Personal Narrative: My Greatest Accomplishment

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you someone else is the greatest accomplishment.” This quote is by Ralph Waldo Emerson. He was a man who always put his education as a top priority, so I highly admire him. As I read this quote, I realized that my greatest accomplishment is something that I am constantly progressing and excelling in, my education. There are three reasons that I will explain as to why my education is my greatest accomplishment. First, education has never been a factor in any of my family member’s lives. Secondly, it took a long time for me to get on track with my educational values. Lastly, I will explain how far my education has gotten me.

Born and raised in South Carolina, my family and I were the stereotypical “country bumpkins.” Education was never prominent in my community, and I am the second generation that has gone to college in my family. It was more important to become a good wife or mother rather than being educated. It took me a long time to realize that the life

they wanted me to have, was not the life for me. It took a lot to convince my family to enroll me into school, so I started a year late. However, getting into school was one thing, putting forth effort to make good grades were another.
When I got into middle school, grades were the least of my worries. My educational values were all misconstrued, and I only wanted to pass just enough for me to play volleyball. In South Carolina middle school was grade sixth through eighth, so by the next year I had no clue that I would spend my seventh grade year in intermediate classes. That was the year that I started taking my education seriously. Studying on a daily basis was a part of my daily routine, and by the second semester I excelled so much in my classes that they switched me out of the intermediate classes. From that point on, I began to consider different programs. The one that stood out to me was mock trial. I got to compete against other schools in my district with fake cases, and we would present them to a real judge. Every year I competed I got best attorney, and that is how I decided I wanted to become a lawyer.
Now, that I’ve told you my journey, I will now tell you where education has gotten me.

I am now a part of the Cambridge program, and dual enrollment. It was a very long and hard process to get into both of these programs, but I remained dedicated. Now I’m on track to receive my high school diploma and my AA degree. I have even got to meet President Obama due to me having good grades while I was in middle school. So many doors has opened up for me all because I chose that my destiny was not going to be an old country girl who was pregnant.

Everyone has trials and tribulations in life , and everyone has obstacles to overcome. What I have learned and reflected from journey is that, I am a better person because of what I have been through. If you take the easy road through life, you will never become strong minded or dedicated to anything. This is why I chose my education to be my greatest accomplishment, because I can truly say I worked hard for

it.