When I Get My High School Diploma

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

That’s when I knew I had to take control of my life. I began looking for GED programs and came across alternative high schools. I applied to Innovation Diploma Plus High School and went to the school for an interview. The adviser, Mr. Polanco told me I didn’t have the minimum requirements which were 10 credits and 1 regent exam. He told me I had to return to my school and pass my classes and reapply. At this point I felt discouraged, the teachers in my school weren’t willing to help me because of the impression they had of me. A few days later my mom received a call saying I was accepted into Innovation Diploma Plus and I knew this was the clean slate and I can become the person I knew I could be. Mr. Polanco told me that he convinced the principle of the school to take a chance on me although I was missing 1-course credit. I worked super hard to make sure I wasn’t another Spanish girl on the welfare line with a baby and no education in a state that offers education for free. In Innovation Diploma Plus, I received 35 credits in a year and a half. I was attending regular classes, classes after school, I even switched my lunch period for another

The beginning of my freshman year of high school I realized that unless I got a job right after I turned 16 I wouldn’t be able to pay for college so I needed to start making steps in the right direction now. I started working at McDonald’s my sophomore year of high school four months after I turned 16 and continued to work there until I graduated from Polk Collegiate High School. A friend told me about Polk Collegiate High School the beginning of my sophomore year and I knew that it would be the best financial choice that I could make at the moment. I spent the last two years of my

I dropped out of high school in February of 2005. I was newly 17, and although I had never been an exceptional student, I had never planned on dropping out either. At the time, I had been placed in out-patient hospitalization. It was decided by my doctors, and parents, that this was the best course of action. They believed the stress of finishing school would interfere with my recovery. In truth, school had nothing to do with my illness. I was living with my parents in a violent and unhappy home. Being an empathetic person, I took everything around me in, and was not able to cope with my situation. I had a severe eating disorder, and was hospitalized after my second suicide attempt. After finishing my treatment I started attending G.E.D. prep courses and began working for at the South Salem Applebee’s as a hostess.

Towards the end of my senior year of high school, I was preparing for the next chapter of my life. I would be attending UC Davis in the summer for a four weeklong orientation program, specifically for first generation college students. This was the first time I would be leaving home by myself to a different country and it was the first time in over eight years that I would be exposed to the American culture. I did not have any roots in any American city nor did I have a so-called “home state.” However, if there was one thing for sure, it was that Germany was my home and it has been for the majority of my life. In this paper, I will be discussing how the following topics in sociology: culture, socialization, and identity are related to my move from Germany to California as well as how I felt during the entire situation.

When I had my baby in December of 2014 I made an oath to never think about dropping out of school no matter how hard times got. I am a single mom, student, and employee and yes it is hard but it is amazing knowing I am able to juggle everything on my own. Yes I do get my mom’s help but she only babysits my daughter while I go to work and school. It has never crossed my mind not even once that my child has ruined my life because she did not chose to come into this world. My entire family was against me having a baby at 16 but I hate abortion and I coul not stand the idea of giving up my baby for adoption. I knew that I could be a mom and still reach my goals I know I can not be

Out of high school I went off to college with a plan. I was so naïve, I had my life all planned out. I was going to a state school study accounting to become a CPA, where I would go to work every day, sit in an office and take home a decent paycheck. Halfway through my degree I realized something was missing, passion of what I was doing. To be completely honest I gave up, I stopped caring and my grades were horrible, in the course of a year I had gone from an A student to a C student. My family was adamant about me staying in school, and sticking it out another semester. I agreed to try but eventually stopped going to class, I should have been dropped from my classes but the university I attended was so large that with 400 plus students to a lecture no one noticed or cared. I dropped out of college, had I not made the decision to continue they would have dismissed me anyway. The grades I received my last year at SUNY Albany do not reflect my academic ability. I regret giving up, I realize now that there were alternate routes I could have taken. However I am one of those

