I remember being ecstatic about graduating highs school. Since my freshmen year my parents and I believed in one dream for my future, industrial engineering. Many of my family members had received an industrial engineering degree and it only made sense that I follow the same path. However, the end of senior year was closing in fast and many of my peers had already sent in college applications. I filled out applications to my schools of choice at least three times but I could never find myself content with submitting it. I realized that through high school I never really gave thought to if I was going to enjoy going into engineering. Getting a degree in engineering seemed like the safest route to a successful future, but it didn't feel like the future for me. I decided to have dinner with my relatives in this field to discuss some of the opportunities in his field. Towards the end of the conversation I realized engineering did not seem like a perfect fit for me. …show more content…
In the end I decided that going to community college would be the best fit for me since I had no idea what I wanted to pursue a career in. My toughest challenge was telling my parents. When I mustered up the courage to tell them I had no interest in attending a university for engineering they were very disheartened. Had I decided to leave to a university my parents would have covered all the financials. Now that I had decided to stay and attend community college to figure out my path, I was left to do it alone. The summer after high school ended I worked many hours trying to save up as much money as possible to be able to pay for classes and books. Many days I felt like giving in and following my predestined plan, but I knew I would never be satisfied. It was my life and I needed to do what was best for my own
At the start of the semester, my oblivious state of nature associating with the Chinese culture reached an unacceptable level. Implementing a necessary change, I decided to educate myself on different cultures starting with China. I failed to ponder that such a rich, deep culture existed outside America. Encompassed by this country’s unique yet suffocating melting pot culture, my outlook believed ideas such as uniformity between American Chinese food and Authentic Chinese food. After this course, my bigot perspective widened as I witnessed diversity in the world. Before this class, when I thought of Chinese food, my connotation jumped to thoughts associated with chop suey, but as I progressed my education, my mindset gradually pondered foods like steamed buns or “New Year Cakes” with authentic Chinese food.
I grew up constantly seeing my parents suffer from choices they made when they were freshly graduated from high school. They always told me to go to college so I wouldn’t have to suffer from the same mistakes they made and I was going to do just that. I decided to take on the student loan debt and continue my education because I refused to settle immediately in life.
It's unbelievable how each year, since the beginning of high school, my perfectly laid plans for myself have unavoidably deteriorated. When I entered my freshman year, I had aspirations of being a doctor (something I had wanted to be since I was a child). Now, here I am entering my senior year in high school without any idea of what I want to do. Now seems to be the time to start taking life seriously and making responsible, educated choices.
Regretfully, when I entered high school I did not realize how hard I had to work to get what I wanted. I went to my classes, did my work, but never really pushed myself to my full abilities. I thought that as long as I graduated with decent grades I would be able to get into college and really focus then. But as high school quickly came to an end I realized that I was not as well prepared for college, as I would have liked.
In conclusion, I realized that my future depended on what I was willing and able, to make of it. I had to make the decision to put my fears behind me and move forward with the opportunities that would be available to me after I earned a college degree. I want to work in a career field that I went to school for and earned a degree for, not to just work at an everyday job, being overworked, under paid and unappreciated. I look forward to the day of graduation when I can be an encouragement to others experiencing these same issues and an inspiration to my children.
The election night of 2000 was a pivotal moment in my life. I stayed up all night on November 7th, 2000, not because I was enthralled with watching Florida flip-flop between Gore and Bush, but because I had an IV in my arm which made it impossible to be comfortable. Earlier that evening, I was diagnosed with Type One Diabetes, a disease affecting 1 of 800 people in America. This was an especially crucial time in my life, considering I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis—an autoimmune disease that attacks the GI track in 1 of 1400 Americans—the June before, and I had my Bar-Mitzvah in September. According to the Jewish religion, I had become an adult, and as such, I had decided to greet my new medical challenges with gusto, attempting to see the silver lining from the very beginning. I cannot say that I am glad I was nature’s statistical anomaly, but I am thankful for the opportunity to see from a young age how to turn a tough situation into a positive. After almost nine years, I come back to this pivotal night in my life because it marked a change that still plays a part in my life now, and will continue to shape me in the future.
