Essay about I'm Going to College

I’m raised in an environment filled with negative stereotypes, high dropout rates, fewer resources, and low expectations. As a Mexican American from the San Fernando Valley, educational opportunities do not come often. In middle school it massed into my head that going to college is my way towards success. Soon it became the only option for me and as a result, I joined Project Grad to begin my journey towards college. They introduced me to the Chicano Youth Leadership Conference during my junior year. After applying and attending, the conference eliminated the label that Latinos are not college material. Subsequently, I grabbed as many opportunities as I could. In my junior my school did not put me in any AP classes. Therefore, I went to go

Midway into my sophomore year of high school is when I learned that my family will be moving to Massachusetts due to my father’s job relocation. At first, I was set to move to Massachusetts with my family, which meant transferring to my third high school in three years and having to switch to a different club soccer team during the most important year of recruiting for college soccer. Then, an opportunity was presented to me in which I would be able to stay at my current high school and my current soccer team. The opportunity being that I would stay with a close family friend who attended the same school and plays for the same soccer team, but in exchange I would have to leave my mother and father for the next two years of my life. My family and I thoroughly discussed the plan and after many heated arguments and fights, we finally decided that I would stay behind and stay with the Williams family for the next two years of my life. This life changing opportunity has slowly but surely helped me transition from a child into a young adult.

Growing up I was always told that I needed to attend college and there would be no exceptions as to why I would not; I had never really understood why it was so important to my parents but as years past I began to realize why college was a must in my family.

My love of reading blossomed when I was a child, because my parents showed me how wonderful reading is. There were countless nights when I remember myself as a little girl refusing to go to sleep before ‘tucking dad into bed’ by reading him a picture book. Not only did I uphold that tradition though, but my mother is a preschool teacher, so she gets really into reading out loud, and she would help me read books such as The Boxcar Children set, The Secret of NIMH and The Chronicles of Narnia weekly until I didn’t need help anymore.

After high school, many students make the decision on attending college based off of the things their parents/ teachers may have taught them when they were young. For example, many students further their education because throughout their lifetime they’re told they have to. In school we’re taught that in order for us to receive good jobs, and make a decent amount of money we have to have a college degree. Some are even taught that they must go beyond the undergrad and receive their masters, and doctorate degrees if they really want to be known as something in this world. While others go because it would make their parents proud, or to fulfill the legacy of being a first generation college student in their families. While this may be the case majority of the time, if you’re like me you go because

I can somewhat relate to that because I rarely saw my father pick up a book and just start reading. He would sometimes read the paper to stay caught up on the news, but hardly ever did I see a book in his hand. I do however remember my mother reading quiet often. She would just sit on the couch with her cup of coffee and read for hours. Shoemaker stats that “when I was younger, both my father and mother were never home to neither entertain nor read to my brother and I” (348). That was completely opposite with my mother and I. She would read all types of books to me like The Hungry Caterpillar, Giving Tree, or Dr Seuss. I don’t have a lot of memory of when I first learned to read, but according to her I didn’t read well until the end if Kindergarten. On the other hand, I do remember her taking my brother and I to the public library where she let us check out a maximum of four books each. We would mostly check out nonfiction sports books like biographies of athletes such as: LeBron James, Vince Carter, Allen Iverson, Mark McGwire and many

A fork in the road only appears as such when both paths are seen as viable options; yet, once one path becomes seen as the only one, the other devolves into a deviation. Where the aberration would require justification to travel down, the perceived correct course would require justification to not travel down. This is precisely how the false question of attending college was presented to me: it was a matter of when not if. Upon inheriting white looking skin, a middle class family, and a pat on the back for bringing home white sheets of papers with little red “A”s written in the top right corner, it was ascertained that I was to be a productive and successful engineer after paying for college with hard-won scholarship money. In short, there were several socio-economic factors that contributed to my eventual position in college.

Moving away from home has been one of the biggest challenges that I have had to face so far in the eighteen years of my life. Moving from my home town to the collge dorm was a difficult transition that was necessary for growing up both mentally and physically as an individual. The little more than five hundred miles that separates me from my friends and family has allowed me to become the person I am today, and the distance allows me to grow and become more familiar with things that are a whole new experience for me. One of the many new things that I have had to deal with was making new friends in my environment.

High school was hard enough to get through with the long hours sitting at a desk, vigorous homework and dealing with other students. So why then, would I seek out higher education? Growing up my mother would always talk about college and how beneficial it was to her. The freedom she experienced, the jobs she had to work to pay for it, and the friends she made. With the help of my mother's life experience and the example she sets in everyday life, I pursued a college education at Tidewater Community College.

I'm sitting in the lab room nervously waiting my turn for the phlebotomist to draw my blood as I have a fear at the sight of needle. In the near distance, I hear loud cries of pain, while the person next to me quickly faints after getting his blood drawn. Suddenly, the phlebotomist looks at me and panic starts to kick in. The phlebotomist quickly realizes how nervous I am so he asks me a question to distract me from the needle, “how is college going?” I look at him with a big sigh, and say “I never went to college.” The distraction worked as he finished drawing blood from me, however, the question put me in a series of questioning about myself. How can I go to college, or even think about starting college? I am already twenty-two years old, and if I start college in Spring, it would be a five-year gap out of

Reading has been one of my favorite hobbies since I was a little child. I grew up as a normal child should grow and eventually I had to start learning for me to fit in society. My literacy started many years ago, after I knew how to talk and communicate with people. Reading my alphabet was quite stressful and I had to be given a hand by my family members. I remember my parents reading with me and it was the most meaningful and memorable way to spend time with me. This is because I liked reading a lot and I was eager to learn so that I could fit in with my older siblings. My favorite books were storybooks taking about adventures and fairytales

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.

Once highschool ends, you will think you are already done with school, and you can finally be free, and you are kind of right. However, your college education should not stop at high school, as high school only teaches you a few things. Going to college will teach things outside of just learning some basic math and writing formats. College will prepare you for life as well. By going to college, you will earn more, be more employable due to your accumulation of knowledge, and you will live a healthier life. College is not for everyone, but if you prefer a secure future then it is suggested to go to college. By pursuing business without a college degree, you could lose all your money and everything you have worked for at any moment if you are not cautious. With a college degree, you can earn a decent salary with a secure job.

What has my journey to graduation been like for me? My journey has been a crazy, fun-filled learning adventure. I met many goals and accomplishments I set for myself but I also faced some challenges on the way. For example, I finally met my goal of graduating with a 4.6 GPA and maintaining it. Also, I accomplished completing my last four years of grade school and now I am on the way to college. My last year has been interesting and there are many goals, accomplishments and challenges I can reflect on.

At this point in my life, reading would definitely not make a list of my favorite things to do, but this wasn’t always the case. Some of my youngest memories involve reading, and many of these memories are enjoyable. Every night before bed my mom would read to me, and I remember begging to read just one more before she tucked me in almost every night. This is when my love for reading sparked. Throughout grade school, I continued to read frequently and never found it to be a chore; however, once middle school hit I no longer included reading as a past time or found it pleasurable. Looking back now I realize this was when English class included more forced literature, and school consisted of reading extensive pages in textbooks. Reading