Personal Narrative: Life After College

Returning to college, after graduating high school twenty-five years earlier, proved to be not only rewarding quite challenging as well. Viewing myself as a self-starter with extensive investigative skills I truly believed college path mapped out correctly, so I never met with an advisor, what a colossal mistake! I had self-scheduled all my courses and although I faced a few obstacles I was finally at the end. After completion of all my pre-requisites I applied to the LPN-RN Fast Track Program, little did I know my past would stop me dead in my tracks.

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.

It was an warm sunny day I was dabbing it ,four boys were strolling down woods street. There four boys names were Mac,dope boy ,devin and Shaddy. Devin was the smartest one out of all of them hood boys,the rest was the same.Devin was ready to start his own business selling shoes.Dope boy,Mac and Shaddy were going on the wrong path selling drugs,robbing and beating up people. Devin would hang around with them often and conversed with them, but he would not do any bad things. Mac has been a dad already, he had to take care of his 2 year old. Dope boy had an older brother, but, he go shoot a couple weeks ago. Dope boy was reckless, everyone was scared of him even his own mother feared for his life .Shaddy was the slickest one out of all of then, he would get away with everything he did.Shaddy was a only child ,no mother, no father living with his grandparents and living in the worst part of town.

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

Looking back at my high school years I would say it was not easy. I was not the person I am today, I was careless and dull. I wasn't concerned about my standards or entity. The start of high school is the most critical year that will set your GPA for the future. Raising your GPA will not be an easy thing to do. As for me I had started out with a moderate GPA, but throughout the rest of my high school years I had to work very hard to bring it back up.

When I was five years old, all of my friends were starting Kindergarten. My mom was trying to decide if I would be too; so I told her I was going too. I think that was the beginning of being outspoken and saying what I thought.

\Mostly, the world went by so, so slowly. It took everyone ages to get even a simple sentence out. They all walked like they had nowhere they could need to be, and every time they ate it was a whole big production. Then they all conked out for eight hours a night-- just had to check out and bid the world a fond farewell. Peter found it much more efficient to take quick naps throughout the day, mostly between people saying "um" and the eternity until the next word. This left him free for a bit of late night sight-seeing. Something about the dark made people believe no one else could possibly be watching.

As I walk through the revolving doors at the airport in my hometown, I feel the anxiety begin to spread through my body. I have never been away from my parents for more than a couple days. How am I supposed to go nearly two weeks without them in another country? I greet my classmates, and we check in our luggage at the counter. The agent hands me three boarding passes one for each of the flights I will board today. When I check to make sure they are correct, it finally sinks in, ‘I am on my way to Costa Rica.’ As the final member of our group finishes with the agent, I hug my mother goodbye and step into line to go through security. It is time for me to be responsible for myself.

I have no idea how this all started. Seriously. Some people call me some sort of wonder boy. Others say that I had this big, hairy plan. Nope. It all started like this…

I think we should all have a chance to go to school and be professionals and study what we want to. There is a lot of people that didn’t get a chance to go to college after high school for personal reasons. They should have programs that help kids to finish school. With money living and other things sometimes financial aid it’s not enough so most of them are forced to work and they end up not going to school. Now there parents and they have to work to pay for house and food and other things. Half of my friends didn’t go to college after they graduated high school, and some of them didn’t even finish high school.

As soon as I got to high school, everyone started asking me what I wanted to do after high school and what my goals were. What high school freshman knows what they want to do with their life? Very few, and I wasn’t one of them. I always knew that I would probably do something in the health field, partly because that’s what my dad did, but also because I’ve always had a heart for helping people, especially children. It wasn’t, however, until Junior year when I got my first job that I knew what I wanted to pursue as a career. Now before I go into what that career choice is and why, there is something which the reader must understand. My dad went to college and got his Master’s degree, my mom only had her high school diploma. Both of my parents agreed that all of their children should go to college, so for me the question wasn’t “should I go to college?”, but rather, “where should I go, what should I do, and how will I stay out of debt?”

“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

I was given a life sentence at the age of seventeen. Since I was a freshman in highschool I have had plans to attend college after high school. I realized that I was an average student but I always tried hard in school hoping to one day impress the admissions board of a college I hoped to attend. I took classes in highschool that were completely out of my comfort zone in hopes to figure out what I would do with my life after high school. During junior year I was put into a web design class that submerged me into what seemed like another universe, the cyber world. I even learned a new language, program coding and how to design websites. I was fascinated and I would spend hours on end learning this new language. Soon I decided that I wanted to

On a regular school day, in my writing class, our writing teacher told us that we had an assignment to do. But it was a challenge. Our assignment was that we had to write an 1000 word essay about how and after our high school years is gonna be. Whether it's gonna be good or bad. But he wasn't done explaining, he also said "whoever has the best essay, will win the scholarship. The winner will be announced at the promotion. Good luck to all of you and you may begin writing." While everybody was writing, i just sat there. I didn't want to write an 1000 word essay. Are you nuts? But i had no choice but to write the darn essay.

Walk up the cold steps. My heart beating exhausting, fast, feeling like It’s close to leap out of my chest.I don’t wish to be here, why am I here. I may gyrate straight away, GO! GO! GO! The thought goes through my head. Panic fleeing going through each of my nerves in my body. My senses strain, each sensation raised multiple.