Personal Narrative: Moving Back To School

Moving from one school to another is hard but moving from one continent to another is harder. At the age of 11, my mom and stepdad gathered up all our stuff and flew my family to the USA. I had to leave everything behind and live this new life. I was very nervous to start my first day of seventh grade in Sherrard Jr. High but the people here were very welcoming.

Hello Mrs. Kim. I hope you had an amazing summer. I can not believe how summer has gone this fast. And I never really expected high school to come this early. It is as if middle school was still on its way trying to find ways to squeeze in my life, or at least that’s what I feel.

Going back to school has always been on my mind but never a priority. I allowed other life distractions to interfere. After what seems like years of trying to find my identity and motivation, I have finally decided to go back to school to better not only my life but my daughter’s as well. Being a single mother of one, I want my daughter to see that not only your skill set, but a college degree is a great way to start your career and meet the expectations you set for yourself. The expectations I have for myself are finishing my Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management and eventually finishing with my MBA in Human Resources.

If I were the person that I used to be back in high school, or even directly after high school, I would fail these classes with straight “F”s. The reason is not because I was not smart enough, but because I was not willing to put in the effort, concentration, and dedication needed to get a good grade. This is hard work! Good thing I decided to grow up a bit in the past 14 years so I take it seriously.

This letter is to address my changing of school within the past few year. I first attended Pennsylvania Highlands Community College starting in high school and had received an Associates in Liberal Arts; I had left this institution to pursue other education opportunities. Attending Mount Aloysius College based on an interest in their nursing program, I had decided to leave this institution after not being accepted into the nursing degree. Conemaugh School of Nursing, I voluntarily took leave after my father passing away unexpectedly, leaving business and personal matter that needed my immediate attention. Most recently I had attended Saint Francis University, where I would still be attending today, but I had lost a large scholarship that was

I dedicated myself to passing geometry in order to be accepted at CSU Channel Islands. Unfortunately, my admission was rescinded because I did not meet the geometry requirement because I went through a lot of stress meanwhile geometry being a challenging subject for me was not helping the situation. I was close to meeting the requirement, but I was not able to improve enough. As I previously mentioned, I went through a lot of stress during my senior year because I was going through personal issues.

With senior year of high school coming to a close, comes an overwhelming amount of stress about moving away to college. At the beginning of this school year, I was eager to leave and excited to go away, but I came to a realization that leaving home alarms me. At this point in time, I began to notice just how much my parents do for me and just ruminating about everything I would have to do on my own now, makes me nervous. School has never been an issue for me but what my friends say about college, makes it even more petrified to go. Being constantly asked questions like, “how do you always get your work done?” or “how do you have such good time management?” reassures me that I will do fine in college.

Returning to college for me was something that really came unexpectedly. I joined the military in 2008 after stopping just three credits short of my degree in Culinary Arts at the Art Institute of Ft Lauderdale. I surely thought when I joined the Army that it would be my career until retirement so college was never in the books for me. However, as fate would have it I am here today recently retired from the Army at the age of 32 and enrolled as a full-time student. Even though my return to college was not planned I am truly excited to become proficient in a new trade.

Entering high school my freshman year, many things were new to me, and I wasn’t sure what I was going to get involved in as a student. The only thing I was sure of was that I was going to play high school soccer. I’d been playing soccer since I was about 8 years old, and finally having the ability to play for the high school I grew up watching was exhilarating. My main goal going into the soccer program was that I wanted to make the varsity soccer team by my senior year in high school- my brother had been a former varsity player, and I greatly wanted to fill his shoes and leave my mark at the school. Throughout my four years in the program, that was my main focus, but I was happy to discover that I was also making friends along the way.

Going to school shaped who I am in many ways. It taught me how to do math, how to write, and many other things that have interested me and that made me think. School also brought my friends and I together. Without school bringing these things to me, I wouldn 't be who I am today. When I first went to school I was very excited, hyper, and emotional.