My Life After A Single Parent Home With Four Children

Later as an adolescent, I was an active member of my high school’s Girls Football team and Volleyball. I attend a post-secondary institution right after high school; I received my Medical Assistance Certification from Star Technical Institute in Whitehall, PA. I pursue my dreams of obtaining the education I had always desired and found a great job in the medical assistance field. Another event, which shifted my life forever, was accepting a marriage proposal at a young age and marrying in 1991. I made it clear from the beginning that my education was very important to me and marriage would not stand in the way of my pursuing post-secondary studies or even completing high school. When I announced my engagement due to my pregnancy I was, determine to complete all my studies to make a better life for my son. I became a mother in February 1991 and continued to work as a Manager for a retail store until my husband, who had been unemployed since our marriage, found work. When he secured employment, it gave me the financial flexibility to pursue my dream of attaining higher education, In July 1992. Working in the medical field, you gain so much knowledge and then transferring into the mortgage career, I gained lots of experience. My last job I went back to the medical field as that was the quickest job I can find in my area that was hiring. I was so nervous due to not knowing anyone and having to relearn everything all over

My mom was pregnant with me, her senior year in high school. She put her own dreams aside, graduated high school, got married to my dad, gave birth to me, and began raising her new family. Still to this day, she talks about returning to school, but still has not had the opportunity to do so. I am an only child, and the first in my family that will be going to college. My parents are the reason why I am pursuing college. I owe it to them, and to myself, to be the absolute best I can be. I made a promise to my father when I was a little girl, that when I grow up, I will make enough money to support him, and my mother; so that one day, they will no longer have to work. Graduating high school, and beginning my journey to my college degree, is the first step to ensuring that I am able to keep

I remember thinking when I got married at 20 years old, that I wanted to be the best wife I could be and everything else would fall into place when the time came. After my husband returned from his first and last deployment to Iraq -- no longer the same; he was mentally and physically broken -- caring for him became a larger priority than everything else. As I adjusted from being a wife to the sole caregiver of my husband, I placed more of my educational aspirations on hold. Again, I told myself that everything else would fall into place. When his younger brother had a life-changing accident, I took him into my home and cared for him and have continued to do so for the past eight years. After my husband and I had children, I started telling myself that I was going to be too old to ever go back to school; I instead focused on my kids’ educational futures. Eventually, I promised myself that I would go back to school, once my kids were in school – I kept that promise to

I came from a large family, with a father who has never been to college and a mother who has never attended a school. Despite this fact, they taught us how to work hard and get the best education possible in order to secure the best careers. They are now the proud parents of three medical doctors, myself included. Being a top student through my school years opened the path for me to go to medical school at the University of Algiers. I worked hard because I knew that everything I was learning would have a huge impact on the lives of my patients. This led toward choosing the most challenging and exciting specialty, Radiology.

While growing up, my family and I have endured many obstacles that has deterred us from achieving our goals. I have one older brother, one sister and two younger brothers all four of my siblings and I live with my mother in a single parent home. My mother is a stay-at-home mom so that she may raise her children and grandchild correctly. Therefore being updated with the latest version doing extracurricular activities with and really in the budget. As an adolescent I have made many sacrifices for the well-being of my family. For example, I have gone many hunger-filled nights so my other siblings can feel comfortable. I have pleaded with my mother to give me permission to seek employment, but she denied because of the simple fact she doesn't

Coming from a single parent home, kids really are less fortunate than those staying in a two parent household. Children in a single parent home don’t have as many option as the children do in a two parent household. The reason I say that is because they are less fortunate and their options on things are low because their isn’t a stable income. Choosing this topic was a good pick for me because I can relate more on the situation and the struggle of being raised with just my mom doing everything. Single parents work twice as hard to make sure everything is paid before their children can receive anything nice or new to wear.

I have grown up in a low income, single-parent family, and am the first person in my immediate family to attend college. I always knew growing up that I wanted more for myself; I wanted to be something more, something bigger. I didn’t know what exactly I wanted, or how I was going to make this a reality, all I had were all these dreams and aspirations of becoming so much more than what I came from. My parents were both high school dropouts, as I eventually came to be. I didn’t get the start that I had imagined, but I soon made the decision that it had come time for me to do whatever it would take to make my dreams come true.

