Self Authorship Theory

Firstly, each person’s experience with starting school is different. For me school has always been a second home to me. I like learning and experiencing new things that the school has to offer. I can honestly say that I have gained lifelong friends from my school years, as well as learned few things from the teachers. I find that what you learn and gain from going to school will always stay with you for the rest of your adult life. You reflect back and know when and where that particular skills or knowledge was learned.

School was a place where I could leave the dysfunctional atmosphere I live in and nothing took my mind off of my hardships like sports, music, and community service. To avoid the life I lived when school was over, I would learn new instruments and play different sports. I even began to participate in restoring Seattle parks every Saturday with a group called Earth Corps through a non-profit organization called Global Visionaries. I learned leadership skills and met people that changed my life for the better. I realized that there were many things I could do that would allow me to learn and give back to the community and at the same time allow me to escape from my

Self-Authorship is defined as “the internal capacity to define one’s belief, identity, and social relations” (Baxter Magolda 2016 p. 365). I was finally making more on my own decisions, having a major chosen now was more important to me than anything else. I started to question why I was going into the field of helping. Finding more about my self-helped me figure out where I wanted to transfer. I took a year off between community college and transferring. During this time, I was trying to figure out on my own, what was going to be my next step. I was trying to find myself and what I wanted to do for me and not because of what friends and family had influenced me. Taking this year off helped me reflect on my journey and my

To me, school has always been about doing my work and making good grades. I do not like school, I never have, and it is probably because that is all I ever thought about it as. Since elementary, I have made A's and B's in everything. Actually I got one C in math on my report card in seventh grade year, which really

With so much of my focus set on finding new friends, I never really thought about the academic side of school. In elementary school, I was always smart enough to never have to do anything, which as you can imagine set up fantastic studying skills. 6th grade was easy enough, but seventh grade my grades were blighted. Learning these skills was very difficult, and in fact didn't happen until way later at the end of my middle school career. I had to work very hard to maintain the A average I was used

It is hard to put into words how I feel about going back to school again. When I was younger, me and my sister looked forward to being gone school, that was fun. As I grew up, school was not fun for me anymore and I looked forward going to school less and less. Now, I am an adult and I am returning to school. I need to make my future career decision, and learning new skills can help me to achieve my goals. Education gives you confidence, life guarantee, compete with others and make your life wealth.

I detested school. Then again, I also detested being a child. I think I must’ve had a very high level of self-awareness at a young age, and I certainly didn’t appreciate being bossed around by a

I remember the beginning of my newly found interest was like a fresh of breath air; original, I know. I spent endless hours writing, and writing about whatever it may be that came to mind. It was an addiction that costed my sleep and meals. What began as a hobby to satisfy my loud mind became daily scribbles on a notebook whenever an idea popped up during class. I am as proud as proud can be of my writing alter ego because it was something that manifested when I sought out to find something in me. It’s mine, purely me in every word. Amateur I may be, but this fiery passion that burns in me every single day is what keeps me going.

The journey to self-authorship theory was researched by Marcia Baxter Magolda and is based off of three central questions that individuals in transition consider. According to Evans, Forney, Guido, Patton, and Renn (2010) the three questions are: “How do I know?” “Who am I?” and “How do I want to construct relationships with others?” (pg. 184). Baxter Magolda utilized these questions to form her Path to Self-Authorship theory, which has four phases. Each of the four phases incorporates both internal and external considerations of defining oneself (Evans et al., pg. 184). Phase 1, following formulas, is the phase in which a “young adult” (Evans et al., pg. 184) defines themselves and bases their future plans based off formulas and labels that others prescribe. Young adults in this phase are concerned with

I remember going into my freshman year of high school nervous but excited because I thought I’d learn so many new things. Next thing you know I found myself dreading school. Was I being lazy? Was it my lack of motivation? I still can’t grasp why exactly I lost that excitement or that yearning to go to school. I was raised to have the idea that school was a place to learn not socialize. But at the age of 14, what teenagers don’t want to socialize and that’s what got a hold of me. I spent too much time worrying about other things that didn’t involve my education.

Throughout middle and high school, I was never one to enjoy the academic side of school. School takes up a lot of time in your life. As children you are forced to attend school; all states passed laws stating that children must attend until a certain age. I agree that children should have to receive an education, but because of how school is conducted, children are forced to become little adults. They are intimidated into

School is like a person’s life; it just keeps changing and changing. As you grow, school gets harder, but you also get more privileges. I like more of a challenge, because it brings out the best work in me.

When I was a kid, school for me was waking up early in the morning. I also have to study a lot in school, then after school I have to do homework. I remember my first day at school. My mom and dad, both were so happy and prepared but I was so nervous and cheerless. I didn’t like to wake up early in the morning for school , but as time flew by I started loving school which made me wake up with energy instead of tiredness. I began to enjoy the school as I made new friends and I got to know how it is like when you meet people out of your neighborhood. With my friends I had lunch together and study together. I started to understand what the purpose of the education system. Based on what I understood I think the purpose of education is really aimed at helping students get to the point where they can learn to be on their own. In this journey of education I had a lot of positive and few negative experiences,but the negative experiences also helped me growing. Positive experiences are my teachers helping me improve, and I improved more when I moved to the United States.

School, to me and among many peers of my age, is not a distant term. I have spent one-third of my life time sitting in classrooms, every week since I was seven years old. After spending this much time in school, many things and experiences that happened there have left their mark in my memory. Some are small incidences while some have had a great impact on me. However, regardless the degree of significance, things that happened all contributed to shape the person that I am now.

School became a passion of mine. For the first time in my life I was more than just memories. I was a future.