Personal Narrative: Approaching Prairie View A & M University

Upon arriving to Miami Dade College, you will never imagine all the resources offered to students to succeed during their scholastic years. I’ve been lucky enough to been advised by some of the best staff at their Interamerican campus. From their advisement office to their profoundly knowledgeable professors. As a current student of ENC1102, we were required to attend one section with a tutor at the writing center. I always thought I had sufficient knowledge of the English language and taking time out of my busy schedule to attend a section with a tutor was absurd.

When I was was younger, I was a caterpillar crawling around trying to get through life, waiting to turn into the beautiful butterfly I know I could soon become. I made good decisions along with bad ones, saw the beauty in life as well as the unpleasant. I was like everyone else trying to be their own person, but now as I look at myself in the mirror I can finally see who I really am. I see myself as the beautiful butterfly I once dreamed of becoming, ready to fly down my own path. I have been in my chrysalis and I am finally out and ready to fly into my bright future.

I am first generation college student. I started Florida Gulf Coast University four years after I migrated from Jamaica along with my Dad, in pursuits of “an opportunity”- something that is very scarce outside of the continental United States. Before coming to FGCU, I went to Miramar High School; I graduated with honors and promised my Dad that within four years I would bring home my bachelors degree in Finance. August 14th, 2013 marked move in day at Florida Gulf Coast University. My first few weeks at Florida Gulf Coast University introduced me to the dreariest days and nights of my life.

I first started thinking about college seriously two years ago. Last year was when I first heard about your college, Dallas Baptist University. It sounded too good to be true. A college close to my home, I could drive home every other weekend. You have good programs and degrees based off of my career interests.

When I started high school, the club that excited me the most, was National Honors Society. So, at the first chance I got, in my sophomore year. After being a member for a year, I quickly realized that I wanted to take on a leadership opportunity in the club. So, I took a shot for the stars, and campaigned for being president of Honors Society. Though I had some competition, I put my all into composing a speech, and I won the presidency, and I have been president since.

In my freshman year, I made a choice to relinquish some of my social life and replace that time giving back to my community. I joined a non-profit organization called the Volunteer Corp. We spent our time at food banks, park clean-ups, and even hosting local events. This experience left a lasting impression on me in many ways; however, one experience changed my perspective on life and serve as a constant reminder of how the smallest contribution to others can be the most powerful. St. Joseph University, in Philadelphia, held an event called Hand in Hand. It was an event dedicated to raising awareness for people with physical and/or developmental disabilities.

Getting involved means being apart of something more, having the chance to met different people, helping out the community, but its also means learning more about who you are as a person. Starting off at Washburn University I plan to get involved right away, in activities or clubs that would help my academically and socially like the Hispanic club , Freethinkers and French club. I will set goals for myself and achieve them, some small some big. One goal I am pursuing right now is learning french and Portuguese, i plan on going to Brazil next year. School goals, are turning in my work on time, stay focused on any task that is given to me, making sure I understand what i need to do and how to do it.

Deciding to attend Texas A&M University was both a hardship and immense, opportunity in my life. Coming from a close knit background, and possessing a very family oriented character, my decision to come to this incredible institution was one out of my comfort zone. If I was to be asked one year ago, If I could ever see myself standing on this marvelous campus, attending one of the top schools in the nation, I would have honestly responded, no. My counselors would have said no, my friends, my college advisor, my family. The answer would not have been yes, not because I wasn 't capable of meeting the standards to attend, but because there seemed more obstacles in my way than there was forces pushing me forward.

At the airport my friend Eduardo, since elementary school, and the coach from my college, picked me up at the airport. On the way to the college I was asking questions about the college to my friend because he knew better than I the college and the baseball team. I remember my first question that I ask Eduardo was that if the temperature became more heated because by that time the temperature was cold, and he said “Yeah, the temperature is going to get heated in a couple of weeks”, and I said “I hope so because I don’t like cold temperature”. We spend an hour to get to Clarendon College, finally I arrived and unpack my clothes and get everything really for my first day at College.

I can contribute my hard work to the Honors College community. I think that I am hardworking and I love to work with others to help solve problems because two heads are always better than one. I would contribute my ideas to the lessons and help others when they need it. I love to be able to work with other people outside my comfort zone and be able to hear their ideas and combine ideas to come up with something that will benefit everyone in the community.

But yeah that party was awesome we had a lot of booze as well as had the best quality of weed. I was totally drunk and was constantly asking for my cell from my friend – but obvious to call a girl whom I liked a lot. Currently I am too thankful to him that he didn’t give me my cell otherwise I would’ve screwed up everything. So back to that part- after reaching to my limit they lit that stuff up and guys I can’t tell you how I was feeling I was on another level. That night I slept at 4 in the morning and went to station with two of my best buddies at 7.

It was the last week of summer vacation. I was tired, I was stressed, and I couldn 't take it anymore. There was no solution till now and I needed one as soon as possible. I can 't keep all this pain in me. So I decided to meet up with my friend.

The Honors College path has five different pathways which include: undergraduate research, study aboard, service learning, internships, and campus leadership. The two pathways that I will incorporate into my four years here at Western are service learning and internships. I have a love for helping the people not only in my community, but anywhere I can help. For my major, I will have to do internships and clinical rotations to obtain my degree. Even though I am only choosing two, I believe that they all may cross my path in the four years here at Western.

I hate myself for even going to that party. The guy that chose to rape me was a very close friend that I had known for years, since I was nine. His name was Gee'. He was Mexican or some shit. But I know he was tall about 5'9 weighed about 155 lbs.

So far my first semester here at Neosho County Community College has been good. I have experienced lots of things these past six months. And there are lots of things the incoming freshman should know, but the three major things that I experienced were, procrastination, Grades and, dorm problems. I have faced those three problems a lot just in my first semester of college and those are also problems freshman all over the world face.