My Educational Journey : My Family

Coming from a Mexican immigrant family I have learned to recognize since a very young age that because of the status that my parents are placed in they cannot pursue a better future like the one I want. I have been given the opportunity to challenge myself with obtaining a higher education than just high school itself. My parents have demonstrated to me through their hard work that I have to value this opportunity unless I want to end up with low paying job. My life long dedication comes from seeing my parents make sacrifices in order for my education to continue.

Bright pink book bag, yellow sundress with a watermelon print, clean white tennis shoes, and blonde hair tied back into two little pigtails. That was the first day of the journey that would bring me to where I am now, that was my first day of kindergarten. I do not remember most of what went on during my kindergarten year, most of my memory of that year comes from pictures and what my family tells me happened. It was the beginning of my next nine years at Immaculate Conception School. I had a little class of ten and my teacher’s name was Mrs. Price. One story that has been told to me several times about little kindergarten me is how for at least a month, every day after I was picked up from school my mother would ask me how my day was and every time without fail I would tell her, “it was the best day ever!”

High schoolers are known to be overwhelmed and pressured by schoolwork, parents, sports, and extracurricular activities. We spend seven hours a day at school, proceed to do 3.5 hours of homework on average, and many of us end the day with sports practices. With crammed schedules it is no surprise that many of us decide to put certain assignments off until the very last minute. I am (not) proud to say that I am part of an exclusive procrastination club that operates 24/7. Through my secondary school years I have grown to be more independent; however, this came at a great consequence of having to constantly remind myself to have a strong sense of motivation and stay on top of assignments. Although procrastination may not be a trait many wish to have, I believe it is a fine art and when handled correctly, can still lead to success.

My parents always wanted to give their children the life they never had. I am Mexican-American, both of my parents immigrated from Mexico to the U.S. before I was born. I have numerous relatives, including my older sister, who do not have the same opportunities I have to achieve success because they are undocumented. For them, college was only a dream that could never be attained. Being the first U.S. citizen out of my entire family affected the way I thought about life. It was expected that I would attend college because I was the only one who had access to all the resources granted to American citizens. Although, I agreed with my family, the pressure to succeed and be a role model to my younger siblings was overwhelming.

In most of the letters that I read some said the advice "don't procrastinate" and, that is one of the things that I use to do. I use to procrastinate most of my days with out even realizing it especially on homework. Every time that I had to do homework, I would always find an excuse for example "I'm hungry let me eat first", "I

The first reason that I am being procrastinate is because I sometimes cannot focus on my work, I always think that I still have 3 days or 2 days to work on it, so just go have some fun right now, is not a big deal. However, it end up with I don’t have time to do research because I always leave it till last day, which means I deserve a low grades because I didn’t work hard. The reason why am I being so procrastinate is because of my lack ability of self-control, I am so easy to get distract from other things such as video games, my friends, Facebook and so on. There is an example from my first year assignment from MGMT 1000, the assignment requires us to write 1500 words essay,

What I didn't realize at the time was that procrastinating on my assignments not only made me feel more stressed as time went on, but it also caused me to rush through the writing process, resulting in sloppy workmanship.

My parents weren’t born in the U.S they were from Mexico working hard in a factory for any needs. As time passed they had to illegally pass to the U.S to give birth to my older sister, my younger sister, and I. I knew they had come to the U.S for a better living and for us to have a better future in education. Education was difficult to proceed in Mexico with all the violence and disappearance of children nearby school entrances. School wasn’t easy for me as I thought it would be, but I fought through blood, sweat, and tears gradually. My family was always there for me pushing me to greater standards and even when I’d back down in tears their words where the motivation to continue the work and that everything is accomplishable if you put determination

My family does not count with a large income specially since we’ve been here, new family members were added to our family. At this moment I have 3 younger brothers, and 2 younger sisters. I am the oldest of the 6 children, therefore I knew that I had to set an example for my siblings in order for them to want to succeed. But I believe that something new happens each day of our life and a new lesson is learned each time, and that’s what makes us greater people. I have been through many experiences while growing up which made me really think about what I wanted my life to be like in the future. Thinking about how my parents gave up their life in Mexico just to give us a better life encourages me to want to achieve all of my goals. I understand the importance of getting a good education for having a better life. Hard work and dedication is what keeps me going knowing that if I do the right things, have perseverance, making mistakes and learning from them will help me achieve what I set my mind to. I am very thankful to my parents for making me understand that no matter the circumstances that we live in, no matter how many people doubt me, nothing is impossible. In 2014, I received the incredible opportunity to attend Marygrove College, to pursue a career in advertising and theatre. So far, this milestone has been a joy ride of stress and happiness while making great friends along the way. I have much to learn and grow in order to achieve my many goals and dreams but what I have accomplished, makes me more than proud of

