Leaving home was the consequence of chasing my dreams. I moved to United States last 3 years ago to pursue a better opportunities and future. I was from Iran and escaped my own country because I am a minority. Since I am a minority, the government limits and restricts of my rights such as obtaining education. My dreams for myself and family were crushed because I can’t go to any university to get my education and pursue my dreams. However, I didn’t give up and everything began from there.
When I escaped, I have nothing, no income or rights. I escaped my country and illegally crossed the bordered to go to Turkey. It was the most painful experienced as my feet were dead from running and the pain of leaving everything in Iran. I was not prepared
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I took computer science and programming classes while I work full time in Safeway as a supervisor. Working in customer service greatly helped me to communicate and learned the culture. I also learned to be attentive through listening to their needs and be able to provide them the absolute service. Therefore, I also progress in willingness to learn. With my working experience, I learned to come out of my shell and keep progressing. However, in the last two years, there are so many obligations that I had to focus such as working full time while in school full time. Some of the years had been rough due to physically, mentally and emotionally exhaustion. Some of the quarters in school were greatly affected and led to failures because there are times I focused too much earning money to support my family and myself to survive and to have an education. It was hard to balance between work and school. Even though I failed so many times, I repeated some courses to be able to understand, practice and comprehend those classes that I failed. I believed that before success, I had to experience the pain and struggles of failures. For now, I am learning to be flexible in keeping up with all the responsibilities. I realized that people cannot get what they want or need because they have money, but because they
During my freshman year in high school, my mother remarried and I had to move from Colorado to Kentucky. One year later, we relocated back to Colorado after they divorced. During my junior year in high school, my mother remarried again and I had to change schools again, although we remained in Colorado. Thus, I did not have a sense of continuity during high school and although I recognized that my path would lead me to college, I was not ready to commit myself to school full time. Instead I went to work full time as a grocery clerk and worked my way up to assistant manager. I then moved into customer service work and finally fell into an advertising manager position. I took several night courses during this period until I was ready to commit to school full time. Although I could have continued with work, I knew that it was not what I wanted to do and once I committed myself to attending school and realized that I wanted to study Sociology, I have proven myself to be an above average student. This past year, I earned all "A"s in my courses.
I focused on education because that is where I felt most qualified and because I enjoyed the idea of working with young children everyday. I was able to find employment in the Mountain Empire Unified School District working as a D/HH teacher’s aid and I work there to this day. Recently, I applied into the San Diego Mesa College Interpreting program. I started out with two classes and decided to see how the semester would go and if I would want to continue or pursue my masters in Deaf Education. Both career options were important to me but as a working single mother, I believed that the best option for me would present itself later on. I enjoyed being back in school and what the courses had to offer but was frustrated with the structure of the program. I felt that with the many things going on in my life, that it was not the path I wanted to take at the time. Becoming a teacher and furthering my career as an educator seemed more appealing and more rewarding to me. In time, the choice was clear. I wanted to become a
I was trying to be too many things and it all came crashing down at me. Swallowing my grief for my beloved grandmother’s death and trying to get into the mental state for school was hard for me. I never handled grief or even dealt with death, this was new for me. Everyone handles grief a different way, my way was keeping busy not being idle. Because if I was not, then I would be thinking of the loss that I felt in my life. Working after school was different from me as well, I never really worked while I was in high school and that was the first semester I did. I noticed soon that I can’t keep up with both acts. School and working was not mixed well for me, but I couldn’t quit I had to keep the job going, because my little paycheck helped make my mother’s ends meet. I had to remember that she was the reason why I was doing
This was back in November 2007, in India. I was 12 years old. I was enjoying my normal life. But I didn’t know that my life will change surprisingly. One day I came home from the school and my parents made decision of moving to the United States. I was totally amazed at that moment. My parents wanted move so that me and my sister can have a better life, education, and opportunity.
I began to change my life 's mindset through baby steps, looking beyond surface success. Every hour of every day I would focus on doing something that would lead me to an authentic and passionate life, not a life controlled by monetary success. Morrie taught to “Devote yourself to loving others … devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning. You notice … there 's nothing in there about salary (Albom, 127).” I wanted to follow Morrie 's advice and create a life that allowed me to help people, and that made me personally feel like my life had meaning. I changed my major from the medical field, with the intention of making people think I was “smart,” to a major that will allow me to be a preschool teacher and work with children. I won 't make a lot of money, and I won 't be admired by the community, but I know that helping kids is what makes me
Throughout the years, I hardly believed in my capabilities in school and in achieving my ambitions. You see I am not one of those cool kids who blatantly don’t want to do anything, in fact, I was worse. When opportunities decides to knock on my doorstep, I simply decline hoping that luck doesn’t go my way. It is because I was afraid to change my status which I was already comfortable with my life. Now that I am more educated I’m seeing a different point of view, a different view of living, which is achieving great things in life and surpassing anything that may come my way. In my path towards a higher education I have passed obstacles such as injury, problems with self-esteem, and transportation.
Packing up and leaving one's home is one of the hardest things a person can experience. Unfortunately, there are many instances when people are forced to do so. Alejandro Portes, author of Immigrant America: A Portrait , mentions in his book that although loving and cherishing the homeland, people are sometimes forced to leave because of its disadvantages. The "desperate poverty, squalor, and unemployment" are among the most common reasons that cause immigration out of a country. Hundreds of families in third world countries literally struggle to put bread on the table. There are many people who can't find jobs and therefore aren't able to provide enough food and other everyday necessities for their families. These miserable conditions bring thoughts of moving to other places where a family can survive.
