Education Through My Eyes

Instructions were to describe my personal challenges and experiences of college education.

Michael Llaury
Professor Ball
English 111-4241
30 January 2009

Education Through My Eyes

In order for me to describe my educational experiences, I must first share my cultural background. I was born in Peru in 1982 and lived there until I reached the age of 10 in 1992. My first school years were spent in elementary school learning and studying in the Spanish language. I completed my first four years of school in Peru and everything seemed pretty normal at the time, but that would soon change. My parents decided to move our family to the United States mainly because of the large amounts of terrorist activities going on in Peru at the time. I have to admit the transition did not come easy. Leaving Peru at the age of 10 had a significant impact on my life, the cultural changes I faced were difficult; the nonetheless I was also glad to arrive in a safer place, although I was partly filled with melancholy about leaving family and friends behind.

I began a new life in the United States and looked forward to continuing my education. The process of adapting to the ways of the American school system was difficult, the main reason being the language barrier. Within a short period of time I overcame that barrier and everything just sort of fell into place in my schooling. Years passed pretty normal without any major events in my education. During my high school years, I was an average student and was uncertain about my post secondary education. When high school was over with in 2001, I decided to join the Marine Corps and was glad to be able to serve this country as it had served me. Unfortunately I was injured in training and was discharged for medical reasons. When I came back home from training I knew I had to go to school and make something better of myself.

It was a sudden change from originally planning to serve in the military for four years to suddenly looking for a job, a place to live and making plans to return to school. I had to put my education on hold while I searched for work and a place live because I did not want to stay with my parents because I felt I was an adult and had to take make it on my own. When I finally decided to pursuit a better education in 2003, it had become sort of difficult to understand my courses due to the amount of time I had been out of school. With patience and guidance from professors, I overcame those difficulties and was able to pass a few courses. I managed to go to school for a couple semesters without any major interruptions.

Many things changed in 2004 and I had some tough personal decisions to make. My job became a lot more demanding. I was required to work additional hours which really interfered with my college education. I also got married this year and things really changed for me. I had to change my plans. My wife was pregnant and I felt I had to put my education on hold because I had more important tasks and responsibilities and would be able to resume my college education following personal obligations.

Two years went by and after successfully providing for my family and with things at home going according to plan; I started to consider going back to school. It was very challenging to get everything organized and manage time accordingly. One of the hardest challenges was be being able to pay for tuition expenses, managing my schedule between work and classes was another big challenge since I worked in a very busy and demanding environment and was always expected to work extra hours as needed (I have to mention that my job at the time wasn't very supportive of my education). It was very difficult to concentrate on my studies when I had to deal with exhaustion from work and still had many family responsibilities. I eventually started being absent from classes due mostly to extra working hours that just happened to be required at work just when I started to attend classes. I also did not have much time to work on assignments and this caused me to consider withdrawing from school, which I eventually did. I stayed out of school for a little bit over a year and just concentrated on work and my family.

The year 2008 was a critical year in my life and especially as far as education goes. It was kind of a transitional time for me mainly because I was forced to look for a new job due to a shutdown of operations at my job. I guess I also took my share of the economic crisis. I believe in my situation most people would be overwhelmed with worry, but I saw this as an opportunity for a new beginning and was very motivated to start a new career. I had no problem finding work and managed to get a government job working for the North Carolina division of Emergency Management. I really like this job and the way I could make a difference in people's lives. The work environment was good and my supervisor really supported me in continuing my college education and even told me I could take some time during working hours to work on assignment and be able to change my working hours if needed. This was a very positive turn of events for me and I even changed my degree major from "Computer Information Systems" to an "Emergency Management" degree major. I am currently taking classes at Wake Tech and everything seems to be going according to plan. I am now able to manage work, school and family responsibilities without too much difficulty. I hope everything keeps going accordingly but I have also learned from past failures and am making backup plans in case anything tries to intervene with my schooling again. I have managed to save up a large amount of money just in case I lose my job or something else happens. I believe being prepared will really help me concentrate on my schooling without unnecessary worries going through my head. I feel this time around I will be able to complete my associate degree at Wake Tech and be able to transfer to a four-year university. In conclusion I have learned my lesson about college education. I must put it first in priority and sacrifice spending time with my family and put work second to my education because I seek a better education to get a better career and be able to provide a better life for my family.

Overall a strong essay. You might want to focus a bit less on the problems you faced (not a lot less, just condense some of the events that sort of overlap anyway) in order to talk more about your backup plans and what you've learned from your experiences, just to make sure you emphasize the positive changes as much as the negative disruptions to your past education.

You might also want to consider shortening your concluding sentence: "I must put it first in priority and sacrifice spending time with my family and put work second to my education because I seek a better education to get a better career and be able to provide a better life for my family." This is a bit repetitive, and you should probably end on a more concise, punchy, memorable note.

How about like this:

The year 2008 was a critical year in my life and especially with regard to m y education.

Wow, this is so well written I have a hard time finding ways to help Here is one, though:

The work environment was good, and my supervisor really supported me in continuing my college education; he told me I could take some time during working hours to work on assignments and even change my working hours if needed.

You have an impressive and interesting story. Good luck in school!!!

Thank you very much for your replies. They have really helped me a lot.
Thanks Again.