My Life Has Been Affected By Limiting Beliefs

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

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.

Many continue to express serious misgivings whether attending college would provide benefits once readily expected in the shadow of today’s long-term economic drought.

This is a reflective essay concerning my READ 3423.01 with Dr. Reid in the fall of 2016. As I wrap up my first semester at Texas Women’s University I am awed and thankful. I am the first person in my family to attend University. Some find this surprising because I do come from a family that has done well professionally, but that was due to grit and personalities. The fact is, I was never even spoken to about attending college while I was growing up. I believe this is because no one before me had this experience to share or encourage. The truth is I tried my hardest to not be at school from middle school on, I just wasn’t engaged in the process. Of course, there were a few teachers I connected with, like the business and history teachers, but I hated the rules and structure of the environment. I amazedly graduated with my high school class, as my friends went away to Universities I took some classes at the community college. What I found was that when I got to pick my classes I flourished. Even the classes that others said were too hard to take during summer quarter, I excelled in those as well. As life unfolded I got married, moved out of state and had two daughters. When it was time for my daughters to attend school I was pretty apprehensive about the idea of it. I opened a preschool in a mother-in-law apartment we had on our property and decided they could learn there in a small community. That preschool led to homeschooling, and large educational co-ops. I lived in a

I am fortunate enough to have parents that can afford to send me to college, and support my choice to pursue a higher education. By attending college, I will eventually graduate with a degree and later earn a high paying career. Along with this, I have found college to be a way to discovering who I am. I have been able to move out, take over my own bills, and earn responsibility by doing so. Unfortunately, not everyone is able to attend college. Financial reasons typically hold individuals back from attending universities, and that later may affect their lives. Although I attend class daily, the true effect college will have on me in the future goes unnoticed. An education is something that is highly valued, and so important. Everyone should have the chance to have an education, but unfortunately, it does not happen. College for me, is a privilege. Therefore, I will work hard to earn my degree, and later put it to

Coming to college has shown me information and knowledge I never thought I was capable of learning and it will be knowledge I will use for the rest of my life. I came to college last year for my own personal growth and to expand my horizons. I thought about what I wanted to do after high school and continuing my education was number one on my list. I’m here simply to better my future, expand my knowledge, increase my potential, and learn more about myself. I want to make my family and myself proud by completing college and getting a degree. Bettering my future and making sure I have the information to be able to do my future career is my top priority because it’s the only thing I have continually been working for since the 9th grade. Expanding my knowledge in these courses that will soon get me to the school I need to be at is a compelling reason for me to stay motivated enough to wake up in the morning and push myself to come to school. I hope to increase my potential and develop into

Beginning with the fatalistic discourse utilized by my family, peers, and educators, I internalized such thoughts, and implicitly understood that, quite naturally, I would make the predestined transition to college from high school. Finding

Education is the key to success and without it you will not have a future. That is embedded in my brain. As a teenager you listen to your parents nag on you all the time about school and just think it’s easier said than done. But for me I lived through paradigm, my mom went back to school while raising us and working two jobs. She graduated from ASU with a 4.0 GPA and was honored and on the news because of all she’s done and went through in her lifetime. I have a difficult enough time doing my homework and going to basketball training. My mother went to school full-time, had two jobs, cooked for us, cleaned, paid bills, went to our games and still managed to get a 4.0. She always tells us if I can do it you can. Nothing in life comes easy you have to work for it, then you will be a success, if it is just given to you then you will never recognize the value of it.

