All about my life final reflection paper

I never thought that I would be writing a paper about my life. I am 47 years old and going back to school to get a degree to prove to myself that I can do this. In this paper, you will learn a little about me, my dreams, the things I like to do, some of the things that I have learned while being in school, new experiences through using adult development theories class, and my family. I will also look forward to the future and what goals I will set for myself to accomplish through getting my degree.

I grew up in Texas. By the time I was old enough to start school, all I ever wanted to be was nurse. My mom had a book that kept records like report cards, awards, notes from the teacher, and certificates. At the bottom of each page of this school year book, it asks the question. What do you want to be when you grow up? You had options to choose from like doctor, lawyer, veterinarian, school bus driver plus a few more. I had a chance to look over that book not long ago and found that every page had a check by nurse, all the way up to the 8th grade.

Ever since 1992, I have been taking an academic skills test for the nursing program in Woodville, Texas. The test is at Tyler County Hospital. The test they use now is the TEAS test (Texas Educational Assessment Study). Other times it had been a test like the GED study guide, now they use the TEAS. Every time I had taken the test, I failed.

All about My4 There were times I would be on my way to take the test and have a flat tire, and then I would have to use my test money to get it fixed. I had attempted taking the test for almost 15 years, never got close enough to get in. I never got into nursing school.

The last time I took the test was in 2010. I had been working for a retirement facility as a cook, decided to take the test one more time. Took the test, felt good about it, and received a letter in the mail telling me my score. I was as all right I am going to nursing school, finally. Put in my notice at my job, during those two weeks got another letter showing my grade for that year. The first one I received was from the previous year. The score for getting into this nursing school was that you needed to get a 60% or better. Mine was a 59. 4%. Now I have no job, no school I can go to, and I cried for two days. I was so upset, not only not getting into nursing school, I no longer had a job. I went back to see if I could get my job back but they had already hired my replacement. I took a hard look at my life. What do I want to do for the rest of my life?

While I was still in school, I kept the thought of being a nurse in the back of my mind. This reminds me of the time my mom took me out of school. I was sixteen years old, in the 8th grade, and had friends. My mom took me out of school at that age with the promise she would put me back in when she was done. My grandfather had esophageal cancer. She took me out of school so I could be home to watch my baby brother because she could not find a babysitter. She was there at her father’s side until he passed away. When she returned from Houston, it was not that she wanted me back in school, she wanted there to clean house, take care of the baby, and fix meals so she did not have to. I started misbehaving, as a typical teenager does at that age, I rebelled. All About My5

I did not want to mind and I thought several times about running away. I took it upon myself to go to the school to reenroll but the school said that I could not because I would be too old for my graduating class. I told them I did not care how old I would be, I just wanted my education. They said the best thing for me to do was go to an alternative school or go get my GED. Before I was 18, I was married an out of the house. I did not feel like I was being like a kid but like an adult. So what did I do? I got married at 17 years old. We were only together for a month. I found out that he was cheating on me with my best friend at the time. I left and went back home to be treated like a very young adult. In 1992, I became a free woman, had achieved my GED. I proved to myself that I could do it and then some. After that, I picked up a few hobbies that I had come to realize how it helped to relieve stress.

Since I was seventeen, I had picked up a few hobbies that were great stress reducers. Crocheting is an art, some call it a lost art but I call it a talent. I started with one needle, one skein of yarn, and a friend to teach me. This art will get your mind off whatever has made you stress. Over the years, I have accomplished many projects. Some I have sold and some I have just given away as gifts. I can get lost in my crocheting, making baby hats to adult hats, afghan’s, throws, baby booties, and other different cute stuff. Therefore, now I am working on caps for premature and newborn babies. When I get enough made, I am will donate them to my local hospitals.

All About My6 My love of photography turned this into a hobby for me. My photos are purely amateur. I do not like taking still shots or posed shots. The ones I like to take are the ones you cannot get in a pose. Like a child playing in the water hose for the first time and catching all the little droplets of water that is falling around his face or the looks he has when the water is hitting him in the face or his head. The first snow of a late winter season makes beautiful pictures. A picture of your back yard with your horse out in the field coming to you to see if it is time to eat. A photo of the road in which you lived and snow covering everything and all you see is a blanket of white with tire tracks going down the road. The natural shots are the kind I like to take because you will never get those photo opportunities again. I would love to have to chance to take more photos of natural settings. The only still shots I will take will be of my crocheted items and my cakes that I bake and decorate.

