Personal Narrative: My College Experiences

Since the start of the semster I have learned many different things about myself and how I can become a better student all around. Summer classes can fly by fast and doesn’t feel like a real semester. That it is just to get credit and move on to the next semester. That was not the case for me this summer semester because I needed to think about the rest of my college career. This summer semester is my first one coming back from academic suspension and I took last semester at South Plains College and Tarrant County College. I did really well making a 3.00 GPA overall and am most likely going to make a 3.5 this semester. This will be a huge boost to my overall GPA. The point is am at the point where I am ready to graduate and will try my hardest to get the best grades I can. I really just changed my mindset towards college and the way I prepare for tests and studying.

My community college experience has been rigorous but highly rewarding. As an international student, it was like stepping from a hill to a mountain looking out at the horizon. The sheer breadth and depth of the world are mesmerizing. I have entered into a leadership role like Phi Theta Kappa and Student Government Association (SGA), that has helped me grow as a person.

Before creating my collage, I sat down and brainstormed a list of the areas where I felt challenged during my first year of college. After I wrote down my struggles, I thought about my friends who I know are going through college or university with certain challenges. I talked with some of them about what their most significant stressor was during their first year of college/university. Once I had my list complete I went through magazines and searched online to find photos to represent all of the challenges.

Upon arriving to school one morning, I noticed two students engaged in a heated argument and heard one yell at the other to tell his "alien friends and family" to stop occupying the spaces in the school’s parking garage.

I am from a small town called Boring, Oregon. However, I have lived in five states since then. My most recent home is Arlington, Virginia. I am an Elementary Education Major. I was homeschooled until college and studied at NOVA community college for one year prior to starting at Concordia. Along with SCI 110, I am taking Art 121, EDU 199, LDR 198, MTH 133 and REL 221. Five years after college I would like to be finished with my master's degree and working full time as a 1st or 2nd-grade teacher. What makes me special is that I have moved every two years since I turned eight, that I have four older brothers, that I have been to 48 of the 50 US States. The people I grew up with and the sites I have seen

Ever since I could remember, science was the subject I enjoyed most in school. When I got into high school and people started asking, “what do you want to do when you get to college?” I never had an answer. Up until the beginning of my junior year, I always planned on studying biology and figuring out what I liked later on. College always scared me because in my group of friends I was the only one who did not have a plan after high school. I always felt like a deer in the headlights, not knowing where I am headed, until now.

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

Legacy has provided a wonderful foundation for me as a first time college student. To start, Legacy has created a cohort in its own to provide support for me and many other first time and returning college students. Before entering into college I did not have a lot of different responsibilities to take care of. My main focus was to go to high school, got to work, and go home. Starting college and especially the Legacy program has taught me more responsibility. I have been taught how to manage my time. Although, it is still a work in progress, I still have learned how to go to work, go to school, study, and take care of my responsibilities at home as well. Taking English 60/100/117 and Ethnic Studies 129 has help me everywhere from studying

The advice that changed my life was from my boss. I had been out of high school a couple of years, and, at the time, was working full time at a store in the mall. College had always been on the horizon for me, just barely out of reach. However, when I start to think back, I see what little effort I put in to try to reach college. Every time someone asked if I planned on going, I would say yes, I just needed to save up the money, brush up on a few subjects, and get my life in order. In truth though, I was just scared of going back to school. I had not done well in high school and had in fact dropped out. So, even if I had wanted to go to school I would need to take the GED test, and that was something I was not prepared to do. So month after

Throughout the rigorous society of college I’ve managed to grow and mature immensely. My first two years of college were less than perfect, but as the years went on I became better. College, like anything else in life is not easy—it is about hard work and life lessons. Sometimes, life lessons are slow in the teaching process—but you will always learn, no matter how long it takes. My grades throughout my time at New York Institute of Technology have grown like myself. I’ve transitioned from receiving horrific calculus grades to smile-worthy calculus grades—from Ds to taking both calculus 1 and 2 in the same semester, and receiving As. Additionally, I was lucky enough to take both biomedical research 1 and 2 at the same time. I was lucky enough

Most employers will not want to hire “college kids” fresh from college. It is all about experience: how much experience one has or how little experience one has. Most employers are looking for someone who already knows what they are doing, not someone who has to be taught everything. Now, there are few employers who prefer people without experience because they can be molded. Those kind of employers do not want someone with experience because they do things differently. For example, I work at Subway. My boss would rather hire new people because he can shape them into what he wants. We have had two people who worked at previous Subways, and it is harder to train them in what he likes versus what they were taught. It confuses

My goals going into college is to be the best that I can be, put forth 100 percent effort in everything that I do, work my way up to being on the Dean’s list, and become a starter basketball player for my school’s team. The goals I’ve listed was chosen because I know for a fact that I can accomplish anything that I put my mind to and also I plan on being the smartest basketball player in college that’s going to graduate with high honors. In reality I really don’t have a schedule to jungle both academic and social activities. Mainly because everything dealing with my education comes first and whenever I have free time outside of that, that’s where my extracurricular and the other things I like to do comes in and fills in the gaps. When it comes

The college process is extremely stressful and pressurizing. There barely even was an option to not go to college. Almost all the adults spent our senior year trying to convince the seniors that college is the biggest decision of your life. If you don’t go now, you will become a failure and have no job, and no future. They would then proceed to tell us that we should lean on God’s voice to guide us, but not His actual voice because then that wouldn’t be God. That there is no right way to hear from God, but plenty of wrong ways. This left my senior church group feeling overwhelmed and confused.

College was something I never thought was for me. I always thought that since my parents and brother did not attend I would not either. I hated high school more than anything; but while I was there I learned I love writing and learn about photography. I used to sit in a back hallway away from where most of the students went just to write about anything and everything I could think of until the bell rang. When I moved to Massachusetts I wanted to apply for college. I decided that even though high school was difficult I wanted to learn more. Massasoit professors as well as the students then showed me that I have talent and can make something of myself if I tried hard enough. Thanks to them and the amazing students there, I now have my associates

College was always that one thing that seemed so far away to me. My whole life I remember people talking about it and all I could think about was how it seemed so for away; that I couldn’t possibly make it that far. But lo and behold, here I am; a freshman in college. Starting college of course comes with many fears; “What if I miss a class? What if I forget to do my homework? What if I get too homesick? Am I even ready for this?”. But out of all of those minor concerns, only one really makes me worried: What if I fail at my dream? I have always wanted to be an artist. I doodled everyday, taught myself the skills and even experimented with different methods and media. So it only seemed fitting that I become an artist (An animator to be more