Personal Narrative: My First Semester Of College

The last semester was a very challenging semester for me emotionally, physically, and mentally. I had recently had a change in my relationship status and was left alone to pay all the bills. The full-time schedule made it difficult for me to pick up hours at work. Being a single mother of three children, this had devastating consequences on my family financially. By mid-semester I was forced to work third shift and weekends to try to compensate for the wages I was losing. This dramatically

After graduating high school I began taking classes at Austin Community College. Focusing more on my business and marketing classes, working as a manager at Ashley Furniture Homestore this allowed me to use what I was learning in the classroom and incorporate these skills into the work environment. Over my time at Austin Community College, the classes were becoming harder to fill many of my classes were dropped or the Dean of marketing substituting many of my courses for other courses. I became Frustrated with this process and decided to finish my certification in marketing and return to college at a later time. Following graduating Austin Community College I became sick and was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. This diagnosis had an enormous

Surgery used to remove fluid, tissue, or bone fragments, or to stabilize fractured vertebrae by fusing bones or inserting hardware has also proven to be one of the most thorough measures to prevent further harm. I received both of these treatments after my accident, and they are the same that have been used for the past decade. Until recently, doctors had no way of limiting such disabilities, aside from stabilizing the cord to prevent added destruction, treating infections, and prescribing rehabilitative therapy to maximize any remaining capabilities.

I lost my financial aid because my grades did not meet up to the Satisfactory Academic Progress that the school requires. What happened was, there were only two available options for the MATH 152 class during the Summer Quarter of 2015. I chose the night class because the morning class was taught by a teacher I didn't prefer. However, the night class was only two days a week for 3 hours straight. Because of my naivety, I assumed that I wouldn't have any problems with the set up. Around this time, however, was Ramadan, which suspended me from concentration within the class, heavily effecting my scores on tests. Besides this, my grandfather, whom I loved and cherished, had just passed away the month before, on May 17, 2015, requiring 40 days

Several MRI’s and CAT scans were performed. The doctors diagnosed that her fracture never did fully heal. The doctors were unconcerned with paralysis since the fracture was old and just treated the pain. Lynne faced both physiological as well as psychological battles from her injury and the problems that came with it. She struggled with her identity from in her family, as a mother, to also her identity in her career. Since her pain was so excruciating at times, she separated herself from those closest to her, and became a hermit for periods of time. She experimented with every drug regimen the doctors prescribed. She even tried marijuana. Some doctors suggested nerve blocks to lessen the pain. As doctors tried to find what was causing the severity of her pain more tests were run. After some blood work was done they found she was very deficient in her nutrients and vitamins. Doctors could not decide, what the primary factor in causing this new onset of pain was. It was undetermined if the pain was caused by physiological or psychological. In a search for a doctor to fix her she met a neurosurgeon that suggested they could try spinal fusion. When the spinal fusion did not reduce the pain, more narcotics were given. The struggle with drugs prescribed, the side effects and knowing which ones were actually helping was a constant battle. She sought every effort to heal herself from

During the summer of 2015 I took an online theatre class in hopes of raising my GPA , while taking the class I was an orientation leader on campus and gladly gave back to SFA. However towards the end of summer one I was dropped from the course for financial aid reasons, there was a mistake in my paperwork concerning my tax status. This issue caused me to miss

My first year of graduate school involved a lot of design courses, focusing predominantly on advanced mathematical design methods, system design/optimization and safety procedures for the same and I genuinely owe a lot to Dr. Schuller for how effortlessly I was able to navigate them. I remember sitting in class and approaching it as more of a review while a lot of students were being introduced to it for the first time. The material Dr. Schuller covered during our senior capstone has comfortably taken me through graduate level coursework, and I am eternally grateful for that.

Dustin, you brought up a good point about “home life being a challenge that children face in the classroom today.” I, myself, almost dropped out of college, during my last semester of Undergraduate school, due to my father being diagnosed with Pancreatic cancer. I was a 1,000 miles away from him, rarely got to see him, and just thought that I needed to be home with my dad instead of in school. I thought to myself that he was more important than school. What if I don’t get to say goodbye! How would his last moments be? As all of these things filled my head, I became tempted to let go. To dropout, go home, and not look back, but I didn’t! I stayed there even though my heart was at home. I loved my father very much and knew how much he

As my final semester of college approached, I was faced with an essential decision pertaining to the classes I should enroll in. Despite only being required to take three courses, my financial status allowed me the flexibility to take an extra elective. After thoroughly comparing all my options, I was able to narrow my choices down to three electives: “Elec A”, “Elec B”, and “Elec C”. As in everyday life, applying economic decision-making principles to my final decision helped me arrive at the most beneficial plan of action. Specifically, the application of two economic decision making principles: the examination of the opportunity cost of each course and the trade-offs I faced helped me in coming to the conclusion that I would be benefiting the most from choosing to enroll in “Elec B”.

We arrived at the hospital a short drive later, I was taken into an examination room where I was told that I would be given a CT scan but until that point the neck brace had to stay on since the doctor and nurses could not be sure If did or did not have a head injury. I waited for what seemed like hours, still in the brace and extremely uncomfortable and impatient. I learned that my friends were safe and my girlfriend needed some stitches in her ear. I really just wanted to go home. It had been hours since I decided to leave for dinner and I was still hungry. My injuries were miniscule despite getting hit by a truck. There was a small cut on my arm that they sealed with some derma glue, which gave me the small scar I have on my arm today, and a large phallic shaped bruise on my thigh that would later shed a comedic relief for what could have been a tragedy. Other than that, despite being sore, I was incredibly lucky I had no major injuries and my scan came back normal.

Coming into this course I did not know what to expect. I have token English before but never within this amount of time. I feel the pressure to do my best during these next few weeks. I believe this will be a great learning experience. I hope to become a better writer as well as manage my time a bit wiser.

Tuesday was my first day in my placement. I was nervous about going to State College, so I left an hour and a half earlier just in case there would be a lot of traffic. The drive was not too bad, but my GPS took me to the middle school instead of the elementary school. Eventually, I figured out where I needed to go and the day was good after that!

In the summer of 2015, I was enrolled at The University of Phoenix to start the summer program. Due to my mother having a terrible car accident, I pushed back my enrollment date since the car accident left my mother unable to walk. Not only that, I was left with the responsibility and care of my two younger siblings who have cerebral palsy. I called and talked with admissions and they pushed back the date for me to start school, after a couple of weeks passed I received a call from the school telling me I would loose my funding for school and it was important that I started on the next starting date. The following start date arrived and I started school every week I received a call from a adviser if I didn’t sign on to

grades took the hit. The semester of fall 2014 was far and beyond my worst. I was

This past year has made it impossible for me to complete my course requirements for my programs and the reason I am having to request additional funding for the fall of 2018. During summer school in Amsterdam I also had technical aids stolen from me which increase stress and anxiety due to no longer having resources the previously helped me do my course work. My total loss was valued at $2,300 which included my computer, a program I depend on as a dyslexic, a recording device that let me listening to the class in order to dictate notes more