Personal Narrative: To Grow, I Must Change

Overall, my first semester has been going pretty well. The semester is going like a roller coaster up, down, and fast. I have some bad days and some good days. Through this semester, I have many challenges I faced which I honestly did not want to face. Even though I just wanted to dodge or run away from the challenges, I still face them and fought through them. Some challenges I face this semester, hopefully not in the next, are procrastination, time management, and laziness. I have not only gone through challenges; I have also gone through successes. I am proud of turning assignments on time, passing tests and quizzes, completing my SCR points, and being involved in clubs. Being in Biomed has helped me grow as a student in the area of knowledge.

Everything that I have attained in the past helped define who I am today. Everything I have gone through and have done in the previous years of my life molded me into the person I am today. Not only have they shaped me into who I am; but also guided me in discovering the potentials I did not realize that I had. Without the challenges and hardships of the past, I know that I would not be who I am today.

Starting over. Those two simple words pretty much sum up where I am at in my life at the moment. I am a 34 year old mother of three. I have never been to college. My husband just recently left me. It has been a whirlwind summer to say the least, but before I get into what brought me back to school, I'll start at the beginning. I was born in FL., and quite literally spent all my time either at the beach or running bare foot on my grandparents farm. I loved every second. Shortly after I turned 8 my mom met my step-dad, and we were quickly headed on our first big adventure, moving to Texas! While I missed my family in FL., I can not tell you enough how happy I was that my mom married my dad. He has been a rock and solid foundation for me my whole

It was a typical Sunday morning, I ate breakfast with my family and got ready for church. The morning went on with a drag, than 5 o’clock hit. Once 5 o’clock hit my mother started yelling at my sister and me to get our stuff packed and into the car. We had only a few hours before my final summer of upward bound started. Since I started my senior year I’d been remembering many moments of my past and been reflecting on them. Therefore as I began to pack, it didn’t seem strange to me as I started to flash back to what had gotten me into Upward Bound in the first place.

Prior to undergraduate and graduate school, the repercussions of academic misconduct were not a deterrent to me. The consequences of plagiarizing were not clear and concise in High School. I was a poor, intelligent kid living in an environment where fashion and economic class established one’s social status. I wanted to fit in. I was so obsessed with fitting in, that I used my academic gifts to promote academic misconduct. My peers had academic weakness. Theses weakness’ included, lack of confidence in their work, lack of preparation and lack of motivation. I exploited the areas of weakness of my peers for my personal gain.

I will be the first to admit that I am—extremely—far from perfection. Throughout my seventeen years of existence, I have faced my fair share of challenging experiences and have handled these experiences with an abundance of different attitudes, or mindsets. Over the years, I have found myself in sticky situations, but have never put much thought into how my overall mindset has helped me get through each circumstance I encounter—until now. Carol Dweck, in her inspirational manuscript Mindset, discusses the disadvantages towards a fixed mindset, and the lasting advantages towards a growth mindset.

Change is the constant thing in the world. From infancy till now many dramatic changes take place in my life physically, mentally, emotionally, psychologically intellectually etc.

Growing up is very difficult. It takes time and responsibility that I thought I had. This summer I quickly realized that becoming an adult is not as easy as a person may think. I had to travel to Oxford for a day by myself, and I learned several lessons such as: always pay attention while driving, make sure to park in appropriate places, and be very cautious while driving in the rain.

The saying goes “Change is what makes the world go round”. Well, my world would move much smoother if I got rid of a few things. Table condiments, meatloaf and roller chairs have got to go! My world would be a better place if these items didn’t exist!

As I sat down to write how I have improved and what my weaknesses are it took forever for anything to come to mind. I kept thinking, “Well I did improve on this, but I would still consider it a weakness.” I was staring at my blank page on my laptop and my outline I did not come with any ideas. I excel at writing, and punctuation; however, I struggle in writing a thesis, comma splices, and word choices.

I remember a past experience that has influenced me to how I am today. I used to be afraid of heights until I went on an airplane. It had been my first time to ride an airplane and be in the air. When I first stepped on the plane I was very shaky about going. When the plane began to take off from the airport I was very nervous. We were up in the sky and I wanted to be back on the ground in a few minutes. It took a few hours. When we landed in Georgia we got off the plane and got our items.

High school. The place where your supposed to find yourself, determine who you are and who you want to be. Some people take this opportunity for good and some take it for granted. Those who abuse this opportunity end up broken and lost and they never find their true self’s till they have lost everything they ever thought they had.

I unzipped my coat as I stepped into the warm basement. I crinkle my nose as the bitter smell of alcohol hits it. I feel like I should be used to it by now, I go to concerts at least once a month. We walk over to the small table overflowing with merchandise. It’s a tradition to by the opening bands CD.

I would say distraction was one of the challenges I had to overcome to get where I am today. My friends, relationships, staying up late, watching television or doing something else rather than doing my work, would always back track me even if I thought “I’ll be okay” and just catch back up; it’s not that easy. I use to focus so much on other people in my life, I’d forget about myself and what’s best for me. When I was in the middle school, I would get so distracted by my cell phone, my mom would have a restriction on it so that I couldn’t send or receive text within school hours. Nevertheless, I didn’t understand, but now I see where it could hurt my grades.

Every morning we would be waken up by 7 AM. Breakfast was served by 7:30, and we had to have our lunches made before breakfast.