I grew up in a single-parent, low-income home outside of Santa Rosa, California. The idea of college wasn’t introduced to me until long after I had already become just another statistic. I dropped out of high school when I was 17, in the midst of a teenage rebellion, thinking I already knew everything and didn’t need anyone’s help. I left home, got a job at a fast food restaurant, and stayed with friends off and on until I realized that maybe I didn’t know everything quite yet. After a severe reality check, I found a sense of responsibility that encouraged me to get my G.E.D and find a great job. I was very determined to take everything I learned as a child and use it as a what-not-to-do guide. By the time I was 19, I bought my first house and quickly realized I could either set limitations with excuses or achieve goals with endurance. The

One being the claim that students must be able to fail to flourish(43). Without failure, can a student become a stronger individual? In Kay’s words, “we have to realize that even we can fail” (43). Every diligent student will admit that they have had to overcome failures before, and it makes them come back even stronger. Higher education in America puts up a front and tells students failure is not an option. The school system makes students feel that if they fail, their hard earned money and time will also be a failure. This is not the case though. Students must learn what if feels like to fail, before they can truly thrive. Life after higher education is not a straight track to success, and students will fail many times. The higher education system needs to allow students to fail at times, so they will be prepared for life outside of

I am not trying to achieve anyone else's ideal of success, but my own. As an American, from a young age, we are brainwashed in the idea that we can achieve anything we set our minds to. Easier said than done. Attaining a college or professional degree is society’s guideline to becoming successful. We are not taught the cost of following our dreams. We are not taught that success should be personal and not institutional. Well, at least I wasn’t taught these things. We are basically doing well in school, to be successful enough to pay off school. My first two years of high school were not the best academically, and now I am working harder than ever to conceal those years. I can not remove those years, but I can show improvement. I am trying to the best of my abilities to maintain my grades, get great test scores, become a better dancer and overall be a conscientious, productive, socially aware citizen. Unconsciously, my whole life I have been conforming to society's definition of successful in one way or another. However, I have came to the conclusion that society's idea of successful is quite similar to

Cultural norms have greatly influenced my decision to go to college. In the United States, it is the norm that as a high school student you continue your education and go to college. Everybody expects you to go to college. Your parents, teachers, and your counselors try very hard and pressure you to go to college. When I was a high school student, I always thought that we had an option. You can either go to college or get a job. I was wrong about that. It really isn’t an option when you 're forced to go to college through social circumstances. This doesn’t mean that I didn’t want to go to college. What I am trying to say here is that we need to feel like it is okay if we don’t go to college. We need to know it’s socially acceptable that we didn’t attend college. I feel like I really didn’t make the decision to go to college. Everybody else did. We are made to think that the only way to be financially successful is to go to college and get a degree. Then were supposed to find a job and work our way up. That isn’t always true. Some of the most successful individuals dropped out of college. Another cultural norm that has influenced me is how

Two social institutions that have impacted my current status at CSU Stanislaus are education and the economy. For the entirety of our childhood, we are in school. We are educated on how to survive in this world and in society. We are trained and prepared for our future career or profession. Most of us can’t have the job we want if we don’t go to college. In my case, I want to become a nurse. I can’t if I don’t get accepted into a nursing program and if I don’t have a bachelor’s degree in Nursing. I need to be trained on how to become a nurse and learn how to do the necessary tasks required of a nurse. The economy has also impacted my decision to attend college. We were just recently hit with the Great Recession. This changed many perspectives about the economy including mine. Many people were laid off and couldn’t find work. These individuals were struggling to support themselves and their families. Everybody once thought that if you get a college degree you would be

Perhaps the biggest contributor to my anxiety in this issue is my financial situation. If money were no object and my classes, books, and credits were free, I would be one of the grey-haired, life-long students in the front row. I would accumulate over fifteen degrees ranging from poetry prowess to molecular biology, and I would take my sweet time in doing so. Heck, I might even live in the dorms for a few years. As my bank account will clearly state, along with the decisions of our "not-so-benevolant" governor, my university education is not so idyllic. Because I am being propelled by financial aid and a scholarship, I feel a painful itch that I must sort through my college education in four or five years or plan to take out a twenty-year loan.

The topic of my paper considers personal educational barriers linked to general education factors within the American educational system and schooling. During this class, we have been asked to examine preselected essays as well as those of our own choice. Factors indicated in research have provided insight concerning my lack of persistence in completing a college education, as well as the promoting awareness of other individuals’ factors which may have influenced their inability to fulfill educational goals.