Upon the Edge of My Endeavor : Understanding How to Learn.

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Upon the Edge of My Endeavor : Understanding How to Learn. I stand awake and alert. A first year college student with my sights fixed firmly ahead and my goals just within reach. A positive light is cast upon my future endeavors. Yet, as I reflect upon my educational experiences, I find myself drawing parallels between the direction in which my life is headed now and the similar paths I have traveled along before. I am forced to ask myself if I am truly prepared for what lies ahead. I have asked myself the same thing many times. I was once in a similar position. A fledgling student wavering just between the lines of hesitancy and motivation. I was beginning my freshman year at Oakmont Regional High School in Ashburnham, Massachusetts. Ashburnham Massachusetts is the stereotypical image of the small New England town. Its boundaries are drawn not by geographic limitations but by the unspoken societal messages that all students are exposed to at some point during their educational experience. "Dress a certain way, don't ask too many questions, don't ask the wrong questions, always follow the directions, etc…" Most of the incoming freshman had been born there and had experienced similar opportunities from the day they all learned to tie their shoelaces to the day they received their high school diploma and shook hands with the superintendent. I was the exception to the rule in some respects for I had moved to Massachusetts from the Philadelphia area at the end of elementary school. I had not had the same experience as my peers. Not to say that my previous education was in any way superior to the one I was about to receive. However, I did encounter a bit of a culture shock upon my arrival. Freshman year of high school careened past my very eyes before I had the maturity to fully comprehend the knowledge and life experience that was being imparted to my young impressionable intellect. The somewhat nebulous idea of high school loomed before me, acting as both a mirage and a reality. The atmosphere itself was cramped. Every detail about the school was small, building size, classrooms, the student population. Yet in a broader sense I was overwhelmed by the enormousness of the task that lay before me. I was more concerned with surviving the first year than with anything else. Quite obviously I did survive, but not entirely because of the welcoming and nurturing environment that public school systems are expected to adopt.

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