My Path Toward Higher Education

My story isn't quite special really, although I have lived under some unique circumstances. My mother was a single parent raising my little sister and I until she married my Stepdad in 2007. I was five at the time and had no father figure until then. From that time on he became my dad. Our new family moved twice before living in a small city where we stayed for 6 years. This is where I made close friends, achieved academic excellence, went to church regularly, life was great or so I thought. What seemed to be our perfect life was turned upside down as hard times fell upon us. I was now the oldest of five younger siblings, my mom wasn't healthy, and my dad had to struggle to keep things going.

The beginning of my educational journey began at home. Unlike the most kids, my mother had decided to homeschool me for preschool; due to our family’s financial struggles that were very prevalent in my elementary years. Despite English being her second language, she taught me the basics of English and mathematic concepts. As a result, when I entered kindergarten, I was able recall this knowledge and quickly understood the concepts. By the first month, I was already ahead of my classmates. This was very special to me. My success sparked my interest and curiosity when it came to education.

Unlike most people, I did not get to be a carefree child for long. Even though I always said that I could not wait to grow up, now I wish that it all did not happen so fast and early in my life. From eleven to twelve years old—that would be the period I describe as the time I had to put my big-girl pants on and face the real, cruel and unwelcoming adult world. In that time period, I can specifically pinpoint two major events that ended my childhood: my move from Russia to the United States and the birth of my baby sister Toma. To some those might not seem significant enough to change someone’s life to the extent that they changed mine; however those events molded me into the person I am today.

Hello reader, I’m about to tell you a story of some of my life. I am not normally one to volunteer details about myself, which I’ll remain somewhat reserved or completely leave some events out of this autobiography. Nonetheless, I believe I can still make my story interesting for the reader. I was born 1979, in Tampa, Florida; which, is also the same day my biological father decided to leave my mother and I. My mother isn’t a native Floridian, but had moved there with her family when she was still an infant, and had spent most of her life growing up in Florida. Needless to say, my father leaving was not an exciting time for my mother and I. Although she was employed Jimmy Cater was president and had taken the nation into

My mother worked day and night so I had to care for my sister and cousins. On some occasions I had to help my mom clean houses to earn money. At the age of thirteen up until I was sixteen I was cleaning houses for the people we longed to be. I got a glimpse of a life I have never known. For the most part my mom’s boss was nice, but her family was ignorant at times. They would ask me where I have traveled and if I’ve been to all these kinds of expensive places. When I answered no they asked why not. I guess they didn’t comprehend the fact that my mom and I were cleaning their dishes and making their beds for less than the minimum wage to be able to barely afford the rent of the small room we all

I lived in a small trailer home with my mom, dad, older brother and younger brother. I loved that little trailer, even if it was not the best, I still called it home. Even though I loved that place, there were times when I noticed that my parents would struggle financially and they wanted us to have more than a little home, they wanted the best for us. There were also personal difficult obstacles we had to overcome as a family. As a result, my mom went back into college to study for a Registered Nurse. I didn’t spend as much time with my mom as one child wishes they could, but I knew she was working lots of hours and going to class just to be able to give us the life she thought we deserved. The same applies for my dad, I knew he would come home from work in pain, exhausted, but he was doing it all for his kids. As I was growing up and noticing these things about them, I began to admire them and loved how

I was born very early and had teenage parents who did not really have their life together at that time. My parents were both high school dropouts. My dad dropped out because school was not for him and he just wanted to work and get money and my mom dropped out because school was not for her also and she was pregnant with me and did not want to deal with school. My dad worked everyday to keep our family moving and my mom just stayed at my grandmas house with me because obviously she had to take care of me. So we were living by paycheck to paycheck. One year later my sister was born and two years later after that my other sister was born. Since my parents really did not have that much money to get our own place we would live at my grandmas house to my papa’s house but at times we would have to camp out at the beach because we had no other choice. When we would live at the beach I would think that we were just camping for fun but I did not realize that we did not have any place to stay. My parents clothed me and my sisters, provided food for us, but we did not have a house over our head. So

April 13, 2010 was the day that my life had completely changed. My dad came home from a long day at work and had some excited news, at least that’s what he said. I remember when my dad walked into the house and told my mom the news first, I will never forget the look on her face. My siblings and I knew the news could not possibly be good by my mom 's expression. My dad told my brothers and I that we are moving to California because he had received a promotion. We had lived in Georgia for seven years of my life. I was so familiar with the land and every Sunday my family and I would go to the mall. We would eat ice cream, go shopping and later watch a movie. We lived in a gated community and they were like my second family. I was very distraught when my father had told me the “good” news. I had to leave my friends, family, and all of my memories in Georgia.