I started baking and decorating cakes after my second marriage. I was working at a truck stop restaurant when I started letting people know that I could make cakes. My first cake was a 75th anniversary cake, all white with a little silver. I even delivered it to them. I have made a three tier wedding cake, birthday cakes, specialty cakes( meaning different shapes), baby shower cakes, Halloween cakes, and German chocolate cakes with made from scratch icing(this one is a favorite cake in my extended family). I made this for a family gathering on my husband’s side and now it is my trademark for gatherings on his side.

You know that family has a very strong meaning to everyone that has a family. To me a family united is a whole. When you marry it is not just my family, it is our family. You help

All About My7 the family when they fall on hard times. Before I married my husband, I was a single mom of three kids, working two jobs to take care of them, and being both father and mother to them. I was doing the best that I could to raise three children. I can be open about this for a reason. I didn’t know what a family was when I was raising my kids by myself, till I married my husband and his family showed me what it was, what it means, and what togetherness really meant.

I met my husband while I working at the truck stop. It took him two weeks to ask me to out on a date. After that, we were together for about a year and got married then. For three years, I kept waiting for him to hit me, until this day he has never laid a hand on me, and made me the promise that he never would. We have been together almost 6 years now; we have not had an argument, a fight, or a disagreement. From what I can gather in loving him, we never will. He is good to me and he is good for me. He is very proud of me for going back to school. He tells me every day how much he loves me and gives me the support that I need in not giving up on my schooling or myself.

My children are all grown up now. Living their own lives and raising their own families. I can just about bet you that if something happens with my kids, the first call they are going to make is going to be to momma. When that happens I will comfort them, console them, help them if I am able, and love them as much or even more so since their birth. I tried my very best in raising my children to know what is right and what is wrong. My kids learned that if it is not yours you do not touch it. If you did not buy it, do not steal it. If you want something, ask for it. I tried to make my children understand there is nothing that is free in this world. I cherish my

All About My8 children and I do not know what I would do if I ever was to lose one of them. With my children, you know there is going to be grandchildren. I now have five beautiful grandchildren, two girls, and three boys. They each have their own little personalities. They each seem to be finding something that their daddy did when he was their age.

I have a city girl, a tomboy, two country boys, and a newborn. I am hoping that they do not do some of the things their daddy did but who knows what will come around. His blood runs through their veins, so there might be more things that will come through before it has all said and done. I am hoping and praying that my oldest son will teach and raise them the way I taught him for all those years. I taught my children the best that I could as a single parent. I use the help of my extended family for advice when I have a question that I do not have an answer for or see if we need to plan a party.

Extended family is when you can include your in laws, aunts, uncles, and cousins. They all play a role in the family circle. In our studies, I learned from Bronfenbrenner’s ecology of human development, that his theory based on human development and the purpose for it. He said, “ Human development is best explained in terms of the interaction between individuals and the environment in which they live or have lived”. If you put yourself in the middle of this ring, you will see that in the middle along with yourself, you have family, school, neighborhood, and church. Looking at these rings of ecology, you will see that the four that I described above also have human development that makes your rings grow more within the family. Your rings get bigger when you add more family.

All About My9 The choices that we make in life determine who or what we are going to be later in life. I made the decision to go back to school. When I did, it was the best decision I had ever made in my life. I should have done this when I graduated with my GED but things happen in life that makes the change for us. I am hoping that once I achieve my goal in getting my degree that I can be able to not only help myself but those who are around me. I want my children and grandchildren to be able to come to me and ask me a question and I can answer it correctly. I am going to prove to myself and anyone else that I am smart, funny, quirky, and good at what I do. Everything that I have gone through in my life has been a hard road to hold. With determination, persistence, and willpower I can achieve whatever goal I set for myself. As long as I have the support of my family and friends, the goals that are set forth right now are the goals that I will accomplish.

All About My10

In my paper, I discussed what my dreams were, my family, my hobbies, my education, what I have learned from taking the adult development theories class, and my classmates. I let you into my life and introduced you to several things that were and are a part of my life, like who I am as a person and the type of person that I am. My opinions and views are that of my own and no one can ever change that about me. I talked about how in our everyday lives, that we all change in personalities, traits, psychologically, and socioemotionally. Sometimes we grow and flourish. Then there are times we just inch along until we do flourish.

Growing up for me was not easy at all. My parents divorced when I was eleven years old. We move around a lot. I had to grow up fast. I had to do the cooking, cleaning, and washing clothes. In the way I was being brought up, I can now understand why I am not good in math but I am willing to learn everything that I can learn. Being in college will allow me to do that. My reasoning for going back to school now, is for my personal satisfaction. Knowing that I can accomplish whatever I set my mind to. According to where my state of mind is when I graduate, I will know then whether to keep going to college.