Personal Narrative: If I Wasn T In College

Returning to college has been a prodigious challenge. One in which I determined I would meet head on with resolution. As a fine arts student I was fortunate to find a mentor in the Paradise Valley Community College Theater Director, Andrea Robertson. Andrea perceived potential in me and encouraged pursuit my goals as a writer/director. I took the initiative to approach Andrea with the idea to write and direct my own play in the Advanced Directing course. This past fall that idea came into fruition. As a director I oversaw numerous different areas in the production of my play. These were roles filled by fellow students, allowing the opportunity to provide guidance and leadership to peers. I worked with actors, stage management, set design, prop

I always believed that things would just work out in the end. That I did not need to be wrapped up in over complicated situations because they would unravel themselves. I had this idea that I would grow up, go to college, and then get a job. My older brother Joseph had a similar idea. He started at the University of Dayton in August of 2015, but decided to come back home to our house in Bucks County at the end of October in 2015. His simple decision of “college wasn’t for me” had single handedly ripped me from my cozy reality that “everything works out” and had pitted my family against one another.

It’s never too late. These are words I whole heartedly believe. A year and a half ago I decided to go back school to study nursing. Coincidentally, a week after I enrolled in classes I found out I was ten weeks pregnant. As any woman would I had my doubts about whether I could handle going to school and now being pregnant. But then I thought, I now had even more of a reason to go back. I would soon have a child who would be looking up to me. I wanted to be able to set a good example for them. I started attending classes in the fall as a part time student. Considering I had not been in school for over ten years the transition was a lot easier than I had thought it would be. My teachers were nice as well as my classmates. I finished a semester

they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please

I slowly cut the heart out of the folded paper and held it up to the light. The edges were jagged and uneven; I tossed it in my growing pile of scrap paper. My hands were stained with marker and my hair was covered in glitter. It was bedtime and I was not even halfway done with the valentines for my third-grade class. I wanted my cards to look great- better than store-bought. I was so frustrated that tears welled in my eyes. The next morning, defeated, I went to CVS with my mom to buy cards. Everyone liked the Kit-Kat bars taped to the backs.

I grew up in a family that grew up in Agoura Hills, my mom, two uncles, aunt, and brother all went to Agoura High School and my grandpa is really involved in the community with the high school football team, AYSO, and pony league baseball. My brother is two grades above me and I had all of his teachers throughout elementary and middle school, even now i have some of his old art teachers. I was constantly referred to as his little sister and i really struggled with identity issues because of that. As much as I love art I couldn't really enjoy it because I felt pressured into it and I knew i would never be as good as my brother, as one of his ceramics teachers put it, “he is one of the top 1% of artists to come through this school.” I was so tired of always just being someone's daughter or niece or granddaughter and sister. I wanted to establish a place for me and be myself and sports medicine ended up being the answer to that.

I am an out of state student, who is paying for college with help from my parents. Due to my current living situation, any college that has a Pharmacy program is expensive, because none of the state universities in Massachusetts offers one. I absolutely love what I do, and I simply wish it was not as much of a financial burden as it is.

I look back at how I write. I actually changed my way after I get into college. When I was in high school, we don’t have writing class, the writing is combined with Chinese class. So we might just take 2 or 3 times writing class each semester. In the writing class, teacher taught us how to write, how to generate our idea. But except writing class we are asked for write, the only writing we need to do is for the exam. In the writing class, I would give some time to think about what I’m going to write, maybe I would write a outline. But for the exam, I don’t have time to do that. The writing part take 40 percent of the grade, but the time we got is depend on how fast we can finish the other parts of the exam. When I finish other parts of the

1. What experience do you like talking about the most? What has been the most interesting, intriguing, and exciting part of your life- why, and what did you learn from it?

Who would have known I would come back to college? After all, my first semester in college was not all that bad. I entailed some stressors along the way, but I completed my first semester. Gracefully I passed all of my classes. I knew from then on that I can accomplish what I think I cannot, college was one of many.

I have defiantly not had a normal or a comfortable life. I have lived in RVs and cars on the streets of NE Portland, been homeless twice and I have left the country on multiple occasions cause of my family financial situation. As recent as two years ago I was in Central America and Southern Mexico looking for a safe and decent place to survive in. I missed a year of school. Currently, I live in a leaky, moldy, single-wide trailer home in Rockwood Neighborhood in Gresham. My parents are divorced; my dad, who I live with, is unemployed, has health issues, and has no formal education. So I provide for him and myself.

As I look through my younger friends Snapchat stories I see videos from college. I contemplate whether that was the best time of my life. Was college my “glory days”? I quickly speculate that it is and I grab my keys and I head to the train station. You see today my friend from California named Emma is visiting. Once I pick her up I share my revelation with her and she opposes my idea. She states that college was a great time for her but she loves to evolve and grow. After I pick up Emma we go to the Ramapo Reservation and we start hiking. Once we get to the waterfall we relax and take in all the beauty that nature has to offer. Emma states that although college was fun it was a stressful time and she was not able to

If I got put in Augusts shoes on costume day.I would go confront the kids that said the mean things about me.Then go fake a sickness or injury so I could get checked out.Then I would go trick or treating right after school so I didn't see the kids that talked bad about me.So when I got to my house no one messed with me. The next day I got out of going to school because I said I was sick and hurting from yesterday.Sense they didn't know what really happened because I thought Jack Will was my friend but Mr.Tushman told him to stick around me.So when that happened I remembered the other friends I had like Summer which was acutally my friend sense Jack Will was not really my my friend.

College has obstacles; however, I hear adults claiming our age group ought to enjoy this time of our lives, but the adults make me question “why?” I wonder “what makes this time so great.” Personally, I look forward to the time after college when I start my career. I know the “real world” has obstacles, but with a completed education I will not have to worry about classes, loads of homework, and work. In the “real world,” I will have responsibilities, yet the opportunity to work in the career I love.

White walls reach towards me, greeting my nose with dying bodies from left to right. For the past six years, life outside of school was a broken record playing the same sad song, "she's have another seizure", "call 911", "she's sick again", and "he's sick now." As I entered the seventh grade, my family entered an ever-evolving world of crisis: brain tumors, uterine cysts, cancer scares, strokes, ...illness after illness. What first seemed like a difficult but singular challenge that would start and end with the seventh grade grew into something unimaginable -- a series of medical hardships for my entire middle and high school career.