Society views college as the door way to success. However, many people fail to realize the same effort put into college also needs application after or failure starts creeping in from the side. Anna Chinero, a recent graduate, moved back home after failing to find a job. Chinero concludes her article, “Elevated by the Train”, by expressing, “instead of always looking out toward somewhere else, I’m beginning to look around here, wondering how I can make this neighborhood the better place my parents always sought for me.” Many graduates, like Ana, loose direction in attempting to achieve their dreams they possessed entering college.
It was the last inning in our all-star game, and we were losing 10 to 8. Our team had 2 outs and we couldn’t get the third. Our pitcher was doing bad, throwing all balls, while all of us in the field were tired, ready to fall asleep at any moment. There goes another walk. They score again.
College is one of the most significant times in a person’s life. Every year high school kids will visit many different colleges so that they can be confident in their college decision. Some kids will follow in their parent’s foot steps and base their decision on where their mom or dad went, though, not all kids are fortunate to have help from their parents. Many kids nowadays may be the first in their family to take on higher education. The article, “First Generation College Students: Unprepared and Behind” by Liz Riggs explains that kids who are the first in their family to take on college are at a disadvantage compared to kids with parents who attended college.
“Set,” Bang! The gun goes off and I quickly shoot ahead of the rest of the field. My strides long and quick as I sprint for the track. I can’t hear anyone behind me, I must be a good 10 meters in front of everyone else. I run around the track and continue to sprint across the field back to the crowd of parents, friends, and girls soccer players who were forced to attend this last cross country meet of the season.
What vision do you have of yourself ten years from now? I see myself in the National Basketball Association (NBA) getting money and living the good life. I know it will be tough because life is not easy. I will have to work harder than others to get recognized. I will face a lot of tough obstacles, but I know my main three obstacles.
“The straw that broke the camel’s back”, an idiom reflecting reaching maximum capacity of strain or tolerance. As a commonly expressed phrase, you never really know what it looks like until it happens to you. Whether it be a major incidence, or completely minuscule, to the point of seeming unnoticeable, its occurrence is quite real, as is the potential fallout from the breakdown. I will never forget Thanksgiving 1996 and my front row witnessing of one of these events.
Let me set the scene, it’s a balmy night in Copenhagen, the empty streets are filled with the sound of our feet hitting the pavement, reverberating off the buildings, rippling through the air like a pebble dropped into a deep pond. The time is 9 p.m., to be exact, and Kathryn and I are in search of something to pique our interest. Kathryn and I have been acquaintances since the age of 8 when we met performing in musical theatre. She was kind, outgoing, and wore a yellow raincoat to practice everyday, even though it never actually rained. I was quiet, timid, and my clothing consisted of a variety of sweat pants and dance clothes.
In my brief life, I have overcome a lot of adversity. My mom fled Mexico with her three young children to escape domestic violence. When we came to this country we had only a few personal belongings and the promise of a better future. We came to this country and lived in a small trailer with no toilet other than a bucket, and no shower except for the one that was lent to us from the kindness of a stranger, our new neighbor. As a single parent, my mother had to work day and night to support us.
“I’m going do it! I’m going to jump off the table!” The Young boy jumped from the table, knocking a bottle of water onto my homework, which was almost complete. “Bro! I’m trying to do my homework and you be an idiot jumping off the table spilling water onto my homework!?”
I am generally cheerful though shy and quiet at times. I am responsible and try to give my best. A key strength of mine is being deliberative. For example, in planning for a programme, I tend to research past related materials, consider different options and pre-empt potential issues, so as to implement the programme as smoothly as possible. On the other hand, this sometimes becomes my weakness as I am stressed when faced with uncertainties or last minute changes which do not allow me much time to process my thoughts.
Who am I? That has been the question that remains in my head. I always had a hard time describing myself to others and I did not think that a forty minute assessment would be the tool to make that question answerable. Before taking the assessment I would describe my strengths as being calm, friendly, and outgoing, but after analyzing the descriptions I am more confident what my true strengths are. When I first heard that we had to an online assessment I thought it would be a waste of time.
It is widely believed that knowing yourself, both your weakness and strength, is of significant importance to your life in every espects and can be a life long journey to discover. I have to admit that I feel lucky to be given this opportunity to take the strengthsquest and enlightened to be aware of my talents with the report. Analytical, Achiever, Ideation, Relator and competition are my dominant themes. In this thesis, I will be discussing about how I can utilize these five dominant themes respectively to overcome barriers and discouragements to believe in myself as well as how I can find my direction and establish my future goals and perform every step along the way in excellent level. To find the right path to success and reach our destination, we need to overcome various difficulties with strong confidence.
I qualify for this scholarship because I have put forth an enormous amount of effort to improve my life by bettering myself and transmuting into the mother my son deserves. This has meant overcoming copious personal confrontations these past two years, and developing in an outside of the classroom. Growing up in a house with an undiagnosed bipolar/schizophrenic abusive father was complicating. As a child, I was so perplexed about what was going on, what I had done so iniquitous to merit all the pain, and the lies I was repetitively being told to tell - that I never spoke. Despite the frequent one-way comments of concern, straight A’s seemed to overcompensate for my lack of speech, and the abuse was kept surreptitious for numerous years by merely transferring schools consistently.
I believe that Christopher sees himself as normal but at the same times he knows he isn’t like everyone else. He deals with the fact that he is different from others by keeping to himself and not talking to strangers. He also doesn’t really get how they are and he knows they act different from him. “I do not like strangers because I do not like people I have never met before. They are hard to understand (pg.31)”.
The dawn of college life marks the advent of an era of circumscribed development of an individual with a partial shade of parental assistance. This exposure brings out the real persona out of each one of us with the friends, the society and the nation at large. Often it exposes the unpleasant sides of many of us.
