Allegany College

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.

Four years of my life drained away at this place called Troy High School. After this year I will be walking away from Troy, worn and torn from the hours of anticipation for grades to be posted, the next weekend to arrive, the answer to whether that special someone will say yes to the next dance, or the unbearable wait for that painstaking bell to ring. Troy is a place of education, a very good one at that, with its Blue Ribbon Award and national recognition, you’d think I would be walking away with knowledge that will serve me well for decades to come, but no. I could have learned the same things I learned at Troy anywhere, it is the insight I picked up that will take me far. “What insight?” you ask. Its priceless wisdom really, it’s a

Througout my academic career, I have learned as much about myself as I have learned in school, whether it be from high school, to community college, and my journey that lead me to Arizona State University. I can honestly say as my parents did, that I wish I would’ve tried harder in high school. I scraped by taking the easiest classes possible and choosing to take the easy way out. Looking at my transcript makes me cringe, because I know that I am capable of so much more. I wish that I would’ve taken the honor classes and tried so that I would’ve been able to apply to a college other than a community college. My time at Mohave Community College was a significant improvement from my experience in high school. Not only did I graduate with near honors (3.49), I had made the Dean’s list and Honors List for three out of my four semesters, the first time this had happened since middle school. I had never felt more motivated and focused in my life. I was taking 16 credits and prospering and had a balance of work, school, and a social life. I had never felt more proud of my self in my life. As I sit here and write this paper, I question my time here at ASU as I try to plan the nex chapter of my life. I wonder where I am supposed to go and what I am supposed to do.School for the first time had become a priority, however, it began to consume my life. I would spend hours and hours on end doing homework and studying, and although there seems to be nothing wrong with this, I wouldn’t go

Every Saturday morning while the majority of the student body is still fast asleep, I am pouring coffee and preparing for work. I am a Student Ambassador, a job which entails guiding prospective students around campus, encouraging them to become a part of the Mount Union family. Not long ago I was in their footsteps; a prospective student searching for the school that would become my home away from home. My dad, an alumni of Mount Union, enthusiastically retold the memories of his experiences at the university. Memories, which he claimed, “shaped him into the man he is today.” Little did I know that I too would follow in my father's footsteps and grow to find a forever home within the Mount Union community.

I knew college was going to change me in many ways. Yet, after my family and I restructured our collective and individual emotional reactivity over the three years that I was away at school, I believed my work in that department was done. I thought transiting into college was difficult, however, I found myself once again unprepared for the aftershock that rocked my family once I return from school. I left college a strong, independent, mature, and differentiated person, or at least I kind of did.

Beverly Sills once said, “There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.” This is a quote I’ve repeatedly looked back on through out my last four years of attending Riverview High School. High school is known to be the place that can change you for the better or for the worst, it’s your first opportunity to make decisions on your own and experience what the real world may be like. For the past 13 years, I’ve spent every week surrounded by the same people in the same classrooms with each familiar teacher Riverview has to offer. Through out this time I’ve changed a lot as an individual by pushing myself to complete my goals in life thus far.

It was a typical Sunday morning, I ate breakfast with my family and got ready for church. The morning went on with a drag, than 5 o’clock hit. Once 5 o’clock hit my mother started yelling at my sister and me to get our stuff packed and into the car. We had only a few hours before my final summer of upward bound started. Since I started my senior year I’d been remembering many moments of my past and been reflecting on them. Therefore as I began to pack, it didn’t seem strange to me as I started to flash back to what had gotten me into Upward Bound in the first place.

In metropolitan urban communities, plagued with economic hardships, social injustice, and violence, rising out of those communities is glorified as the greatest achievement one could earn. In fact, most of my family members and peers congratulated me for being accepted into UNC-Chapel Hill with phrases like, “you made it” and “it’s over.” But, I knew different. I was well aware that attending UNC-Chapel Hill, the first public and most prestigious university in NC would be substantially different than the conditions of my hometown. No longer was I around the likes of my melanin, socioeconomic status, or cultural background, and adjustment proved to be difficult. During my first year a UNC, I endured social isolation, homesickness, academic hardship,

From the moment I walked across the graduation stage to the last moment in DeMolay, life had leaded me on a culmination of experiences. I had a profound revelation that because of all the poor circumstances I had learned to overcome. I was stronger and more prepared for the next era as an adult, and a leader who had empathy for those who didn’t have certain privileges. School was simply not easy, I didn’t not have positive role model that I could look to when conflicted with moral decisions. Kids of course looked at how I dressed and the length of my hair to judge my character. I paid no mind as I saw my future in the lyrics of each uplifting song I would play in the morning. Expression and empowerment were the culmination of a resilience and

After a long eight months, I can now look back and say that I completed my first year of college. It is safe to say that during that time, life was not the same as it was in high school. Many adjustments, such as sacrifices and prioritizing had to be made. However, I think that those adjustments had made me a more accountable student, but more ultimately a better rounded human being. As I am about to enter my second year at Loyola, I am ready to tackle whatever challenges I may face. I personally feel that I am still a planet’s distance away from figuring out who I really am, but I think that as long as I can keep being the best person I can be, I can accomplish what I want to do during my post-collegiate career. In this essay, I will talk about my undergraduate career at Loyola University Chicago, emphasizing my field of study, college experience, and my career goals including the route I plan to take to get there.

Decisions that do not seem so transformative in hindsight turn out to be life changing. As I near graduation, I realized how instrumental Windham High School has been in my evolution from a timid freshman who was anxious of unfamiliar people and situations to a more courageous person excited to meet new people and challenges.

Life cannot continue without the possibility of going through change. There was a moment in my life where it all took a turn and the words of Maya Angelou spoke to me in a way that impacted the way I live each and every day, teaching me to keep moving forward. As I looked at the world with my mind filled with turmoil, high school became a greater challenge than expected, and the world had only grown darker. However, through the stress of meeting the expectations of my teachers, one showed me that even through the toughest times, laughter is all it takes to turn it all around. Time had passed, and I learned a lot by the time I finished the course, which led to my neverending desire to look at the world more closely. Rather than staying in my

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.

As a new student, I understand that I will be exposed to many new experiences, opportunities, and challenges during my first year here at Morgan State University. During this journey, it it important for me to understand “where i am coming from in order to know where I’m going.”

On the summer of 2013, I received an email that changed my life forever. It was up to me to accept or decline the new journey that allowed me to be accepted into Edgecombe Early College High School. I decided to accept this new journey that was filled with 5 years of butterflies, hardships, new opportunities and self improvement.