Growing up as a military brat wasn't easy, there were many places we had to go to and we didn't have a choice. One of those places was here ,Illinois, and I was ten when we made the move here.This move was probably the hardest thing I have ever physically gone through considering all of my mom and I's stuff was lost in the ocean because the place we moved from was Hawaii.So, when we got here me and mom both didn't have our stuff but the rest of my family did.To make matters worse my dad was being shipped out to South Korea and we didn't have a house. For a whole year we were homeless,we put what was left of our stuff into storage and moved in with grandma. As terrible as that year was, it taught me a lot about what some people actually live

In my life there have been many personal challenges I've had to deal with. Many of these challenges circulate around my movement with my mother as we've been all over the United States as her job wasn't as stable five years ago as it has become recently. We lived in Iowa for four years, 1,000 miles away from my father and the house I grew up in. We became two separate households. I knew, most of all, it would be a strain on my parents, who would only get to see each other on holidays or whenever they could scrounge up enough money for the journey.

I considered just simply taking the zero on this assignment and walking away. I do not enjoy talking about my childhood; my life growing up was very different than anyone else I knew. I am twenty-four year old woman; I am married to my best friend, Jeremiah and we have an eight month old son named John. Jeremiah and I have been together for eight years, but have not even been married for one whole year yet. I was born and raised in Cedar Rapids, Iowa where I met my husband in 2006. To Begin with my childhood though, I need to say that my family is very complicated; I will try to make everything clear and in chronological order. My mother and father were never married, yet they maintained a very unusual relationship up until my mother married my step-father Jim in 2003. My mother Tish, was married before she met my father, at which time she took her husband’s last name Gerlach. My mother had my oldest sister about nine years before I was thought of. My mother and father, Alan, had me in January of 1990. My mother refused to marry my father, when I asked why years later they both have different reasons for her saying no so I am still not sure the real reason. My Dad ended up starting a family of his own a year later with his new wife Cathy. I have three half-sisters; my oldest sister Kandis Gerlach is from my Moms first marriage, I have the same last name as Kandis and at the time

Born in 1931, my mother’s birthplace, Missouri. Coincidental moment brought my parents together, my father’s sister happens to be dating a mutual friend of my mother’s family that is how she eventually met my father, thereafter they were married in Kentucky. Calling a Taxi, my father paid their way across the county line to marry, being that my mother was under the age of seventeen; the legal age to marry in Kentucky is sixteen. Come to find out after they tied the knot the church burned down, the pastor died, and the taxi driver was shot and killed by the sheriff in town; that is a terrible omen in my

At the age of thirteen, my life was in a huge rough patch, to say the least. My parents were divorcing, which alone is a lot, but there was more on top of it as my family was in huge debt, my mother wasn't working so she could take care of my brother with special needs, and our house ended up in foreclosure. We were financially in dire straights, I can recall a night while during a heavy downpour my mother attempted to sell old clothes at a consignment store so we could at least have some money for groceries, we only could muster up twenty dollars for that whole week. As my parents split up, and we moved in with my grandmother, I began to learn to not take things for granted, and while I did lots of volunteering and such in the past to feed

When I was a kid, school for me was waking up early in the morning. I also have to study a lot in school, then after school I have to do homework. I remember my first day at school. My mom and dad, both were so happy and prepared but I was so nervous and cheerless. I didn’t like to wake up early in the morning for school , but as time flew by I started loving school which made me wake up with energy instead of tiredness. I began to enjoy the school as I made new friends and I got to know how it is like when you meet people out of your neighborhood. With my friends I had lunch together and study together. I started to understand what the purpose of the education system. Based on what I understood I think the purpose of education is really aimed at helping students get to the point where they can learn to be on their own. In this journey of education I had a lot of positive and few negative experiences,but the negative experiences also helped me growing. Positive experiences are my teachers helping me improve, and I improved more when I moved to the United States.

I began my journey of writing on May 7, 2017 when I began taking English 1301 at Texas State Technical College. When entering the course, I did not feel that the course was relevant to complete my educational journey. Writing was not one of my strongest points, so this journey was a difficult one. During the course I learned how to better prepare myself for writing and composing assignments, how to construct an outline, proper sentence structure, and punctuation. I feel this journey will better prepare me for continuing my education and help me to communicate better as a professional.