Story About My Hard Life: Despite Everything - Essay Example

Individuals to find themselves based on their experiences. This is true regardless of whether a person has a college degree or was a high school dropout. The experiences that individuals have provided a fundamental level of determination for the way to their future life might develop. With this being said, it should not be misunderstood that personal experience is free determinant for the way in which behavior will take place. The case of my own life exhibits many less than pleasant experiences; however, regardless of this, I have focused on fulfilling my own interests and focusing upon self betterment at each and every opportunity. Born in July 1993, my early life was defined by hardships and the interactions and experiences that I had with my fellow siblings. All told, there were six of us in a single-parent household. Whereas divorce is the most common reason for single-parent households, my own family was torn apart as a result of the fact that my father died in a tragic auto accident when I was only a preteen. This of course had a dramatic impact upon me; and removed a father figure from my life that might otherwise have been instrumental in encouraging me and providing material support for my own education. With this father figure removed, my mother played an increasingly important role with respect to my own development and in helping me to understand my place in the world. To this day, I revere my mother and respect her more than any other individual; as for self-sacrifice, long hours, and tireless work provide for me in my siblings has created nothing short of a lifetime of gratitude on my part. As I began to mature, many of my friends and family members were having children long before they were ready. This included individuals that were having children prior to marriage or individuals that were becoming pregnant or having children while they were still in high school. As I saw this, I realized that even though I cannot make a value judgment based on whether or not this type of behavior was “wrong” or “right”, I realized that if I were to achieve success, to any degree, I should necessarily avoid having children at an early age. As a result of the hardships that friends and acquaintances experience from becoming pregnant or having children at a young age, it became clear to me that their earning potential, ability to go to college, or likelihood of success was severely diminished. With this in mind, I determined that dating life and relations with girls was not something that I would place a primary emphasis on at least in the early years of my life. In between graduating high school and starting college, I did develop a very close relationship with a young woman that I believed would play an important role in the remainder of my life. However, as young relationships often do, I became terribly hurt as this individual showed themselves to be extremely shallow; focused on looks alone and relatively clueless with respect to redeeming character traits that were more important. Even though the breakup. And the loss of this individual within my life was extraordinarily painful at the time, in retrospect, I am thankful that it happened. I would much rather have the emotional harm of losing this individual within my life instead of going forward in a relationship in which either of us were completely unsuited for one another and valued completely and entirely different things in life. At the time that I was admitted into college, all the experiences that it had occurred to me previously, as well as all of the experiences that had not occurred to me, coalesced to define who I actually was. It was at this particular juncture that I realized that all negative and positive experiences have defined me and should be understood as something of a patchwork of my own life. Whereas my mother played an instrumental and invaluable role with respect to my early development, understanding of respect, love, and determination of worldview, she continued to maintain a powerful presence within my life as I undertook my college course loads. Although she was not college educated herself, she realized the overall importance that a college education could provide and continue to support me and encourage me during the times in which I would become discouraged as a result of extraordinarily difficult classes, long hours of studying, or material deprivations that college effected on me. As an individual from an African-American family, I’ve come to learn firsthand that race and racism should not matter one bit; especially with regard to whether or not a person is allowed to achieve something or fulfill their potential. Although it is true that race and racism still continue to define the worldview of many individuals, I quickly realized that my own worldview could not be tainted by this particularly pernicious interpretation. Whereas other individuals within my own community became increasingly frustrated with the fact that they felt they were being held back and wanted to blame individuals or society for their shortcomings, I realized that even if this particular practice might be warranted, it would not affect any change in my own personal life and would only create a better and distanced individual that was unable to accomplish what they had set out to do. For this reason, I made it a personal motto that individuals “should not be judged based upon the color of their skin – but upon the content of their character; a powerful quote that Dr. King promoted as a means of making his “dream” come alive. This understanding of how the world works and how I should behave in it has been a valuable contribution to my success so far. Instead of being frustrated with race relations and attempting to “go to war” at each and every opportunity that is provided, I have determined that the best and most effective changes that can e made are within my own life; as I refuse to label or judge individuals based upon race. It is my hope that such an example could be beneficial with respect to changing the way that the world operates; or at the very least improving upon the ethics of those that I come in contact with. The information that has been presented thus far, the story of my life is one that is relatively short. This is not surprising due to the fact that I am only this year eligible to graduate college. No doubt, further experience will provide me with many more stories and many more opportunities for individual growth. However, it is still likely that the experiences and stories that have been related within this self analysis will continue to be relevant well into the future. This is due in part to the fact that early childhood experience is oftentimes an accurate measurement of what type of character or personality and individual have. Regardless of what degree of success I am able to achieve, regardless of the job that I might perform, or regardless of where I might live, it is still my understanding that my definition of the world and my respect for those that have been instrumental in forming this vision will remain largely unchanged. Ultimately, it is my hope that the remainder of my life story will be positive and that I will be able to contribute to society and those that have been so instrumental in promoting my own education. Read More