I’ve had a lot of things in my life that I’ve taken for granted; we all have. I never considered the fact that my ability to read and write would be one of those things. I’ve always considered reading and writing a basic human task that everyone in this day and time knew how to do. While I grew up in a relatively poor community, the majority of people my age had common knowledge of reading, writing, and other elementary level skills. At least, that was what I thought. When I was 18 years old, due to unforeseen circumstances, I had to get my GED instead of a regular high school diploma. I started attending local adult education classes to help accomplish this goal. While there, I got to experience diversity on a whole new level. People …show more content…
The one day I did though was the day I saw my advantages in a whole new light. On that day, a girl who was only a couple years older than me, was sitting at a desk, crying. I went and sat beside of her, asking what was wrong. She told me that she had just failed the Literature pre-assessment for the third time. I knew what that meant; more required study hours. I tried my best to calm her and told her to try and focus a little harder next time. She looked at me with defeat and tears filling her eyes and …show more content…
You have to know more than you’re allowing yourself to believe.” I told her. She then proceeded to tell me she never really got a good education past the fifth grade. I replied with an “Oh, okay.” Not wanting to push the subject any further. I could tell it was a delicate topic.
Over time, the more we would study, the more she would tell me. She told me how she has worked odd jobs since age 10 to help support her family. How most of her nights were spent watching her younger siblings while her mother was at work instead of doing homework. I learned that her main focus had always been helping her struggling mother out, forcing her to lose focus on her education. She told me her goal was to be the first diploma-holding member of her family, a goal she hoped would be an inspiration for her unborn child. Here I sat, given the best education possible. Having spent my entire childhood only having to focus on my education. I never had to work odd jobs to eat or spend late nights watching rambunctious toddlers. I had been given a gift and I hadn’t even realized it. During the next couple of months, she grew more and more confident and with it, came an ability she didn’t even know she had. She passed the pre-assessment with flying colors. She now only had one thing left to do; the actual
Patty’s father was World War II veteran. Because of this, her family was in some economic problems, but her mother found a job and her siblings and her were able to go to college. She
like she knew exactly what was going to happen. I'm sure that everyone has gotten it. advice at least once in their lifetime, especially from their parents. Elders usually know what's best for you because they've been through it all themselves at once. time in their lives.
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.
Her facial expression, disdain. “You are an idiot sometimes, you know that, don’t you? Your grandmother loved you unconditionally. It wouldn’t have mattered. She knew.
Describe how you have taken advantage of a significant educational opportunity or worked to overcome an educational barrier you have faced.
When it was the first day of summer school. Attending my english class was going to be dreadful-having to write a complete 2-3 page essay every week and reading a book called “ True Notebooks” by Mark Salzman. Every 2 chapters, the class would take a quiz about the readings of what happened to the characters and sometimes have group discussion on the book. Taking three classes during the summer was going to be painful because I knew I had to manage my time wisely to complete an essay in a week and study for my other classes. After the first
"But I just needed extra practice you don't understand--"I said but was cut of again by her
Even if she had a little bit of a set back when learning English, she never gave up. My family raised me in a small house with my sister. My sister and I shared a room and bed, which made us get along and spend time together. I was too little to remember and realize what my parents were going through financially. I’m often told that most of our dinners consisted of ramen noodles or Vienna sausages with bread. Money was tight for my parents, but they had a savings account for my sister and I. The savings account had money my parents were going to give my sister and I for college. Unfortunately my mom got into a really bad accident and my parents had nowhere else to turn, but to our college fund. My parents ended using the money they were saving for my sister and I.During my childhood we struggled a little bit as a family, and it made me dedicated to go to school and get good grades so I could go to college. I started saving my money when I got a job at the age of 16. I told myself I needed to invest in my future, and that's exactly what I did. I've been looking forward to my senior year and writing this essay for college. I would say i'm dedicated to what I put in front of
) My earliest memory of writing is from kindergarten when we had to rewrite a story that the teacher wrote on the whiteboard. I remember not really liking it because of how long it took me to write one sentence. I remember feeling so defeated because I once wrote the wrong story all together. Everyone in my class made fun of me as a result.
In the end, I only managed, in a tone between a statement and a question, “Parents are always like that, huh?” I saw her hesitate and I wanted to take those silly words back, to say something better, more thoughtful, but then she nodded,
“I don't want to play this anymore, there is only two people and this is getting super boring.” I was thinking about if she was going to say anything about me walking out of her room when we were playing because she always gets made about that.
What has brought me to this class and what do I expect to gain you may ask. You also may wonder what is my background in writing, or even my strengths and weaknesses with such. Follow along with me as I tell my story of composition and me. Most people to whom know me well will tell you I disked writing, but never knew why. I have never considered myself an accomplished or even an elegant writer.
Some people are lucky enough to discover what they are meant to be at an early age. I was lucky enough to find out what I was not meant to be—a writer. I first suspected that my writing abilities were subpar during the regular assignments I was given in the fourth grade. While my classmates easily filled up sheets of notebook paper with descriptions of their summers and weekends, I could barely (and sometimes didn’t) meet the minimum length requirement. I struggled to find the words to express what I wanted to say, and I often found myself hastily scribbling down a conclusion to a half-finished argument as my time ran out.
The answer came to me with the suddenness of a collision. I would go to work. Mother wouldn’t be difficult to convince; after all, in school I was a year ahead of my grade and mother was a firm believer in self-sufficiency. In fact, she’d be pleased to think that I had that much gumption, that much of her in my character. (she liked to speak of herself as the original “do-it-yourself girl.”)
While in school, Mom didn’t have it to easy. Not only did she raise a daughter and take care of a husband, she had to deal with numerous setbacks. These included such things as my father suffering a heart attack and going on to have a triple by-pass, she herself went through an emergency surgery, which sat her a semester behind, and her father also suffered a heart attack. Mom not only dealt with these setbacks but she had the everyday task of things like cooking dinner, cleaning the house and raising a family. I don’t know how she managed it all, but somehow she did.