The Importance Of A Person 's Quality Of Life Is Determined By The Amount Of Hard Work

Growing up, school was not a major factor in my life. I come from a hard-working, middle-class military family. My mother, a Filipino immigrant, was a homemaker. My father was a 21-year United States Marine veteran. They were my first impression of what I thought my future would be. Being the youngest of four children, I was expected to fall in line behind my siblings when it came to education. I was never pushed to excel in my studies, so I did just enough to get by. As I watched friends escape the grasp of a military town and ascend to their respective colleges, I was left wondering what was next for me. I attended my local community college for a brief period of time. I treated college no different than high school. I

I recently found a list of goals that I had written 20 years ago. Most of the goals were realistic and I was able to achieve them. While I was checking the items off my list that I accomplished, there was one that I have debated about for many years—returning to school to earn a degree. Returning to school has always been achievable; however, as each year of my life sped by and I got older, I always came up with more and more excuses as to why I should not return to school. One day I received a course catalog in the mail showing online classes at the college. I decide that an online class would be the first step to my future. I am so grateful for the first day of that class. All the excuses and delays regarding returning to school

My transition into high school was as easy as taking a breath. I had always found school quiet easy and I never had to put much effort into getting promising grades. Before high school I had my whole life figured out, or at least I thought I did. I had planned that I would attend a law school or major in English. After a while of being in high school I started to realize many things. My parents did not have the financial stability to send me to a law school, I was not as smart as all the other kids, little by little I began struggling with a negative mentality about myself and my future. I slowly let go of my dream of becoming a lawyer and decided to join the Health Careers Academy. Soon enough, I began to have a deep interest in the medical field but then again I continued to have the same question; how can I afford going to a medical school? I did not know much about college or what it took to get into college. I assumed I just had to have a pretty transcript and that was all it took. My self confidence began to lower as I saw how other students cruised through their high school years so effortlessly. I never wanted to ask for help because I did not want to seem “dumb”. I would bite my tongue and hold in all the unanswered questions I had. My junior year, I was having a very difficult time. I had a tight schedule which consisted of almost all AP or honors courses. I slowly began to give up because I did not believe that I could do it. I let my grades slip failing almost

I decided that I was going to go to Craven Community College and work on finishing the classes I needed to get my high school diploma. Unfortunately, that did not happen either. When I was seventeen, my mother unexpectedly passed away. My mother was my best friend and it was a huge loss to me and the rest of my family. I went through a period of grieving which lasted for almost a year. The subject of school was brought up again and I decided to get my GED from Craven. The fall after I received my GED, I started my first semester. I had to deal with anxiety and this feeling I had that I was a failure. I had to remind myself that I suffered in school because of my mental illness, not because I was stupid. I have recently started my third semester at Craven and I have a 4.0 GPA. I still have to deal with anxiety, mood swings, and stepping up as a mother figure to my little sister, but I have never let any of this bring me down. I have not given up and I never will. I use my past experiences as a way of reminding myself have far I have come, and that I am strong enough to take on anything I want to do in the future. That is why I feel like I would be a good candidate for

Walking into the doors of Delaware County Community College the 1st day of my freshman year, I did not think I would be where I’m at now. I was so cocky towards school, thinking I could slide through college classes just as easy like I did with highschool, Boy, I was wrong. I started skipping classes, not turning in my work on time, and honestly not giving school the best of my ability. Even out of school I was off course, I got my licence right at the beginning of the semester so I was out until 12 every night, sometimes even later. Most of those nights, I didn't even sleep at home. The fact I wasn’t a child anymore and I was in college, I wanted freedom without the responsibility. I actually took INT during my first semester but I didn't take it seriously.

After barely graduating in the spring of 2017 from Lopez Early College High School, I went straight to my parent’s house not knowing exactly what I was going to do with my life. I knew I had ruined my life after not paying attention to my teachers and counselors about applying to colleges. They said I was a wonderful and intelligent student with a tremendous capacity of succeeding in life. Although everybody thought that about me, I never did. I was constantly under pressure thinking that I had to work in order to support my family economically, so our house was saved. I was also worried about whether my parents were getting divorced after every insignificant argument they had. I had to be an excellent example for my two younger siblings; but even though I tried my best, I never was.

1. After graduating from high school I decided to move back home with my mother from growing up and living with my grandmother. The main reasons for my decision was to go to a college back home, well long story short I ended up missing what could have been two semesters of college I had missed several deadlines trying my hardest to collect the documents the college needed I had no support and I just came crashing down after missing the deadline for the first semester. I felt like a complete failure and that everything else I was going to try to help myself would result in failure, I did not believe in myself anymore I did not have the confidence that I came with I just gave up. This feeling of failure did not last very long for me after a few days, three at the most I began to say to myself this will give me time to gather all the documents they need and this will give others time to provide me with them, and from there by the time the next semester for colleges came around I was enrolled and ready to go.

