Personal Narrative: How Graduation Changed My Life

Throughout the years, I have grown and matured as a student, and a person. I have had several experiences which have shaped me into who I am and also shaped my values. I value family. As a senior in highschool, I had a lot of things on my shoulders. I needed to pick a college, a major, pretty much figure out my entire life in a matter of nine months. Many students had their family to fall back on when they needed support, I however, did not. My parents both had jobs that would take them away during the week. I would be home alone, taking care of the dogs, the house and myself while they were gone. It was very hard at first and I struggled. I was use to coming home and talking about whatever happened that day at school and practice, or something

Sophomore year was extremely difficult for me. You know how most people go through a rough patch at some point in their life? Well, that was me all of Sophomore year, everything just seemed too big and scary to deal with, and so I basically put everything off. The guidance counselors always use to say when we were going into high school that we would need to stay on top of things before they started to pile up. I just thought that they were just being dramatic to try and scare us into doing our work, but they really weren’t. By the time I realized this, however, it was a little too late, and I was faced with two options; attend summer school to regain the credit that I had lost, or face my peers when school started up again and be two credits

High school is known for the place where people find themselves; figure out who they are as people. I thought I'd not change much at all as I came into this new school. All I knew was that I would change my likings as I grew older, but not as much as happened. I use to be a shy follower of a group of friends that I had. I also was a slacker; just doing enough work to get by my parent's rage over my terrible grades.

i. Upon entering college, I thought that you had to have a majority of your life planned out. You had to have a career of interest, an intended major, and a solid plan for after college. Little did I know, you didn’t need your whole life agenda prearranged after high school graduation. A lot of people say that college is a time to explore and find yourself, and that was something I never fully grasped until I was enrolled at Western Washington University. Throughout my first year and a quarter, I’ve had the ability to take classes in many different fields of study ranging from; humanities, lab sciences, multicultural studies, and many more. Even though these array of different classes were taken for General University Requirements, it allowed

“Tomás, what school do you want to go to this fall" my mother Martha, said to me. This along with the many “Hey, where are you going this fall? Want to room together at Ole Miss?” forced me to think about my impending future after my high school experience. Being from Mississippi I was not an Aggie from birth, my mother attended the University of Texas makes hissing noises* and my father, Thomas Braly Jr., attended a little school on Mackinac Island that ceased to exist only 4 years after opening. So with little to no major direction or fixed plans for my future I went with what I know and love, the water. All of the schools I applied and got accepted to had a sailing team or had maritime related courses, but Texas A&M here at Galveston just seemed to work

My Senior Capstone Experience revolves around my internship at NanoLumens, Inc. My daily functions vary from assisting with chromaticity, brightness, and thermal measurements to repairing and soldering individual LEDs to extensively researching viewing angles in order to improve upon the appearance and sales of LED displays. Because of the large

One day you’re gonna hear about my sucsess at the Olympics. This essay will provide information on my life as a grade nine student. Firstly, I will provide basic information about who I am. After that I’ll explian my phisical attributes such as height and facial characteristics. Leading up to the end of my essay I plan to inform you of some of my hobbies and maybe even a few things I have experienced in my life so far.

I saw it. I saw as they drove into the peaceful grape fields that could be seen from any direction as the scorching sun burned our skin. I worked in those fields for eleven hours everyday with my parents. The peace was interrupted when the fields where invaded by white

The first day of classes had arrived and I felt as if I was the lost puppy in a big campus. I had no idea what I was about to endure, when it came to transitioning. I was in the process of making the transition of high school graduate to college student. I had chosen to take my first writing class of the school year, wanting to rip it off like a band aid. I had previously come to the decision that it was not one of my strong subjects, but had the hope I would improve. I walked into my first class of that Monday morning and sat down in front one of the many computers surrounding the walls. I then see a woman enter who appears to be around the age of her 40’s. She came in with a bright smile and a coffee mug in her hand. She came ready to teach and I was anxiously ready to learn.

The decision to return to college after a twenty year hiatus was a very intimidating one. Not only was I twenty years out of school and my study habits and routine long forgotten, but the world itself had changed enormously in terms of technology and everyday procedures. There were no such things as PC’s cell phones and yes the Internet back in the 1980’s. Having evolved with this technology made my return to college that much easier, yet I was still very apprehensive regarding the uncertainty of my success. I made the decision in an intuitive manner at this point and jumped in feet first not knowing what to expect and relying on my intelligence to get me through. The first semester I took extremely serious and managed to become a rational/linear

Half way through my senior year I sat in class worrying because I had no clue what I was going to do after high school. Every other week my major changed, and I was confused as to what was the right path for me. Eventually I sat myself down and made a list of my strengths and weaknesses to assist me in discovering my future. Sadly it took me until almost the end of the year to discover what I wanted to do.

Life After College The fact that there is life after school is honestly a little terrifying. Since the age of six we have been put in school and that is all we have known, but come college graduation we are all thrown out in the real world. We are expected to immediately go out and get a job, start a family and grow up. While this thought is a little scary I am very excited to go on this journey. From college on I hope to thrive in college, become a great teacher, create a family and be financially stable.

In regards to what I have done to strengthen my situation during my transition into college, I would admit that I have not sought advice from anyone. I have never really been someone to ask for help let alone for advice. I definitely have tried to take optimistic actions to assert myself. Never have I been someone to just sit back and quietly accept things as they are. I like to voice my own opinion and to have a say in events that involve me. If I am having trouble I prefer to know why that is even if I do not end up doing anything to change it. I have reframed this transition by viewing as a way to grow and learn how to accept and handle more responsibility than I ever have before now. Instead of viewing college as just more work to stress

My Graduation Portfolio High school has been a highly interesting experience for me. I have learned a lot about my personal qualities, such as my strengths and weaknesses, and my work habits and attitudes. High school has taught me many things, both academically and emotionally. It has definitely had its highs

Although it may sound as though my high school years changed me for the worse, there was one experience during those years that changed my life forever. In grade 10 I signed up for a cooperative education experience in a fitness facility at the Jewish Community Centre (JCC). My first week