Throughout high school and during my undergraduate studies, education was never a top priority for me. Only during the past two years, in the "real world", have I realized the importance of education. I look back at those years and wish I had done more and realized all the potential I had in my hands and not wasted so much time. During my undergraduate career my social activities consumed my life. My friends were not motivated to do well in school so I followed their lead. My grades were low, and I did not even care. After I graduated in 1997 with a Psychology B.A. and lost touch with my old friends and old ways, I have realized that I should have spent more time doing some soul searching and thinking what it was that I wanted to do with my life. I liked Psychology but what I really wanted to do was work with children more closely. I had spent my junior and senior years involved in internships at Head Start and at a High School in a Program for teenaged mothers. I loved my work there. At Head Start I was a Teacher Aid for the pre-school, teaching the children to read, numbers etc. And at the High School I counseled the teenaged mothers, took care of their kids while they went to school and after the school day I tutored them with their homework. After being out of school for a while, I started to miss that. The feeling that I was teaching something those kids, the feeling that I was making a difference. I was determined to find a job in education, with my background in Psychology, how hard could it be? I found work at a residential school for runaways and abused teenaged females. It was great! I was ready to go, I was going to change the world and change those girls lives. What I didn't realize is that will alone does not make me a teacher and that I needed training, a lot of training. I made a lot of mistakes in that job. I got discouraged and decided to forget about working with children, forget teaching and do something else that paid more. So, I got a job as a Secretary, I did that for about two years. Teaching, working with children was always on my mind.
I have returned to college after being out of school for several years because, I am motivated to obtain my associates degree. I want to finish what I started years ago. When I was in high school, I became discouraged with my studies due to an illness and ended up dropping out of school. A few years after that I had an opportunity to return to school and obtain an Associate’s degree. When I started the program I was doing well until my illness returned. I found myself having a hard time juggling my school work, my illness and a job. I eventually started failing classes and ended up giving up again. At this point I had once again, let life’s challenges win the battle. Looking back, I understand that I failed when I returned to school because I wasn’t mentally prepared nor was I mature enough to deal with issues as they happened. Looking back at it now I understand that I made a terrible error permitting fear to take
With ups and downs in my career and my personal life, I have become stronger, more modest and grateful for all the chances that life offered. I have always been one of the top 10 students in class. But, I wasn’t able to perform my best in my third and final years of dentistry due to some distractions at home. But my mother always encouraged me with the thought that a failure is life’s way to make you better at something, for which you must keep trying. Holding on to that thought, I worked even harder and not only proved my merit in my second attempt, but got a better conceptual understanding about the subjects than most students around
During high school, I did not have to study as hard as I do now that I am in college. Usually, I would be able to study the day before the test and score a hundred percent. Although, occasionally, I would be able to skip a few classes and get the notes from a classmate or of course, resort to guessing. However, now that I am in college, the lectures require much more attentiveness and are more complex: composing more information, meaning that one has to proportion time more responsibly and take an advantage of good study habits. My learning skills have made a complete transformation since I have been in college. I learned new things and I actually enjoy learning new things. Nevertheless, these changes required a lot of self control and practice. Going through these experiences have changed my entire persona about learning such as study habits, being more attentive during classes, and going through greater extents to succeed in certain classes.
After only being at The University of Akron for three weeks, I dropped two classes. Shortly after dropping those classes, I received an email from my advisor asking to schedule an appointment. While in my academic advisors office, she proceeded to tell me that most students who drop two or more classes tend to not graduate. These words frightened me and even made me regret the decision to attend college as a whole. I sat there and thought about how disappointed my family would be and wondered if I would be successful in college. Since then, I have learned that there is a lot more to being successful
There is a familiar saying, which is along the lines of, "Home is where the heart is." This is true for most, but often, people are forced to leave their homes and relocate. Often, this causes a sense of uprootedness and confusion. One's most precious memories are often left behind. Confusion results from the loss of familiarity and a sense of having little or no ties to a new place. Sometimes, the changing of homes may be quite devastating, but eventually overcome or in the worst case, the uprooting could cause a lifelong disappointment and result in a loss of feeling of a sense of belonging which is a key to living a full life. The people of the former towns of New Bordeaux, Petersburg, and the Ridge community were all too familiar with the feelings of hopelessness. Although these people faced great challenges and hardships, they are quite heroic because many were able to accept the devastating changes, but eventually moved on and hopefully found a new "place" while never forgetting their past.
Continuous learning is, therefore critical.”(22) This brings about greater rate in survivability and adaptability. A personal experience of mine was my first year at Carleton, has I was trying to get a grasp on my time management skills, which I still am even has this essay is being read. It began with the transition from a high school environment to that off a post-secondary, which was quite stomping, it required adapting to the new environment, learning how classes we thought, how to budget, learning to pay bills, learning to balance responsibilities while having greater autonomy etc. Has well as a lot of things which I had never dealt with, I made a lot of mistakes along the way, and still am. But the key point is with the sudden transition and changes met, constant error and feedback from my environment; professors, tutorials, landlords, managers each motivated me in one form or the other and resulted in me being more adaptable and efficient in my performance and productivity has a whole in various aspects of my everyday
Since returning to school, my educational path has been shaped by my academic and work experience. I was fortunate enough to obtain both concurrently which provided me with a so...