My Educational Experience

As we pulled up to the massive elementary school building, I begged my mom to let me stay home from school, just once. As usual, she said no. Realizing my attempt to get out of school was futile, I shouldered my backpack, swung open the door, and trudged over to the front door. I would rather be anywhere else than here. For the majority of my life, I attended public schools. It wasn’t rare for me to fail a test or even a whole class. It was because of these failures that I would get even more demotivated and threw away the idea of working hard or completing quality work altogether.

As we pulled up to the massive elementary school building, I begged my mom to let me stay home from school, just once. As usual, she said no. Realizing my attempt to get out of school was futile, I shouldered my backpack, swung open the door, and trudged over to the front door. I would rather be anywhere else than here. For the majority of my life, I attended public schools. It wasn’t rare for me to fail a test or even a whole class. It was because of these failures that I would get even more demotivated and threw away the idea of working hard or completing quality work altogether.

If you are willing to make the necessary sacrifices to achieve your goals. Although it is not always easy. However, one must find what drives them to never give up, find the motivation that inspires them to keep trying. Surround yourself with people who are motivated and positive even in the midst of adversity. People who are inspired to look beyond the adversity in their life for the moment. Why? Because these people realize that life goes on. The question is how you will allow the troublesome events to influence your educational goals in our lives.

Most students believe that experiencing failure is the worst thing that could happen to them and so they develop a fear of failure. I was one of those students until I realized that failure is not necessarily a negative occurrence. A key trait that helped get me through my failure was my resilience. This experience taught me the importance of taking school seriously because it affects my future and ultimately how I will live. I decided to increase the intensity of the academic weight on my shoulders by taking two advanced placement courses, an honors English course, and precalculus in my junior year. This forced me to increase the effort and time I needed to put into my school work immensely. That year ended up being the year in which I received the highest grades due to my change in work ethic. I used my experience of failing a class as a stepping stone in my process to overcome my negative work ethic and become an excelling

American society values higher education. College provides many opportunities for developing a variety of social networks, both formal and informal. Obtaining a college degree will be such a valuable and

I hated school and everything that had to do with it, but I always enjoyed making up stories. It was my way, even as a small child, to escape everything. I have always had a very vivid imagination and writing was my way of channeling that. I enjoyed writing about events in my life but would always add a magical twist or have someone there to save the day. On the day, my teacher approached me as I was sitting in class and not paying attention as usual. My notebook was full of all the workings of my imagination.

Surrounded by all of the “Americans” I waved to my mother eager for her to finally leave and let me experience my first day of school. I had waited for the day I would finally be able to speak English, the language that I heard all of the other kids speak at the local park my mother took me to. English seemed like the most mysterious concept for my sister and I. So much so that her and I would start making up words in public, screaming gibberish at each other, hoping that people would think we were speaking the same language as them. Even though I was born in the United States, I was raised as a Pakistani, not an American. There were constant reminders by my parents that I am not an American. So when I was finally able to let go of my mother’s hand and walk off with the American kids into school I had the biggest smile on my face. I was so excited to be able to escape the circle I was in. Being 5 years old did not mean that I didn’t understand I was different. I knew my clothes were different then what the people on T.V. wore;

It all started that first day of kindergarten, as my grandma took a picture of me in my blue skirt and Barbie lunch box that today would start the rest of my life. We waited for the bus to come pick my brother and me up. That summer we made the decision to attend public school. From that moment, I knew my life was going to change, now I was going to the same elementary school that my dad had attended. I got on the bus with the confidence to start my education the best I could.

Six years old, with my hair carefully braided into two bunches on both sides of my head, looking around at a school I’ve never been to before. It was my first day of school and I had no idea where my classroom was or who my teacher would be. Eventually I ended up where I was supposed to be and the first thing I noticed was a funky peanut shaped table located by a huge window towards the back of the classroom. My teacher's name was Mrs. Jones, a very tall woman with a love for flamingos. Her classroom was full of brightly colored posters with educational information displayed and several flamingoes hidden in plain sight. There were about twenty other children in the classroom, but I was too scared to go up to anyone. I stayed in the corner closest to the door, unable to make the first move, waiting for someone to notice me. Everything started out easy and one by one each student was taken to the peanut table. When it was my turn, I realized that we were being tested. Mrs. Jones kept on saying that my score didn’t matter and all she wanted was for me to do my best. The test contained several reading passages and after I was done I was asked to answer multiple choice questions about what I read. I answered the question the best I could and once I was done it was the next person's turn. At that time, I didn’t realize why we were being tested or what was the point of it. How was I supposed to know that this test would be used to separate our class into different groups of reading

It was a sunny summer day and football camp, was going to start. The week before I was preparing for it. I bought gloves and cleats. I love football, but I can’t play it because I am too short and I can’t catch. I knew in the next couple of weeks I would be at camp.

Throughout my time here at UW Green Bay, I have learned many things about my education and about myself. While I have learned that you can get a degree, and a job, by gliding your way through classes and applying no effort, I have acquired the belief that you get out of college what you put into it. I believe that if I apply myself and try to challenge myself I will be far more successful in my educational pursuits. Through this realization, I have learned the two most important lesson of all; fearing failure is a waste of energy, and anyone can make a difference in the world.

I’m one of the millions of American students whose first language is not English that had to overcome barriers to fit in. Twenty-two years ago, both of my parents crossed the border illegally in search of a better life leaving behind the growing poverty, crime, and violence. Neither of them finished high school, my mother dropped out of third grade and my father went up to the eighth grade. My parents didn’t drop out because they were dumb or lazy, they had to work to support their parents and siblings. Unlike others, my parents had to work the fields from sunrise to dawn with barely enough money to eat. Due to their educational experience, they didn’t want that for my sisters and I. One of the first educational experiences I remember is being enrolled in the head start program and my mom having to walk one mile and a half throughout the year’s extreme weather. In head start, I remember that I learned how to count to twenty, learned the alphabet in Spanish, and how to write my name ‘’Veronica’’. My mom decided that my sister and I had to learn Spanish first at school for us to properly communicate with them.

I set my alarm for 6 am to make it to the 7am-8am meeting at Narragansett Town Beach. My friend was over the night before and he also grew up in Narragansett for 30 years. He gave me the worst anxiety, talking about how I am going to see all the “townies”, teachers and neighbors. This made me extremely nervous, but it was the only time I could get to a meeting this week that was 10 minutes down the street.

As a student in high school, there were some minor challenges throughout high school. The first was managing the transition from the New York Public school to Newark Public School. Even so, I've experience bad times and I am living proof that everything always works out and perseverance is a learning lesson that challenges are always temporary. We as individuals have to be strong and patient to get through the storm. As a clinical psychologist, I want to help and guide people through the challenging times. I also love helping out those who are in need of getting the words they need to hear in their time of need. I’ve experienced bad times and I am living proof that, in the end everything is going to be alright. High school for me wasn’t the best with typical drama, broken friendships, broken hearts, and personal problems that have challenge me in great depths, but I believed in myself and learned how to cope with my issues and also help my friends.

Before I moved to the United States, I went to school in Mexico for about nine years. School has rarely been difficult for me. I’m a fast learner. But as any other thing, school has its bad side too. It was the one that stopped the fairy tale I was living in, and got myself into real life. Movies made me believe that life was going to be easy. That no matter how many dilemmas I’d encounter, people were going to be there for me and help me get through it. School taught me that people don’t want to see other people succeed, it is impossible to compete with the teacher’s favorite, and that good grades are not the only thing needed.