It was was a warm April day, year 2012 as I sat down in my living room chair very upset. I was taking my placement test for Christian Liberty Academy a homeschool system. My mom and grandmother had pulled me out of my third year of high school at Chicago Military Academy-Bronzeville. That definitely wasn't my school of choice. I was one out of the 25% at my elementary school to be placed on selective enrollment. My school of choice was Whitney Young and Morgan Park, but my grandmother told me "you need more discipline so I think the Military Academy would be good for you." Attending there was a epic fail, I had consistently failed my classes in math, english, and I was being a rebellious teen. My grandmother told me when my junior year started " if you don't get yourself together and put in some effort you will be homeschooled." I for sure must've took what she was saying as a joke, because I definitely didn't listen and here it is April me starting my whole high school year over. I didn't like the fact that I was starting high school completely over, that means I wasn't going to graduate until I was 21 years old. I had finished up my placement test and we mailed it off.

Unfortunately, life events caused setbacks in pursing my education and finishing on the right time. As a teenager in a foreign land all alone without a family and undocumented, life was unbearable. I was working so hard to solicit funds to pay for my rent and tuition; I was paying tuition out of pocket as I did not qualify

20 years ago if you would have asked someone what they think of when you say America do you know what they would have said? That it is home of the brave and land of the free. But now they would say that America is nothing but a joke. We were once a nation that stood together and fought for each other but now all we do is fight one another. Our country has been founded for over 200 years and in those centuries we have overcome many things involving racism and equal right. Now more than you ever you would think the people of our nation would be able to love one another despite their differences but we are far from it. We are at a point were if you do not have the same values as someone else or do not believe how they believe then you are lower than them.

Not having a plan for my future can be really messy. In order to reach a short term success, I think that people need to have everything planned, to have goals. As for myself, I have three main steps to reach the goal of mine.

After leaving the public school system at sixteen, I was left with very few options and yet still had a strong desire to continue with my education. After discussing my situation with

I am from a low-income family and from a community that has a low college participation rate. When I started high school my parents made me aware of what our financial situation was and I was frightened by the idea that I would not end up going to college because the money was not there. So I did some research on something that would help me succeed and help me get into college. I found out that I was able to take college classes at a nearby community college and they would be able to transfer to a UC and this gave me hope. As soon as I became more informed I started the enrolling process which was extensive because several school officials had to approve my attendance to the community college. As soon as I had the approval I started to enroll

Then senior year came up. Since I loved California and since I didn 't want my parents to pay for the extra out-of-state tuition, I decided to apply to in-state (California) schools, such as Universities of California, California State Universities, and Private Universities. As I was applying to colleges, I decided to apply as a Statistics major. Even though I have never taken statistics classes before, I knew Statistics would be the best option for me due to many reasons. First of all, I was really good at and loved math, and I thought a degree in Statistics would get me better jobs than a degree in Mathematics. Secondly, I enjoyed playing around with baseball data, baseball stats and thus, I thought I could be able to play around with more baseball data if I study statistics. Finally, during my senior year, I never knew what field (sciences, business, social studies, etc.) I really wanted to get into and I felt that statistics can be applied to basically any field and thus would not hurt me in the future when I find something I really wanted to do. After five months of crossing my fingers and being nervous about my college acceptance, I got all my acceptance letters and rejection letters. Other than San Diego State University, I was given three other universities to choose from. As a result, my spring break of senior year was dedicated to visiting Universities and deciding which college I should go to. After a week or two of thinking, I decided to do pursue my

Before I graduated I had a baby, and I knew my first responsibility was for my child. I had to make sure that he was taken care of that was my job. In order for me to do that I had to get a job. However, I didn 't go straight to college. There were things that blocked me from going when I graduated. I really thought I had my life together. I worked for a good company, I enjoyed what I was doing. I really thought that my life was fine. Everything was planned out and I didn 't have any reason to worry. One day out of nowhere the company I worked for was closing their doors. My first thought was what am I going to do. My son is grown, he 's finished college. I didn’t have to worry about him. Therefore, what was I going to do? The bills were still coming. I need to do something to help