Attending college has always been at the top of the list for me. For me to get to where I have always wanted, I must continue my education to an institution and receive a bachelor’s degree. The fact that my family traveled so far to get here just so my sister and I could have a better future gives me inspiration to always move forward and never stop along the road. How could I let anything stop me from becoming who I desire to be? My mother still wishes that she was given the same opportunities that I am receiving today, so I must make her proud by taking advantage of the chances that I own.

I feel I didn’t give myself much time to figure out what I wanted to study, what I wanted to get out of college and rushed into it all too quickly. After a little time off I started the CISCO Certification program at Front Range Community College. I did very well in the program, but again was not very happy. I just could not see myself doing this work for the rest of my life. Once more I started to slack off and eventually stopped attending classes. Now here I was a young lady with such a bright future who was lost, confused and without a degree. I lived at home with my parents who were very supportive and found work in customer service. I struggled with my emotions, I felt like a failure and wished I would have completed something. A year later an old boyfriend got in touch with me, we spent some time together while he was in town on vacation from the military. We began dating and I eventually moved with him to California. I became pregnant with our son Clayton who is now 9 years old. Once he was born I knew I needed to go back to school and finish what I had started. I wanted to provide for my

My mother and father have always taught my sister and I about the importance of furthering our education. Both my parents have never received a college degree; nevertheless, they still worked hard in their respected fields to become a regular middle class family. When my sister applied to colleges, it proved challenging to receive scholarship options since my family doesn’t qualify for many grants or scholarships due to where we fit into the class system. Therefore, because of the struggles my sister went through, I was able to have a realistic goal about where I could continue my education since I knew not going attending college was not an option.

Several years later, I met and married my husband Cody. I became a mother of three more beautiful children. My main focus at this point was being the best mother I could possibly be. In doing so, life become really busy and my education was put on hold yet again. As my children got older I started to realize something was missing. I felt down on myself, thinking how in the world can I support my family with no education let alone an idea of what I wanted to do with my life. I was letting that define the person I am. I made a promise to not only myself but to my children and husband that I would complete my education and get my diploma. I wanted to be a good example to my children and show them that I can do it! Since then I have found lots of support and hope that I had lost over several years. I did a lot of soul searching by digging down deep and finding myself. I started to think a lot of my future and how I could help support my family. In retrospect, it's funny how one day can have such an effect on your life. I choose to go to a temp agency in search of

As a small child, I was repeatedly told that college was almost impossible. A main idea pounded into my brain was that because my family

I am the first in my family to earn a 4 year degree. Of course, this means that I will also be the first to pursue a doctorate. My parents never had the opportunity to get a postsecondary education, so they made sure that I would have every tool I needed in order to go to school for whatever I wanted to do with my life. We never had much money because of my father’s disabilities, but with a few sacrifices and the help of scholarships I was able to earn my bachelor of science in physics.

It has been a long road over the past seventeen years, to get to where I am now. Choosing to go to school, you would have thought would have been a no-brainer. As a young adult I never really looked beyond the day I was in. I have been through many jobs in my life, I made it a career in changing careers. The jobs I took never felt like more than just a paycheck. Most of the jobs I had I would end up in a year or so hating going to work. I would literally dread going in or even thinking about having to work there. Then I found what I would call the "light going on" job where I felt different, I started working at the High school as a Substitute teacher. I came to the job because I was working as an LNA, I had changed my hours to only work on the weekends. The county changed their policies, I lost my insurance, so I went per diem. As an "on call" LNA I received no hours, I needed money and fast. Someone told me to be a sub at the school, no education needed and they are always looking for help. I worked a lot as a substitute, mostly for paraprofessionals in the high school. One of the case managers that I worked with a lot liked what she saw and encouraged me to go for the open position, I was interviewed before the interview if that makes any sense at all. I was working in the classroom with a "difficult" student, the director of special education just happen to be in the room that day observing the case manager. Well, I assume she liked what she saw as well, because when I

Coming from poverty is never easy. As a child I always saw my mother and grandmother struggle to raise me. Money was always limited but education was very important. Fortunately my mother was able to work three jobs so that I could attend private school. I was determined to always be the best, so I excelled in my academics and extracurricular activities. While being in high school I discovered I had a passion for writing and I loved being the center of attention. I wrote several articles for the school newspaper and broadcasted for any games that did not collide with cheerleading or dance. Regardless of my financial situation I wanted to be successful so I had to become extremely dedicated to my school work. As my senior year approached I knew it would be difficult for me to get into college. I was going to be the first person in my family to attend and no one was knowledgeable about the process of getting in. It was understood that having a degree would be essential to my goal of being successful so I was determined to earn my degree.