My story of growth and development - Essay Example

My story of growth and development Table of Contents Introduction…………………………………………………………3 My Story…………………………………………………………….3 Economic Conditions……………………………………………...8 My Personal Life……………………………………………………9 Conclusions…………………………………………………………10 Sources……………………………………………………………...11 Introduction Nostalgia is bitter and sweet. It is sweet because it brings back pleasant memories of childhood and adolescence. It is bitter because I cannot relive my past. However, it is important to keep track of past records because they are associated with my more serious aspects of life and involve my intelligence and achievements. I have memories of the best years of my life in school. It was my home away from home. Some of my classmates were my best buddies and I could relate to them in spite of some embarrassing situations I found myself in at school. Situations such as bunking class one day and freaking out all alone and getting into a fist fight with another student. However, these were isolated incidents. Other than these, the times in school were eventful with good happenings such as the annual drama, elocution contest and school elections. On the whole, I had a good background, except some problematic situation at home. My father and mother did not see eye to eye and spent most of their time quarrelling with each other. This did not augur well for the family and it did have a profound effect on my own views about raising a family. My Story I hail from a conservative family background. Due to my father’s occupation and also because of lack of schools in my neighborhood, I had to frequently change schools in the early years as my family moved from one city to another during my childhood formative years, that is, up to the time I was ten years of age. My father was a storekeeper and worked overseas up to the time I was six years of age. When he returned and found a job locally, we found that there was no school in the vicinity, and had to shift to another city about a hundred kilometers away from my father’s place of work. I found this arrangement quite suitable as I dreaded the sight of my father. There were frequent misunderstandings between him and my mother. I did not know then what the fights were about and did not care much either. However, I felt it good that we, that is, my father and the rest of the family that consisted of me, my mother, and my siblings, lived separately. We were in the new city for one year and returned to the city where my father worked when someone started a new school here. However, the teaching standards were not to the desired level, and I had to return to the school in the same city I was earlier. I remained in this school for the rest of my school years and completed high school here. The end of my school years coincided with my father’s retirement. We shifted to a cosmopolitan city where I found a job and also continued to do my college. I chose the arts stream as I always had fascination for literature. My years in college were not as carefree as my time in school. I had responsibilities. I had to pay my college fees and also give part of my income to my mother. I worked for a small automobile company where they manufactured mirrors for automobiles. It was a part time job, and I had enough time to attend college lectures and cover up the lessons on my own later on. The remuneration was not to my expectation but it was modest and I had some money left over to use as out of pocket expenses after paying my fees and giving some money to my mother. This was not entirely due to my salary as I was also receiving financial assistance from a church group in the neighborhood whom I had befriended (Growth and Development). In the meantime, my father returned to the city where he had worked previously. He could not adjust to the working conditions in the new place and also the situation at home was turning bad to worse for him. The children were growing up and challenging him when he picked fights with my mother. We could do without him. He returned to his earlier abode where he stayed till his last breath. My elder brother also stayed there, having found work in the same company where my father worked, and he looked after our father quite well although our father lived separately. My father was a religious man. He took part in church activities. He even preached on Sundays. However, he had a weakness for women. This resulted in the fights between mom and him. Other than this weakness, my father did not have any vice. The frequent fights between mom and dad had disturbed the entire family. It did not degenerate to physical fights. But tempers ran high. So, as a family, we were disturbed. So we found good amount of relief when a church group came to live in the neighborhood. We, as children, developed relations with this group and even received some material support from them (Growth and Development of Faith in Adult Life). One’s childhood and growing up years are also associated with movies. We visited the theatres and enjoyed seeing our favorite heroes and heroines enacting their roles with aplomb. We also enjoyed the movies and television serials at home. But these were nothing compared to the ones you enjoyed with your friends in the theatre. Having completed my college with some working experience proved beneficial. However, I was not satisfied with the working conditions and remuneration which matched the best in the industry. It is six years since I completed college and I was not earning my target amount which was twice the amount of my salary. I am now seriously considering starting my own business. The company where I am now working is considering releasing certain employees as franchisee for their products. This appears lucrative since the company’s products are among the top brands in the world. I will then launch out as franchisee for certain products of my company. Now I work as a marketing executive for some of my company’s products. I liaise with my customers a great deal. This also involves sometimes taking them out for a drink. I drink socially. However, I take care not to let my customers have the better of me as a result of any drinking session. Hence, I avoid drinks when I am with my