It seems from a few moments after I
was born I have always been learning about something. It is a process that has
never really stopped, I believe, for anyone. Continued education in my life and
for my family has been a welcomed and challenging process. Though the choice to
continue my education here at Rose has been a choice of my own, there have been
many events in my life that brought me here and even more events to guide me
afterwards.
From birth to Pre-K was the time of
discovery on my own and my parents second attempt at a type of home schooling.
My sister was there first experiment though I feel that she has been an
independent thinker since birth, my parents did very well with both her and I.
It was the time that they taught me talk, walk, eat, and mostly be a civilized
person. We are still improving on the latter but I am turning out fine I feel
no matter what my spouse may say at times. I do not remember most of it at all
to be honest but the seed that was sown over thirty years ago would begin to
take root into the tree we see now today.
The stories that could be told of my
K-12 years of education number around the thousands, some are great and some
are of disaster. The main theme though would be that I survived and graduated,
barely at the end but I still graduated. I experienced the same twists and
turns that every child feels that they experience alone and no one else
understands my problems, especially my parents. My parents became weird aliens
from another planet that did not know a thing about anything I was going
through. If I only knew then what I know now I would have shut up, listened,
and done what I was told more often. Yet these moments of rebellion, experimentation,
and when they don’t touch it’s hot, it is indeed hot, lead me into the
beginning of an education that less than 1% of Americans partake in.
I think my time in the Military was
my most crucial and concrete learning experience. You must admire the approach
of basic training; tear an individual down to nothing and build him back up as
a soldier and team player. It was the swift kick in the rear that I needed for
my time between high school and basic training was a whole learning experience
of what not to do when you think you know it all. It would mold my mind set
forever, but the most important lesson to grasp would be that the mold is never
full.
There is a day in everyone’s life
where they turn a certain age and realize they are grown up and think, “Now
what?” I am sure for some there are many variations to it with some more harsh
for others, but that moment might have happened to me around the age of thirty.
So now….. what? Well I found the answer was that I did not want to work the
floor at Tinker AFB forever. I feel I would commit many harsh mistakes when it
came to trying to run my shop from the everyday worker position so I set out to
take the position of a boss. I figured if I cannot change things from the
floor level I will advance enough to make the changes I feel need to happen.
That resting place would be at the position of Deputy Chief. Mr. Smith currently fills that spot quit well and, with the help of my supervisor, both
have been a wonderful mentor for my job and goals. It was the two of them that
pushed me to continue my education and get off the floor to make a difference
in the future.
All these moments in my life combined
one after another have greatly influenced my education to where I am now. I
truly feel that I can and will earn a Bachelors degree, I would be the first in
my family, and to even continue to the Masters level. It is as important to me
as it is important to my family, not only to earn a better living for them but
to also set an example that even with a full time job and helping raise three
children it can be done. For the greatest education to have is to realize that
till the day you die you will never stop learning.Noble Text