However, my parents´ efforts to provide for me and my siblings was worthwhile because I was privileged to have an education, and opportunities they didn't have. My dad was forced to leave school at the age of eight to help his family make ends meet, while my mom was not allowed to pursue a career because she was a woman. For this, I decided to honor their sacrifices by working really hard to achieve more than what was expected for a Latina.

My mom didn't obtain enough education when she was young. There hasn't been a day where she didn't think of how much of education she missed and how it has affected her life now. My dad, however, graduated from a technician school and later gained career as an electrician. He strove everyday for me and my family's well being. She believed that education was the way to gain knowledge. Hence, they always expected me to gain as much education as I can, graduate with high GPA, and become successful. Growing up my friends played key role in my life, as they do now today. My friendship with some people in my country were beyond the limit that I considered them sibling, or even more. I shared my secrets, problems, and they reciprocate the same. I also valued my religion and education since I was a kid. I was a one of the very competitive students in my elementary and middle schools. I wasn't the smartest, but I always believed in myself, and worked harder and harder to achieve my goals. When I was ten and few months old, my oldest sister decided to bring my dad to the United States for better life, job opportunities and of course, my family's future, as well as

When I was a kid, school for me was waking up early in the morning. I also have to study a lot in school, then after school I have to do homework. I remember my first day at school. My mom and dad, both were so happy and prepared but I was so nervous and cheerless. I didn’t like to wake up early in the morning for school , but as time flew by I started loving school which made me wake up with energy instead of tiredness. I began to enjoy the school as I made new friends and I got to know how it is like when you meet people out of your neighborhood. With my friends I had lunch together and study together. I started to understand what the purpose of the education system. Based on what I understood I think the purpose of education is really aimed at helping students get to the point where they can learn to be on their own. In this journey of education I had a lot of positive and few negative experiences,but the negative experiences also helped me growing. Positive experiences are my teachers helping me improve, and I improved more when I moved to the United States.

This story has to begin in my middle school years. At this age, I was already being tested annually amongst my peers. My parents had already received grades from the prior year letting them know that I was excelling in math and science. This year was different, this year they kept emphasizing on how it counts. And how it did. The grade I had received on these standardized tests statewide were enough to push me to the next level.

Starting in pre-school, children begin their journey of education. From learning how to share and color within the lines to not drinking at parties and mastering calculus, our education shapes us into who we are and provides us with what we need to know. Education extends far beyond just a school building, and the process of learning and building education is everywhere. We learn in the classroom but also on sports fields, stages, and in the real world. I have learned countless lessons about behavior and character through extracurricular activities, especially sports. Some people believe that education only occurs in a classroom environment, but I think that learning opportunities surround us far and wide.

The journey I have made academically this summer semester is something I will never forget. The knowledge I have gained over how to write a proper essay has made me appreciate how important writing is. Without knowing how to write a essay or just to write more formally I would not be moving forward successfully in my academic journey nor would I be obtaining the goals I have setup for myself. With all this in mind, the goal of this essay is to give a deeper understanding on who I am as writer, what I have experienced so far on this academic journey, and where and how I will be using the new knowledge in the future. First let us take a look into who I am as a writer. As a writer I like to style my papers into a way that the reader would think I am right there talking to he/she about it. I am a very "down to earth" guy. When I am typing out my papers, I want make it feel like I am talking to the reader themselves. Recently, I have found prove of this because, in my composing process essay I used a lot of figure of speech. One of the problems I have found with using figure of speech is that sometime it can be misleading or confusing to readers. I have made notes and further educated myself in how to properly use figure of speech in my essay in the future. Another thing I found that I do when I write is, get into a pattern of repeating words excessively. I discovered in my summary analysis paper that I would begin a majority of sentences with the same word. From my