Why I Chose Higher Education

I am furthering my education because I know it will allow me to provide for myself. Through higher education, I can find a decent job that will help me support myself and not worry about living paycheck to paycheck. I know how difficult life can be when a person has no college education; I grew up with a single parent with no degree and she was also disabled. This made finding a job for her extremely hard. Due to her illness, she received a monthly disability check, which she stretched each month to make sure I had everything I needed. I have Medicaid for health insurance and I qualify for free lunch in school.

Self-sufficiency is one of my top priorities because I want to have a stable income that allows me to not only take care of myself but also give back

Without education, there would not be much I could in an already competitive business world. The reason I was hired at my current job, besides my stellar personality, is because of my education I have now. They took notice that I am taking some of the hardest classes offered at Kinston

High School; I am in the International Baccalaureate program and take some online college classes. Just by being a great student in high school I received a job from Chick-Fil-A that some adults were applying for.

I can imagine what having an actual four-year college degree would do for me financially.

My mother passed away my freshman year of high school and my retired grandmother became my legal guardian. Even through her sickness, my mother pushed me not to settle in my circumstance, but to rise above it; my mom would always tell me to "Go on now." She did not want her disability to hinder my education and future. Without much help from my father, she raised me to be a hard worker and constantly encouraged me to be my best self. My grandmother follows in my mother's footsteps by telling me higher education is the key to a world most people don't get to experience. People nowadays only have their