I remember there was a time when I really wanted to become a teacher. As a child I thought that it must be the coolest thing in the world to share your knowledge with others and have children look up to you. During my teenage years, I still held onto this thought and I just knew I would/could be one of the best teachers there ever were. When I’d reached 18, I was determined to achieve a Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary/Special Education. I was happy with my major and I was doing quite well until I had to attend field study…
I ended up doing this field work in a middle school located in a bad area in my city. That’s when I realized that working with children just wasn’t for me. Some of the children were very misguided and of course, it was left up to the teachers and their aides to make sure the kids were on the right track…education wise. The children were very disrespectful, disorderly and most of them had troubles at home. The sad thing is, this wasn’t a school for troubled children. Some of the children confided in me and loved me but in the inside I literally had zero patience. I didn’t know how to behave around children. If a child fell and scraped his/her knee, I’d think to myself, Okay, now get up, be tough and brush yourself off. These words danced around in my head and I felt like a jerk for even having such thoughts. I knew where it came from, though. My mother had always taught me that things happen in life, we fall, we hurt, we cry but eventually we moved on. She wasn’t very peachy when it came to life and she surely didn’t sugarcoat anything. She was strict and tough and raised me to be the same way. When I was around those children, I couldn’t understand why they whined and cried over the smallest things. I didn’t understand why some of them were so spoiled. Most of all, I didn’t understand why they’d give so much trouble to their teacher who came in everyday giving her all to smarten them up so that they could use this knowledge to better themselves.
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I had a different appreciation for certain things in life. My life was never a walk in the park. I grew up in a fatherless home with two younger sisters who I’d always had to look out for. My family and I didn’t have much at all. We didn’t have a lot of the luxuries that our friends may have had, such as game consoles, bikes and new clothing on a regular basis. I was appreciative that I had a roof over my head, clothes on my back and a closely knit family, even if it was small. If I fell and scraped my knee, I got up, washed myself off and kept on moving. If I didn’t understand something, I asked questions until I did. I wasn’t a prideful child, I knew that in this world there were stepping stones to different areas of knowledge and I utilized every single one of them. If I couldn’t have something that I truly wanted, that was alright with me because I
didn’t truly need it. Some people fail in life because they want so badly to get out of certain situations that they forget important things and lose their way. If they’re having troubles at home, they’d rather leave, drop out of school and become stagnant. I never liked my living arrangements or my life when I was younger. I appreciated everything I had but I knew that if I wanted to get more, I had to be determined, intelligent and successful. How logical is it to run away from troubles and run right into the arms of
nothing? I dealt with all of my troubles for as long as I could until I finished school. I knew that doing well in school would guarantee me the possible knowledge I needed.
Now, I’m currently working for a marketing company here in Philadelphia. It isn’t my dream job, but it’s reliable enough to pay the bills. I’ve decided to finally go back to college. This time, my concentration would be in Information Technology. It will be the stepping stone to work for the FBI, which is one of the things I’ve already had an interest in. I allowed myself to let people discourage me from it. People would always tell me that having a job in the FBI wasn’t “traditional” for a woman, but I truly beg to differ. I spoke with an enrollment adviser at Walden University, which is an online college. I figured it would be a lot easier for me if I took college courses online because it would allow me the time I needed to work full time. Once everything is set, I’ll be starting school on January 17, 2012. I honestly cannot wait to get started. I think that this is a good opportunity for me to finally get the life I feel that I deserve. I’ll not only be helping people and making more money, but I’ll be doing something that interests me.
If you have a dream, go for it, no matter what it is. Never let anything or anyone stand in your way. The worse thing you could ever do is second guess yourself. I believe every person has the capability of doing whatever they want to do if they’re determined enough.
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