Througout my academic career, I have learned as much about myself as I have learned in school, whether it be from high school, to community college, and my journey that lead me to Arizona State University. I can honestly say as my parents did, that I wish I would’ve tried harder in high school. I scraped by taking the easiest classes possible and choosing to take the easy way out. Looking at my transcript makes me cringe, because I know that I am capable of so much more. I wish that I would’ve taken the honor classes and tried so that I would’ve been able to apply to a college other than a community college. My time at Mohave Community College was a significant improvement from my experience in high school. Not only did I graduate with near honors (3.49), I had made the Dean’s list and Honors List for three out of my four semesters, the first time this had happened since middle school. I had never felt more motivated and focused in my life. I was taking 16 credits and prospering and had a balance of work, school, and a social life. I had never felt more proud of my self in my life. As I sit here and write this paper, I question my time here at ASU as I try to plan the nex chapter of my life. I wonder where I am supposed to go and what I am supposed to do.School for the first time had become a priority, however, it began to consume my life. I would spend hours and hours on end doing homework and studying, and although there seems to be nothing wrong with this, I wouldn’t go

Young adults are now living on their own, having to balance money and to pay rent, and to have the discipline to get up for school with no one making you. The people at college were there because they wanted to be. I, unfortunately, did not want to be, so I made it apparent in other ways. Having that new found independence does not have to be a bad thing. For me, I would skip class because no one made me go. I would stay out to the late hours of the night because no one told me I had to be home. I would make poor choices because I would not listen to anyone. For me, my new found independence did not work out so well. I was young, naive, and careless. Now I am smarter. No one is paying for me to be in college. I am. No one is forcing me to go; I want to be there. I want to make something of myself and not have this guilt hang over my shoulders anymore. I want to say I have a degree and be the best role model that my children can have. I may not have “new” found independence, but I had the courage to finally forgive myself and try again. It took me many years to convince myself to go back to college. Am I too old now? Am I smart enough? I finally had to put all my doubts aside and give this college thing another try. I am different now. I am older and wiser, and this is my

When I was in middle high school, I wasn’t like any other kids my age I knew. It seemed like all the kids new what they wanted to do in life. Most of my classmates had a mindset that they were going to college, but I was focused more on graduating middle school so that I can make it to high school. By the time I made it to high school, there was more pressure on me to think about going to college. My parents wanted me to further my education. My mother asked me if I was thinking about college yet. At that point, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I was confused so I

I was always the class clown and would never receive satisfactory grades on my report card. For a short period of time, I was the “disappointment” in the family. But after watching what my cousin went through, I realized that dropping out wasn’t an option. My cousin motivated me to change my ways in school and work harder. Although I had wished he never dropped out of high school and instead excel in an institution of higher learning, he turned me into a better student. Him dropping out made me realize I didn’t want to end up gangbanging in the streets, I would rather excel in academics and eventually attend an institution of higher learning. I made attending a four-year university my goal for the next four years of high school and I eventually accomplished that goal as I am now attending Syracuse

During my freshman and sophomore year I was trying to find myself, trying to find what I was good at and how I can be that "well-rounded" student everyone talks about. So I joined a bunch of sports and clubs that I really had no experience at, not saying joining new clubs/sports having no experience is a bad thing, but I did go a little overboard. I was frustrated with myself at the thought that I wasn't good at anything I joined, but I figured out why. I gave up easily and I had no passion of what I was doing. I gave up at everything I did, if I saw that I wasn't good enough, I didn't practice to get better. This was my mistake, I was scared that this failure was going to define who I was forever, but it wasn't. Summer 2016 I went on a two-week trip to Puerto Rico, I met up with my family and caught up with my cousins. I told my cousins everything about my high school days and they laughed at me. They asked "How did you expect to be good at anything when you didn't work hard for it? Anyone can be good at anything if they tried hard enough" I took that by heart. This is where I came to my senses and changed, I understood the impact of having a growth

When I came to college, I had a lot of expectations at Susquehanna University. I was expecting a lot at college and also what I’d be doing. Also, I was told by people how I’d change and become the person I never wanted to be. When I first started thinking about college, I was thinking about the movies and that’s nothing like reality. I was thinking about all these parties and never really thought about the studying because college movies don’t show that. So now, Susquehanna, I thought Susquehanna University was a perfect fit for me in the beginning. My expectations and goals for myself were to meet a ton of new friends, and have many connections with people for the after college and work experience. My expectations from myself, my family, and my friends were extremely different for the grade point average(GPA) part of things and also how much I would apply myself. In high school, I slacked off because I had the amount of intelligence to get through without trying. My parents for example thought that I would slack off here but would have the ability to do well if I had the motivation. Most of my “friends” didn’t think I would make it through college and have a very low GPA. When I came to college, I had a very different mentality. I wanted to prove everyone wrong and show people that I have the capability if I apply myself in college to be a very smart student. I mainly wanted to prove one person one, my brother. My brother has always said he was smarter than me because

In August of 2015, I started the next chapter of my life at Rogers State University in Claremore, Oklahoma. I heard numerous personal testimonies of what college is like and how I will have loads of homework. From these stories and personal testimonies, I decided that college was going to be extremely scary and brutally difficult. As my senior year in high school began, I had no plans of where I was going to go to college and how I was going to pay for it either. As my senior year went along, everything concerning my future plans at college played out the right way. I was accepted into the Honors Program at Rogers State University and the program paid for my education. Reflecting back on the thoughts I had about the college experience

The next year, my junior year, I started to become a more social person. Not having the proper guidance to balance my education and social life, I started slacking. I pretty much gave up on school, moved out of my parents’ house at 17, and thought I had the world figured out. Somehow I still managed to graduate with a 3.2, but I never gave college a half a thought. I was busy being an idiot.