My Experience In My Life After High School

Growing up, school was not a major factor in my life. I come from a hard-working, middle-class military family. My mother, a Filipino immigrant, was a homemaker. My father was a 21-year United States Marine veteran. They were my first impression of what I thought my future would be. Being the youngest of four children, I was expected to fall in line behind my siblings when it came to education. I was never pushed to excel in my studies, so I did just enough to get by. As I watched friends escape the grasp of a military town and ascend to their respective colleges, I was left wondering what was next for me. I attended my local community college for a brief period of time. I treated college no different than high school. I

Books were like a chore to me. I preferred to be outside playing with my friends, then cooped inside the house reading a book

"What do you want to be when you grow up?" Throughout my life I have been asked this complicated question over and over. How can anyone decide what she wants to do for the rest of her life after high school? Previous to me entering high school, I was convinced I would be entering the criminal justice field. I had everything planned out, but things usually do not turned out as planned. It wasn't until I was entering my Senior year of high school did I realize I couldn't be more wrong with what I wanted to accomplish with the rest of my life. After learning more about myself and my interests did I change my plan to studying business throughout my upcoming college years.

I could never get it right and I always got screamed at for it. I used to take tests read the passage and the go to the questions and read the questions wrong and mark the wrong answer. Then my mom would be mad at me and we would try to fix it at home and she would get so frustrated because I just could not do it. I just could not interpret words correctly. At times I used to think that if I acted like and walked like and ate what all the “smart kids” ate then I would become smart

In first grade, I remember being in a special reading group with only one other person. We read chapter books, while

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.

From a very early age, I always assumed it was a part of my future to pursue an education. The American educational system engraves the importance of school at a very young age. Elementary school children are motivated through rewards when they try their hardest to reach their goals. Students are exposed to statistics and facts outlining the consequences of not getting a college degree as soon as they reach middle school. High school counselors and staff make it their priority to ensure that students apply to college. Students are conditioned to believe that education is the building block to a successful future. My cultural upbringing did not support my choice to pursue an education, however, I refused to conform to my family’s behavioral expectations because certain norms must be challenged due to progressive time periods and conflicting values.

The essay ‘Life After High School” by Annie Murphy Paul is about the effect of a persons high school experience on what they do later in life. Paul had been asked to be the commencement speaker at her old high schools graduation which made her wonder if our high school experience determines who people become as adults. To see both sides of the argument Paul interviewed some experts and read studies on the topic. Some of the research has shown that there some truth to the idea that high school has the ability to shape who we will become in the future. This includes research taken from the Wisconsin Longitudinal study, which is one of the largest and longest-running research project on the effect of high school. For example that jocks are in

I had a very fortuitous encounter. One day I was at the bookstore in the young adult section and a cover picture of a girl in a black dress crying caught my eye. The book was called Fallen by Lauren Kate, a romantic gothic themed story about fallen angels. It was the first novel I was not forced to read that I liked and finished. Ever since then I have been a zealous book reader and collector. I used to read about 100 pages an hour and about 3 or 5 books a week, give or take. On those days, I seldom came out of my room because I was so wrapped up in what I was reading. Books became a way for to connect to the outside world, especially because I was an isolated person, and to explore other places and worlds I'd never been to. It was a truly an amazing moment in my life. Eventually, I began to write stories of my

I never thought that I could excel in school. My family and friends saw potential in me but I did not see any. At the start of my freshman

and experience more of her life is what gave me the courage to step into the terrifying new world

JK Rowling had engulfed me in her writing, taking me into the world of Hogwarts. Consequently, some days the books had to be pried from my hands by an exasperated mum. This didn't stop me, however. Day and night, night and day, I read whilst I ate, I read whilst I bathed, listening to audio books when reading was

would return them the next day. Until my early middle school years, I read almost religiously,

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

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