My Life's Journey In Life

Topic (Biographical Essay): We are interested in learning more about you and the context in which you have grown up, formed your aspirations, and accomplished your academic successes. Please describe the factors and challenges that have most shaped your personal life and aspirations. How have these factors helped you to grow?

As I crouch, hardly breathing, in a barrel much too small for me to be in, I wonder how on earth I got into this mess. The ancient ship creaks and rocks as a sinking feeling grows in my stomach. It was a dare by my so-called friends for me to sneak onto the museum attraction on the last day it was in town, simply to “have a little fun” and to see where the museum kept the huge boat. I was all for it – I needed some adventure in my life. Unfortunately, I seem to have stumbled on something a little bigger than a display.

I grew up in a remote rural village in Rift valley-Kenya, my family and friends expected me to join the Kenyan police like most of my relatives, but my life would follow rather a different course. Unfortunately, in 2012 my father died of meningitis. It was hard watching him in a hospital transition from a strong man to a mere shadow of what he once was. The most prominent memory I have is when one night, the hospital machine began beeping louder and louder as my father laid comatose in his bed. I knew something was wrong and rushed to the nurse station, but no one was there. I looked around in the hallway, but my search was in vain. When I went back to my father’s bed, it was already too late. He was gone. I was deeply affected by his passing and felt like I was now the surviving father of my family and had to soldier on to comfort my siblings. Desperate, I turned to God for answers. I needed to know of God’s love and my spirituality became a guiding force that brought peace and happiness in my life. I became a youth pastor and a Sunday school teacher for a local church in Kenya, a role in which I acquired leadership skills and a gained a better understanding of the western medicine. Due to those tough times and other instances of medical neglect in my village, I generated a deep desire to help my fellow villagers thence began my life-long pursuit to become a physician.

As stated by Ann Landers, “It is not what you do for your children, but what you have taught them to do for themselves, that will make them successful human beings”, people are not just born successful, they are taught the skills and given the tools to build their future, just as my parents, friends, and family have done to help me build a secure foundation for the future of my career and who I am as a person. I would not be who I am without those around me who have supported me through the good and the bad and everything in-between.

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

Every day the thought of giving up crosses my mind. I think whether the end of this journey is worth the stress and the obstacles down the road. Everyone around me complain about how hard it is, but I’ve only seen one person push through it all, and that is my cousin, Michelle. She lives a life of examples to follow. She is the one that makes me believe in myself and pushes me to be the better version of myself. After watching “Why Most People Die by 25” by Prince Ea, it reminded me so much of Michelle. She has done so much in her 23 years of age. She made me realize that what that video mentions is true. She has demonstrated that no matter how hard the journey is the ending is always so much better. My goals are what will keep me going these next few years and knowing if I am even half the person Michelle is I will be highly satisfied. In the next ten years, I plan on graduating college with my Spanish major and becoming an educator, traveling all Central and South America, and start building my life with my future husband.

I was always told that I could walk at a very early age. Back when I think about it I was always running as a child. I could never keep still. I was placed into every sport imaginable played soccer, baseball, basketball, volleyball, and even tennis. After I tried them I ended up getting tired of them. The only sport I really stuck with was soccer but in time it faded too. After that, I started to notice slight pains in my hips and I would usually walk with a limp. I went to the doctor on multiple occasions to fix this problem however their answer was always the same, growing pains. Then I was 14 years old and I started my high school career. I went to West Springfield high school. I had realized that I had just moved into a new situation in my life that I had completely no control over. So, in an effort to find people to talk to and find some friends in my new environment, I decided to join a club or a sport. However, after I thought about it I had nothing I felt I could properly assist in. After much debate, I came to the conclusion of joining the crew or rowing team.

When a child is born, its family raises it in hope for him to become successful. Inevitably time remains slow, yet it is constant. Thanks be to God that we wake up every morning knowing that we can rely on its consistency to creep on us as children grow older. A mother’s dream, with three children, is for the last child to live happily and a father’s is for his children to be cautious of the threats the world has within. But as a result of the values and characteristic that the child has developed, he chose his own path in life. He chose to become a pilot. When he reached high school, he learned that the best way to earn your career is to obtain a degree that certifies you in your profession. That is when he decided to attend Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. There he wants to major in Aeronautical Science and someday earn his way to his own 747.

I began my formal education at two and a half years old, at a preschool whose playground was snuggled underneath a ramp leading to the highway. Despite this inopportune and sometimes hazardous position, my preschool was bursting with joy and knowledge, with life lessons around each and every corner. It was there I learned how to cooperate, write my name, share, and that it wasn’t the best idea to eat a strawberry I had dropped on the ground. During this formative period of my life, I was not only learning from my teachers. I was learning from my playground friends, newborn sister, but most importantly my parents. My parents taught me whatever they could, whenever they could, which instilled a strong desire to learn in me from a young age.

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.

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.

Who I am has taken me quite a long time to figure out. My journey has been filled with happy times and sad times. Difficult times and triumphant ones. My journey of life began prematurely on February 17, 1983 in Memphis, TN. I was born to two of the most wonderful people on this earth, and that’s a completely unbiased opinion. I weighed a whopping 4lbs and 13ounces and I had to stay in the hospital for quite a while before I was able to be released to go home with my parents. About a year before I was born, my mother’s father passed away and my parents moved into my grandmother’s house to help out. It helped them quite a bit as well because my father was working a lot of overtime and my mother was in nursing school.

Throughout my life I have had many experiences or periods of time where I have encountered many obstacles. From heartache to heartbreak, to being suspended from school, to nearly taking my own life in order to “live”. But I am not here to tell a sob story. After all, I am still here to write it. I am here to tell the world that despite these setbacks, despite my flaws, and despite these hurdles, that I am as strong as I’ve ever been. And I will not let my past hold me back from creating my destiny.

Since I was little I’ve had a passion for cooking and baking. I loved to cook, from soup to stir fry and from brownies to cakes. When I cook, I feel like I can do anything, and it brings me joy when I see the people I care for enjoy it as much as I do. Cooking has brought me closer to the people in my life and has brought me closer to my heritage. One day I wanted to challenge myself and my cooking skills to see how far I could get and what I could achieve. When thinking about the next type of food I wanted to cook, I started to enjoy a different type of animation. I started watching a lot of Hayao Miyazaki as well as Bob Kuwahara and Makoto Shinkai. With this in mind, I wanted to know everything about authentic Japanese dishes. I wanted to recreate and relate my food to a new hobby and a new interest in my life. When researching different Japanese dishes I found it a tad difficult to find authentic dishes. It wasn’t until I researched a whole lot more about Japan’s culinary culture that I found out why.

My life thus far has brought me through many journeys. The experiences I had disciplined me so much, I don't even know where to start. I am content for all the lessons I have learned through these experiences. God is my everything and is the only reason for this life. He has showed me the meaning of many things and is directing me to the right path.