I started my college education right after my graduation from high school in 1999. I knew that I would need to earn a degree if I wanted to succeed and achieve the goal I had set for myself for the time I turned 30 years old. After my fourth year in college (still a college junior) I got married and made plans with my wife to finish our schooling. A few months after we were married, we were blessed with our first unexpected child. While we were extremely happy for my wife’s pregnancy it did however, put our education goals on hold. For the next four years my wife and I worked different decent paying jobs that made us complacent with not having our college degrees.
In September 2007 my wife got pregnant with our second child. I took a look at my life and realized that I had been working in dead end jobs. I decided that it was time to look for a job that would perhaps lead me to a career. I turned to my younger sister for advice. She had graduated from the University of California, Riverside where I had also attended college. She had been working for over two years for an auto insurance company in California. I never bothered to ask my sister about her job or even how much she made. She told me that she had started her position at $16 an hour with a company car, cell phone, laptop and other incentives. Two years later she was making $22 an hour. Her position of course required a college degree. She advised me that most insurance companies do have positions for “non-degree” personnel. Between the time I decided to search for a new job and by the time I spoke to my sister, I had realized that I had invested four years of my life and a substantial amount of money. I became determined to finish what I had started.
I decided that I wanted to work for an insurance company and I applied to company that I had always wanted to work for. Fortunately the company was interested in me and I was offered a “non-degree” job and I was more than happy to accept it. I took a pay cut but I wanted to explore my options. I learned that by obtaining my degree I could apply for a degreed position and get a pay increase of ten to fifteen thousand dollars. I realized how much money I was losing by not having my degree. Now I was inspired to finish my college education. I want to finish my education not only to earn more money but because now I know that I will be able to achieve my goal I had set for myself when I started my college education. I will be able to have my own home, a car for my wife and one for me. I will be able to take a week long vacation with my family and travel to a different state every year. My first trip will be to West Virginia when I attend my graduation ceremony.
I want to finish my degree and I know that it will take lots of effort and reading. I want to read all that I can because I want to expand my vocabulary. I deal with people day in and day out. I want to be able to communicate clearly and precisely. I think that attending an online college will be useful for me because I will be using technology along with good old fashion books to study and complete my assignments. I am a self taught computer technology, so navigating and familiarizing myself with the online campus was a challenge I’ve welcomed and have faced without fear of “breaking” anything.
When I started college I was in it just because my parents always told me that I should go to college. With time and through my own experience I have come to realize that college is not only necessary to succeed in today’s world but can also be useful in other ways. Attending college has helped to develop an inquisitive mind and to enjoy learning. If I don’t know or understand I’m not afraid to ask questions. Because I’m able to analyze and inquire, I consider myself an educated person. I do not consider myself better or worst than anyone else, but I do think that most people without a college education are at a disadvantage. Some uneducated members of my family believe everything they hear and watch on television. They are not able to analyze what they hear and question it or agree because they think its right. Instead they take everything on its face value as things are presented to them. I want to use my education to learn, inquire and analyze.
Perhaps the most formidable challenge that I will face in completing my degree, will be time management. As a full time parent, student, husband and employee I will have a difficult time balancing my duties and responsibilities to ensure that I don’t neglect any of them. I will also face the usual college challenges such as procrastination and peer pressure. I am determined to do well in school and so I have dealt with procrastination. My peer pressure would’ve come from my wife asking me if I was done with my homework so that I could spend time with her and our children. I wanted to deal with this challenge swiftly and so this is my solution: in order to succeed my wife and I need our degrees, so my wife is also going back to school. We have divided the week so that we both have time to complete our school work while the other cares for our children and allowed for one day off school work. This will allow us both to complete our assignments and it will also allow us to spend time with our children.
The number one reason why I want to complete my degree is because I want to set an example for my children. I was blessed to have parents that told me I had to go to college but they did not lead me by example. I want to lead my children by example and make the best case that I can as to why their education will be their greatest investment and achievement. Ultimately, it will be their decision to make but I know that it will be an educated decision.
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