GOALS: FINAL!

FINAL

    There are many goals I wish to achieve in my lifetime. My short term 

goal is to graduate college.  Growing up, I tried to be a great student

but school was always a problem for me.  I did not understand the

importance of education and  I was more focused on sports.  As I got

older, I experienced things that changed my perspective of life.   

      

    One experience I had growing up was dealing with my parents 

death.  When I was almost four years old, my Mother had dementia for

a couple of months.  Two days before my fourth birthday she died from a

tumor in her brain.  The following year, 1997, my Father met a woman 

named Susan and a year later they married and she became my 

stepmother.  Since my biological mom died when I was so young, Susan

came into my life and I automatically perceived her as my Mother.  By

the time I turned nine years old, my Father started becoming really sick. 

He had damaged his liver to a level three of Cirrhosis. The only possible

way for him to live was a liver transplant. On June 10, 2003, my Father 

was in the hospital.  He was nodding off as if he was extremely tired, and

after a couple of nods, he nodded one last time. I could not believe my 

father died in front of me.

 
    As time went by, I slowly started to see my life in a different

way.  I realized the importance of family and education.  My biological 

mother and father never attended college so I decided to become more 

involved in my schoolwork.  Even though my biological parents were not 

around to see it, I wanted to make them and my stepmother proud.  I 

wanted to educate myself so I set a goal; I am going to finish high school 

and graduate college.  In high school, one thing that motivated me to 

stick to my goal was sports.  Being a student athlete helped me stay in

school and maintain good grades.  I graduated high school as Student 

Athlete of The Year.  After completing high school, I wanted to achieve 

even more. 

    On the path to graduating college, I will try to keep my GPA 

above a 3.0 and improve on my weaknesses.  I want to strengthen 

my study habits and become more attentive.  I have always had trouble 

in writing class and I know that this year I will improve.  Even attending

the Writing Center has helped me.  Also, going to the library for some 

quite time has helped me to do my work more efficiently.  Until I get my

degree, I am going to always remind myself the exact reason why I am

in college; to show my parents, even though they have past away, that I

accomplished something that they would've been very proud of. 

    I am now attending college and that much closer to my short

term goal.  Graduating college means a lot more to me than it did in the

past.  I have educated myself on the importance of education and why it

is needed in the society we live in today.  I think that our experiences

affect how we choose to live our lives.  My experience helped me realize

how I wanted to live my life.  It made me want to educate myself and to

pay attention to the more important things in life.  One day I will reach

my goal and I will graduate from college.  In the future, I will use the

lessons I've learned in my life experiences and the lessons I've learned in

school to inspire others.