Every person on this planet is walking their own personal path and each individual was brought up in a different way. Some rough, some smooth, some spoiled, some earned. Throughout our lives, we find ourselves running into dead ends with nowhere to go. These life blocks are mere stepping stones in our long travels. For me, my dead end was academics. We all find ourselves having academic issues sometime in our lives, but how we overcome these obstacles is what shapes and defines who we are as genuine students seeking for success.
Growing up in a small town where the only fun thing considered to do is smoke weed, I would say it`s obvious there is no motive for most students here to pursue an education. Having parents who never attended college and friends who had no interest in school, my most difficult academic problem was academics themselves and the motivation that this town lacked. Being surrounded in this environment, there was no desire for success and I found myself unable as much as unwilling to sit down and engage in my own education. It wasn`t until my senior year in high school that I realized that schooling is my one real ticket out of this atmosphere, but by then it was too late due to my poor grades. I decided to get a job, save, and eventually attend community college where I could pay my way through and hopefully transfer after two years. Paying for my classes out of my own pocket changed the entire game for me. This was my first real taste of responsibility and the pressure was on. I quickly adapted to the college life and found myself filling out hand written schedules on a weekly basis. These lists consisted of study times, due dates of assignments, test dates, and any bonus extra credit points I could get my hands on. Juggling all of this with a full time job on top left me busy all week and too tired to do anything in the free time that I had. Even though I was stressed, my life had never felt more filling and I felt that I finally had a purpose here.
While currently sitting at a 3.6 gpa and still working, I have never felt more determined in my life. Throughout these past years, I have learned to overcome multiple obstacles in my life such as applying myself, time management, retaining information, and the most important of all, a healthy mentality. While most people fear change, change is the one thing that has truly saved me. By taking initiative in my own life and applying myself to an unfamiliar surrounding, I left myself no other options other than to grow up and overcome my problems in my life. After years of blaming my town and friends for the choices I made, I had finally come to the realization that no one is in charge of my life but me.
