes and rewrite my future.

One October day during my junior year of high school, I came home to see my parents anxiously waiting for me behind the kitchen counter. They informed me that my dad had lost his job. My initial worries, although selfish, surrounded what this change would mean for my college education. Without an income, the burden of college would fall solely on my shoulders. Thankfully, seven months later, my dad accepted an offer in a competitive position at a company on the other side of the state. As soon as he accepted this position, he guaranteed a move in the near future.

One clear September morning, my mother asked me, “where do you want to go to college?” At this point in time, it was as if my entire life flashed before my eyes. I realized that one decision would change the entire course of my life.

For many, after graduating high school the next big step is college. I never asked myself why or if I even wanted to. Yet, since I was not yet ready to join the work force, and didn’t want to disappoint my parents, I simply followed the path that I was supposed to take. For a while I had no direction, but through the loss of my high school English teacher and my dream of making my family proud, I discovered that college was the place I wanted and needed to be.