customers, although I allow them to have drinks, if they require. A great part of my adulthood was spent in responsibility. I was aware that responsibilities increased one’s perspectives. Perspectives were important not only in the individual realm but even at corporate levels. I knew that it was important to keep sober and aim high. It is also important to have beliefs. You believe in God. You believe in yourself. You believe in your capabilities. You believe you are capable of achievements. You believe in self-awareness. It is important to have beliefs that are rational and constructive. Otherwise, one keeps running in circles even after achieving all that one desires. Life becomes a cycle of events and mishaps. It is good to hold beliefs that there are extra-terrestrial living beings and happenings. When someone goes through situations and experiences that I have he or she either becomes rational and adaptive or a cynic. Deep down I am a cynic. I do not take to believing something easily. I weigh the pros and cons. I analyze facts. I study situations. I reserve my judgments till it becomes necessary to make conclusions. However, I do not like to be tagged as cynic. Hence, I do not show a negative outlook. Even when I am convinced that there is nothing positive in a situation I hold my opinion until there is something positive I can see at the end of a tunnel (Physical Growth). My graduation helped me hone my thinking and take time in expressing my views. That is one good thing about college. The lessons are tuned to make one think. It makes one stand out on his or her views without distancing oneself from the truth. Economic Conditions How did one survive in the 80's and 90's? Economic conditions were changing. The computer and information technology had started moving. Suddenly the world was freer. Doing business had also become easy. It was not a good time for big business. It was not a good time for the normal worker either. Big businesses were losing grip over the market they once ruled as a result of liberalization. The average worker was scared of losing his job to younger recruits who could generate lot more production than the average worker. Job security had broken down. The share markets had become so volatile it was becoming difficult to predict the share markets’ movements. Working in my college years had provided me with a good insight into the changes that were taking place in the global economy. It was thanks to the economic changes that I could find a contract job. This was the job for a regular worker. But I learnt that the company was swift in changing policies to keep in line with the changes that were taking place. They could easily fire the regular worker in the event he challenged them, something they could not do earlier. They had more power legally to extract work from all their workers, both regular and under contract. Now indeed, the computer and information technology has taken over almost every sphere of business. Centuries old corporations and banks who once ruled the economic scenario have had to restructure their organizations and even resort to merger and acquisitions to survive. In such environment, it will be difficult to work alone. I must have the best talents and advisors. I am preparing to go it on my own. However, it will not be possible to carry on all the functions by myself. I need support of technicians and colleagues. The next few years or months will show what my company intends to do. In case the company adopts the policy of using some of their employees as franchisees, I will opt for the scheme. Otherwise, I will continue to work in the same company. I do not face any problem in the working environment and I am one of their better performing employees (Where do you see yourself in 5 years?). My Personal Life My personal life is also promising. I have a girl who attends the same church. She is an air hostess. We intend to marry in a couple of years so that we are in better position to have our own accommodation. I will be in my early thirties when I marry. I am in favor of marrying at this age as my girl friend and I will have matured even more and respect each other as individuals. It will also be the right time to have kids. I feel a lot of the problems my parents faced occurred because of their early marriage. My mother was in her teens when she married. My father was a globe-trotter. They were both very young when they married. Thus, they could not handle situations in the ideal way. My father developed health problems when he was in his forties. He had diabetes and blood pressure. These worsened his mental condition. I helped him with his medical bills in his retired years. My elder brother says he died holding my Christmas card in his hands. He died as a result of an accident which became complicated because of his diabetic condition. I feel I could have done better things for him. I did not go to see him after the accident as I felt he will recover. However, my mother is with us. She is in good health. Her health is good enough to see her through for another two or three decade. Her only problem is her attachment to her children. She is so attached to her kids that she cannot bear to see any of them going overseas. She wants every one of us to visit her at least once a week. I stay with her with one sister who is a spinster. Conclusion Looking back, I have lived a fairly good life. My parents did not deprive me of any good thing. They gave me good, basic education. They taught me the importance of good morals. Sometimes, they even spanked me. I received most of my spanking from my mother. However, I have learnt devotion and perseverance from my mother. It is devotion to duty and perseverance to achieve goals that constitute the purpose in ones life. If these are in place, other aspects fall in place or take care of themselves. Sources: Growth and Development, http://www.medscape.com/resource/growthdev Growth and Development of Faith in Adult Life, http://www.narcis.info/research/RecordID/OND1332852/Language/en/;jsessionid=lz6hbjz267se Physical Growth, http://www.merck.com/mmpe/sec19/ch269/ch269b.html Where do you see yourself in 5 years? http://www.cvtips.com/interview_questions_your_future.html Read More