Personal Narrative: My Personal, Professional And Educational Challenges

Over my years of school, one big influence on me has always been sports. Ever since a young age, I have always enjoyed playing and watching sports. In my four years in high school, I have fell in love with the sport of lacrosse.

Throughout my educational experience I noticed the discrepancies with regard to the advantages my peers possessed. In high school as I began exploring what career I wished to pursue, I experienced inferiority as my classmates who’ve taken the ACT three times, visited college campuses, and have had resumes ready since the 6th grade unintentionally mocked my lack of college-readiness. However, my ignorance wasn’t intentional, my parents never reached a high school education in Mexico, they couldn’t pass down SAT tips or acquire internship opportunities for me. I realized it's vital to pick up the pace to avoid being left in the dust akin to countless others in my situation. Henceforth, this statement resonates with my experience, I interpreted

I woke up and took one bite out of my pop tart but that one bite was all I could eat. My legs were shaking, and my heart was pounding. My dad told me, “It is a true honor to even make it this far so go out there and have some fun.” Once I heard this statement, I knew I was ready to go. I arrived at school and boarded the bus. The car ride was an hour and fifteen minutes of hearing the squeaking of the wheel on the bus. My teammates were getting their heads ready for the big game.

1. The 2nd case study made me reflect on my first head coaching job in football. I was hired by a school in south Texas with the help of a friend I coached with in Oklahoma. He had moved back to his hometown and started teaching and coaching at his high school. He contacted me about the opening and two months later I was hired. I hired him to be one of my assistants and even made sure that he was paid well as a thank you. I was very disappointed with the way he coached that year. I had already make arrangements to move him to a non-coaching position for the next season. I realize I never spoke with him about my expectations or made him aware of how I felt during the season. I identity with Dr. Skinner is some regards. I was caught up in the other aspects of teaching, coaching, and AD duties, I neglected to take care of that issue. I understand that it is OK to hire a trusted colleague or friend but the expectations of them should not be any different of anyone else.

In the previous years, I have made the decision to work concurrently with my education. I have been working as a waitress in a local restaurant for years. My parents were opposed to my working since they wanted me to focus on my grades, but I wanted to lessen the financial burden for them. Both of my parents never received an education and they wanted me to solely focus on school to secure myself a better future despite our poverty.

I have two major obstacles that I have overcome in my last three years of school. My first major obstacle is being able to graduate early, I’ll be the first student at Sheyenne to graduate in three years instead of four. It took a lot of hard work and focus, but with the help that I got from my teachers, I was able to do what I needed. I did two summers of summer school, and worked really hard on completing my all my history online. My second obstacle is getting my CNA licenses. It took a very long time, because I have a lot of testing anxiety. The two years I took getting my license was worth it all in the end, because I got to learn and practice new information. During the process I did give up on myself because I couldn’t pass the test,

As an adult student at Colorado Christian I'm proud to say that I never thought of even continuing my education. Only due to the fact that I have a child and a full time job. Finding out that I was able to pursue my education online is the next best thing thats ever happened to me. Understanding that I can learn from home and still be a mother has given me so much confidence. I feel like I'll have the degree I desire in absolutely no time.

Obstacles and barriers are positive reinforcements that help shape and mold individuals. Individuals face innumerable conflicts and barriers throughout their life span; some of them causes dismay, while others successfully manage to bring out the best of a person’s ability. Just like everyone who has set foot on earth, I too, have encountered obstacles. The obstacle which brought out the best in me was when I migrated to the United States and faced difficulties communicating with others.

Out of an above-average university, I expect, practically, the world, because my parents, friends and family have all brainwashed me into believing that college is this concoction made of people, money and life lessons. From my highest expectation; state of the art education—I mean education at it's finest. I'm not being sarcastic when I say that, either. It's college, therefore what I learn here has to be better than all fourteen years of grade school put together, right? From my lowest expectation; high-rate loans. I hear loans are deadly if it leaves too much debt behind, so consequently I'm working to gain a plethora of scholarships. I expect a wide range of diversity—some flavor if you will—because it's nice to see other cultures come

“The strengths for me are adaptability, restoration, individualization, empathy, and relator. Adaptability is easy for me because I don’t like confrontation. I try to just go with whatever as long as it doesn’t threaten my children or myself. Growing up I just learned to avoid bad situations. If an environment is good I deal with it. If a situation is bad I deal with that as well. Restoration is what I’m dealing with now. I need to work on restoration for myself. I do seem to have good advice for others but I lack that in some parts of my life. I need restoration with my finances. So I plan on reading books on financial planning. I have always just wanted to spend money and not save my plan is to educate myself and restore my financial situation.” (Clifton, 2006)

I began Mrs. Auston’s interview with the first background question, tell me about your educational experiences in school. Mrs. Auston responded:

When Summer came they told my mom that I wasn’t learning what I was supposed to learn. They said “you're daughter’s not learning how to read the words right, she would also mumble and not pronounce the words the correct way”. The school told my mom that if they didn’t fix this now, then I would have trouble with it for the rest of my life. So my mom asked them “what can we do to help” ? The solution that they gave her was to hold me back a grade and put me in more classes that I would need to help me improve. My mom agreed with the school to put me in the second grade again and to take extra classes that they believed would help me. By the time school started again I was in the second grade and I had to do two classes. The second class I

I believe everyone has established goals during their life. They might not write them down or even have a plan of how they will be successful, but the ultimately outcome is based on the individual and their persistent to accomplish it. One goal that I have dedicated and work so long for seems to be coming to a close, but it is a step forward in achieving my ultimate goals. Through planning and being focus anything is possible. Goals that I have established after my post-graduation consist of areas in my personal, academic and professional life. My personal goal is to continue to make every day count and see it as an opportunity for growth. For my academic goal is to obtain my Licensed in Clinical Social Work. The professional goal is not to be passive, but instead begin

my education. The last month spent at the community college in my hometown wasted my time and

My Lifetime goal are to become a well-rounded engineer and to hopefully create something new that will benefit society while keeping the environment close in mind. I plan to use everything I have used and learned throughout school. I have learned that being persistent is important, because not everything is easy to figure out on a first take. Creating new will contain a great deal of trial and error and persistence will be key to accomplish my goal. A great deal of planning is going to be required to fabricate something completely new, and school will help me be able to plan more efficiently as I plan my schedule in order to have time to study, work on assignments. My classes in school have also help me tackle challenges in different