Who am I? What do I tell people when I am asked this question? Do I even know the answer? It has taken many years for me to be able to answer this question. All of my life experiences have led me to the road I am on today, and I would never give them back.
Growing up I was a quiet and shy. I kept to myself a lot, and only had a handful of good friends. I had good parents who always supported me and encouraged getting out of my comfort zones. After a year of college, I was married and started life as a married woman. Even at the age of 20 with a brand-new baby I still struggled with being shy and quiet. I was happier being at home with my family than out in big groups of people. My husband and family continued to encourage me to get out and make new friends. I had a couple of people in my life that I could call friends and that was all I needed. I could not have predicted what would come next...
In December of 2004 I received a phone call that would change my life. I remember bits and princes of what was said to me during that phone call. Things like “Stage 3 Medullary Thyroid Cancer”, “We won't know until we get in there”, and “If you are going to get cancer, this is the one to get”. By the time the phone call ended I know that my treatment plan would consist of surgery and radiation. After I had my cry I made a decision to be pro-active. I needed to know exactly what was going on and what my options were. I needed to find my voice to tell people what I needed and wanted.
My parents had always planned to have a baby girl in the family, but instead, God received them with their first two boys. Although it was not what they desired having, healthy babies were always something they were grateful for, but they never gave up on wanting a girl to be part of their lives. When I arrived in this world, my parents had acquired me with all girly objects. The thing was that being surrounded by all boys made me have the same interest such as playing video games instead of with Barbie dolls. Furthermore, as I got older I started to separate from my brothers because they had to work and I had to be strongly dedicated to my academics as well as helping my mother with chores. Going to school and coming home to hear the same question every day of what is my career pathway that I am pursuing is overwhelming. The only thing I was certain of in my life is that I had a devotion to increasing my knowledge. Once I arrived in high school I became closer to answering the question, since I was surrounded with more options. Not to mention, having found the passion of science due to the classes I have been taking, but it was not until when my aunt died when I knew my true purpose in life.
I was a very shy, awkward girl. I was scared to do most things, I even got annoyed when i had to talk to people or even present infront of the class. I remember dreading just thinking about having to go up infront of the class and going to events. I became, very scared to do anything with people around me. Then one day i decided to change my group of friends, I tried to communicate with new people. I was very nervous at first, but then i got the hang of it i became very close with those new people. They have really helped me be the best type of person i can be. Now, i just go hangout with that group of friends all the time, I really love that i can be myself around them and just have a good time.
Coming out of my shell was one of my biggest accomplishments in my life. Growing up I was always the shy girl. I was scared of interacting with others because I would felt like I was going to say the wrong thing or just blank out completely. I wouldn’t really participate or be involved in anything until my sophomore year in high school. I felt the need to make adjustments to myself so that I could be more confident. At first I started of slow I had to put myself in uncomfortable situations where I was forced to talk to people.
My story begins on the night of January 3, 2009. I never knew something so profound and distinct could come out of a situation not every young adult gets presented with. Had it not been for this night, my destiny would have a different ending. The passion to succeed and make my story become a non-fictitious life event has been the sole source of my motivation to fulfilling my dream of becoming a nurse.
I enjoyed when people would gaze up at me and express their admiration of my so-called God-given intellectual, as if the most dexterous dancer came out of the womb on pointe. My journey of running in the first tier of the marathon began when I was fighting to reach the fallopian tube as a perplexed cell, and continued to my teenage years of sprinting through the academic block. I had never planned for this increasing momentum to the top of the podium to cease, until last year. No really, I genuinely believed that I would never drop from that spot, and that if I did, my world would be completely demolished-the gazillions of shattered pieces splattered at the bottom of the Atlantic. Well, I guess I did not pacifically need to glue those pieces back together anyway; the peculiar glisten they reflected underwater didn’t seem to be any duller than before.
I just entered 9th grade in Hampton Bays High School. I enjoy playing soccer and I love photography, I think that it’s such a beautiful art. Before I came to Hampton Bays I was from East Hampton. Entered Hampton Bays towards the end of 8th grade. I learned a lot about transferring schools. I learned in many ways from negative to positive. People would always tell me that people in Hampton Bays were nice that I should be happy. That just entered from one ear and left right through the other. Now I have started to learn that I should be happy about starting a new chapter in my life. Because moving from place to place doesn't always have to be towards the negative, it can always be towards the positive. I think that everyone who has taken part of my journey in my life is part of who I am. People that I am close with, or not and just have only spoken to them once. I learn from them knowing what is right and what is not. No matter who the person is I learned something about them. That’s what I think makes me who I am, learning from others.
Everyone has a story to share, none less important than the other, and a past that helped to create the people we are today. As I begin my journey into the world of adulthood, the feelings of excitement and fear dawn on me because the realization hit me! I've made it! Senior year, the year I have been dreading and longing for the past 3 years fear of leaving home and becoming my own person. Only to one day discover, as I sat in my room thinking about life's next chapter that was about unfold in front of me,i realized I more than ready to go into the future with the security of being okay because of the enviorment I was raised in and the values my mother instilled in me since the age of 5.
“Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanishes away.” James chapter 4 and verse 14. One of my favorite bible verses. Life is short, really short, and so many people take it for granted, I know I use to. Think of life like a puzzle, as you grow up, you keep adding pieces that make up who you are. When I got the question “What Am I Becoming?” I honestly had so much to write about but no idea how to write it. I know what I want to be but who I am becoming is the real question. So let me start at the very beginning.
College is coming to an end for me, and I now have to begin my journey in the real world. There have been many things that I’ve learned today that have helped groom me into what and who I strive to be in the near future. By being an athlete I had the opportunity to experience life a bit different from other college students. Being a student-athlete I was taught skills like critical thinking, immense problem-solving skills, original creativity, and well-rounded communication and ethical judgment. Although this wasn’t all taught to me on the court I strive to preserve these skills and make them apart of my daily routine during my journey.
When I was a child my father always came to me and told me a quote, but over the years I have changed it into my own and now I live by it everyday . “Tomorrow is a brand new day, and a gift from yesterday, if you’ve failed rise from your ashes and create your own path and leave a trail behind because you can not take others pathes to live your life, life is your adventure and what you make of it.” I have always loved life and the people that are in it, since i was a child i have had the biggest dreams of going and doing anything I wanted to be and that nothing was going to stop me. My success to that has been keeping to not only my quote but to my heart, and to succeed I have stuck to these things: being determined, encouraging others, and hardworking.
On March 9, 1996, I was born to a teen mother and father in Savanna-la-mar Westmoreland, Jamaica. Two years later my sister was born. A couple years after my sister was born our parents split after they had a huge fight. From that day forward my relationship with my father has degenerated as he wasn’t around as much as he used to. He would promise to take me and my sister to the beach or out to eat, but never showed up. On December 2006, my mother, my sister and I moved from Jamaica to the United States. My mother used all of her life saves to get us to America where she hoped we would have better life. We stayed with my aunt in San Antonio for a year until my mom get back on feet. Schools in America were much different from those in Jamaica, but I was a great learner so class work was easy for me. In Jamaica, we spoke “Patios” a broken form of English, so while I could understand everybody else they couldn’t understand me. I would constantly have to repeat what I said previously, which discouraged me from talking much. After a year in San Antonio we moved to Houston where we got an apartment close my other aunt. I wasn’t really a fan of the move as I would have to make new friends again as I had done the year before, but I grew to like it. The coming school year I decided to join band because I loved music and wanted to make some myself, I chose the trumpet as my instrument. The next year I entered middle school and was finally able to play sports, and I was so excited.
My life has gone through many different stages. Each stage has taught me new lessons about myself and has shaped my way of viewing the world. The way I was raised by my parents has made me the person who I am today. I believe my life experiences have pointed to the path of being a teacher.
Life is a journey and by choosing my path, I create my destination. My journey started on the day I was born, July 16th, 1999, but it was not until March 20th, 2016 that my destination was drawn with passion. On that day, I came to America with tears dropped on my mom's face, with great pressure on my shoulder, with a strong determination to live well, to live happily. On that day, I promised myself that I will succeed to prove that if someone considers my studying abroad as wasting money and time, they were wrong. On that day, I knew that I would be the one who makes my mother proud of me and ensures a happy life for her. Without a strong financial support, studying abroad was too hard to complete, for most of the people, but not for my mother and me. We believed in ourselves, in each other and in the goal that we have set, hoping one day I would come back to my country with great knowledge and skills that I have learned in America. Our hope was a red light of fire that led us to the destination we set, our hope was a plan that gave us the motivation to wake up in the morning and tried our best to fulfill, our hope was so strong that it magically provided me the power to truly believe that I could do it no matter how other people thought. The day I hold the flight ticket in my hand, I could not believe that my life would have a whole new chapter, in the country that Vietnamese people called it "America Dream", where a 16-year-old girl would begin her study. It was such a
As a very small child I don’t remember too much, but the things that I do remember were seen through a child’s eyes that has made me the person that I am today and I will always have those memory’s with me until my last breath on this earth. In this essay I intend to show how my childhood and adult life to this point has influenced my life, my journey. By utilizing the adult development theories from this class I also intend on showing how they relate to my Life experiences and where I am today as an Adult student.
It was in the years of my adulthood, about twelve years from my joining of the Child’s Union, and it was on my vacation; my vacation, that was, from Kim Chaek University of Technology. The windowless transport bus halted and recoiled, alerting me that my destination has been reached, and that I could depart to the residence of my humble relatives in the village of Sinuiju, which was a municipal city on the very edge of North Korea and China. I stepped from the ancient vehicle and began the walk towards the village’s center. There, I passed copious houses of plastered white structure and similar brown shingled roofs. Plantations were cultivated in modest amounts despite the frigid weather, and people looked as if they had fed on the crops. Up an inclination of crude concrete, positioned somewhat like gravel-built stairs, I greeted joyful faces of my aunt and uncle.