I was in 1st grade when I found out that I had a learning disability. I still
Until this past spring I hadn't thought much about what I wanted to do or where I wanted to go for college. One day in the spring the junior class had a meeting in the auditorium about taking our ACT test and college plans. After that meeting I realized I needed a change, getting into college wasn't going to be a breeze, kind of how I had treated high school. Although I always considered myself to be fairly smart, I never had put much effort into school, but after seeing the facts and requirements to get into schools, and especially after hearing Ms. Rice saying "In today's world, the way to a successful future, is choosing college as your future", I knew I had to make an adjustment for the better so that college could be my future.
It wasn’t until my senior year of high school when I realized the true importance of going to college really was. The only reason I excelled in my studies was because I was always motivated too, so when it came down to my decision to continue school I didn’t know what to do. I decided that even with a degree in today’s economy, it won’t have much of an impact. But I couldn’t have been more wrong than ever. I eventually came to my own senses and decided for myself that all my years of being in school, planning for my future, long hours of hard work and perseverance shouldn’t go to waste.
I am very interested in attending Flagler College for a number of reasons, Flagler is the perfect college to help my achieve my goals. It offers the individual help that I desire, an outstanding business program, a wide variety of clubs and organizations, and most important, Flagler opens up a lot of opportunities for career choices.
There was the option to go for an OTA (Occupational Therapy Assistant) at a Community College. I set my mind and decided I would work towards an OTA. Though I thought I was finally set and finally found my career path, life reminded me I was now out of High School and responsible for contributing to some of my family's financial obligations. Going to College was my choice, it was never something my parents ever talked to me about or mentioned. I come from a family who has migrated from South America and their only goal was to work long hours in a manufacturing job to make a living.
College has a extensive impact on a person that some people simply don’t realize. When I first started college, I was a little close-minded and unsure about what it was I wanted to do with the rest of my life. When I was halfway through my freshman year, I decided to completely change my path in life. I left ECU, moved into an apartment, transferred to Pitt and declared my major intended sonography. Then suddenly I hated what I was doing, I had to take a step back and truly evaluate my life and what it was I was meant to do. I was completely lost. Then one day I received a text from a friend telling me to apply to a hospital located in Chesapeake, Virginia. I did, and I got the job. When I told my parents they were less than thrilled, they didn’t like the idea of me taking a year off from school to work, but I thought long and hard about what was best for me and decided it was something I was meant to do, it was the path I needed to follow. I worked for a year while living at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront. I was completely independent, providing for myself 100 percent. While working this job, I realized that what I wanted to do and what I was called to do in life was become a nurse, which is something I would have never figured out had I not seriously weighed my options
That summer after school I just wanted to find a job and start making some money. Going to college for anther four year was something I thought I could not handle. I final got a job at UPS unloading trucks. At first I thought how hard could it be? But every day I would come home exhausted from working in the heat. And then when I got tiny pay check, it hit me. From then on I decided that manual labor was something that I could not do the rest of my life and I could definitely not support a family on that income. A job behind a desk in the air conditioning was what I wanted.
After summer my parents sent me to college but never asked what I wanted to do. I didn't truly know either which lead to failing every class. I was not sad in the slightest as I was already eager to drop out of school and move to Los Angeles with my friends. Less than a year later we found success through youtube growing in popularity and could rent out houses we couldn't even imagine. Being financially stable I decided to take a step back from Los Angeles and think about getting my degree.
When first deciding what to do with my life, it was often a battle with choosing what “I wanted to do, and what my parents wanted for me.” At the age of eighteen years old I was often persuaded by my mother and father, scared to stand up for what I truly wanted. Education was the first choice; because that was the goal they wanted for me, and not what I wanted for myself. Years past, and many years of frustration, and thousands of dollars spent and I was still lost, and did not know what I truly wanted to do as a profession.