Choosing The Time Of My Life

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

In August of 2012, at Grand Rapids Community College, I was placed on Academic Probation due to my cumulative GPA dropping below the 2.0 threshold. Prior to this action, I was not driven to take the action to perform well in my classes. I was lost in the options for my future and unaware of where I would end up. It was this lack of focus and drive that reflected in my performance. This was a strong turning point in my life, and after being placed on academic probation I came to appreciate the repercussions I was facing by not prioritizing my education. It was in this year that I decided on where I wanted my college career to take me. Through the influential factors I discussed in my personal statement, I had both my mind and my future set on

Since moving to the United States, a land of opportunity, I followed the immigrant tradition of working hard to pursue my passion/ambition to study and get my degree. I started attending community college a year after I came to the United states. I spent three years at Northern Virginia Community College and transferred to the university of Virginia to earn a B.A degree. I have always kept a full-time job while attending community college to cover my living expenses and help my parents back home Throughout my journey of achieving a higher degree, I learned how to work hard and how to overcome challenges in my own personal and academic life. Now I am very confident in achieving my goals.

I remember when I was in middle school and I decided to tell my parents what I wanted to do in life. At first I always wanted to do what my dad thought was best which was electrical engineering, it seemed fine with me until I realized it took a lot of math which I am not very good at. So, as a thirteen-year-old boy I did what I knew was best just keep quiet about wanting to do something different. Fast forward in time two years later I’m 15 talking with my guidance counselor about career jobs. She hands me a sheet with job titles to an endless extent, it stuck out just like that I circled the career path I wanted to take. Physical Therapy was now the road I wanted to go down, it was the best job title I could imagine helping kids with sports injuries and

Joining sides with the nurse, my family drilled the idea of nursing into my brain. Nursing and forfeiting my plan seemed to become a necessity for a successful life. After hearing people tell me what I should do, I eventually started to agree with them. The actions of my family along with the way it affected me could compare to when someone tells a lie enough times, they'll believe it to be true. I never believed I wanted to be something more than I did at that

I was indecisive of my future career path. My mom would tell me the classic “You should be a lawyer” or “You should be a doctor.” I would go along with her idea for a couple weeks until I jumped off the bandwagon. I wasn’t passionate about either of those fields; I was interested in both math and science and as a young girl. As I got older, I became invested in technology due to my love of gaming, but I didn’t know that people devote their lives to technology until I interned.

As seniors in high-school we are always asked about what career we want to pursuit,and where we want to take our lives. I began thinking about what I like and what subjects I was good at. I found out I loved math and science and was good at them too. Then I knew that the health field was really for me. I began searching for ways for me to see if I really liked it, so I applied to go to scrubs health camp at Augsburg college near my house. I really liked it and saw that my love for kids had me leaning to becoming a pediatrician. I had my doubts on that also because of the number of years of schooling, and one day I stumbled upon a pediatric nurse practitioner occupation and began reading about it. I loved it so much that

During my senior year of high school, I began to worry about what my life would be after high school. I knew I wanted to pursue my dreams of furthering my education and obtaining a college degree, yet had no idea what I wanted to become. After researching several careers, I decided I’d attend community college, obtain my medical assistant certificate enabling me to work in the health care field, which would then help me determine exactly what it is that I wanted. Luckily, I took a variety of college courses in high school which allowed me to finish the medical assisting program in one year, instead of two years; which is typical of a community college. I received a job offer at the facility I did my externship and began working a month after graduation.

After high school, I chose community college to work on basic courses while I decided on my future bachelor degree. At Tompkins Cortland Community College, I maintained a 3.37 GPA, qualified for the Dean’s List in two semesters, and graduated with honors. As a reflection of my abilities at the time, I would say that despite my achievements, my GPA was not as high as it could have been. None of the classes were overly challenging and I was dedicated to my studies, but my job took up valuable time. On average, I worked thirty-eight hours a week in order to support myself in college. I often felt crammed for time, and cut corners in order to get assignments in on time. For the quality of work I was able to put in, my GPA is accurate. However, given better means, I know that I could have graduated with a more appropriate GPA.

Twenty-six years ago. I began the quest to find the perfect college. As I drove down the driveway of Bay Path College, I knew this was the college I was going to attend. I was drawn to the rural setting, the beautiful campus and the small academic community. My intent for life after high school was to get my associates degree, earn some money, then begin working toward my bachelor degree. In retrospect, I did not possess the confidence or drive needed to be a good student. I struggled for the next couple of years to earn my Associates degree, however was apprehensive to commit to the time or expense it would take to continue my education. After a very long break in schooling, I now approach education with a new mindset and ready to commit

As soon as I stepped into school of junior year the only words I heard were college and SAT. After my first meeting with college guidance I began questioning my success. My average was about a 70 and that was not getting me into college. For the past two years I was focusing on clubs and commissions and now my grades began to hit me. I knew I had to get to work as soon as possible. I began by putting more time and effort into my schoolwork and putting a break on my commissions, school was my new focus. After my long and tiring 10 hour days of school I would only come back to study for more hours till I felt I knew my stuff at the top of my head. I began to appreciate learning new things and being a studios student. I began to connect to some of my classes and grew a passion for them advanced studio art, nutrition, and English. I became confident with my school work and was able to join new commissions and balance my school work with my commissions. Choices commission was my favorite,helping my peers make the right choices in their lives. It was the same in senior year I was taking Ap psychology and it wasn't the easiest class but it was something I enjoyed and I loved being challenged by some of it. After fall semester of senior year my average was an 83.286 about 15 points higher than my fall semester in freshmen year which was a 68.17. I was thrilled, I felt accomplished, this was a new peak of success for

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

Growing up I knew I wanted a career where I can help people. I was undecided whether that would be in the form of caring for people or helping teach key stage 1. I thought I would enjoy becoming a nurse so started an access to higher education course in health care. Once attending university open days and finding out the unsociable hours and weeks away, I knew this is not the career path that I want to go for. As a mother, I want to be around and involved with my children.

Coming to the decision of going to Western Michigan University was something that was a little unexpected for me. I started the beginning of my senior year in High School thinking that I wanted to go to cosmetology school, and I was almost completely against going to college. I thought that I had my mind made up, I had loved hair and makeup and my only thought was that I had wanted to do that for a career. However, somewhere around the first or second month of my senior year, I was volunteering at the Children’s Assessment Center (a center for sexually abused children, where they could receive free counseling) working on writing their monthly blog. I had spent a lot of time talking to the head coordinator at the center, about my history, my time that I had spent going to counseling at the Assessment Center, and my time volunteering there.

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.