Improvement Through Experience: The Need for Role Model - Essay Example

As I accept his support of my own college education, I marvel at his feat of having worked his way through college and being the first person from his family to graduate successfully. I am determined to emulate his hard work and focus on academics and adopt his tactics of time management but, at the same time, I hope to make my own attempt to utilize the extra-curricular opportunities that a college education offers. My father has always emphasized the importance of academic excellence, and he is a living testament to the power of education to change one’s life.

Even when at High School, he realized that it was only academic excellence which would see him through school and college, as he was dependent on a merit scholarship for financial support. He chuckles as he recalls burning the midnight oil on several occasions, and his brother’s horrified exclamation, ‘He’s gone bonkers!’ when he declined to join him for late-night movies. Throughout his college years, my father adhered strictly to his maxim of “Study first” (Name, personal communication, February 19, 2009).

I hope to retain this focus on academics during my own years at college, for the basic purpose of a college education is the assimilation of academic skills. As my father strove to maintain the grades he needed to retain his scholarship, he also juggled a part-time job at the local pharmacy after school hours. This helped pay for his personal expenses. He says, “That’s when I discovered the secret of time management: scheduling!” (Name, personal communication, February 19, 2009).

His secret entailed writing out a ‘time table’ for the following day, in which he drew columns and assigned tasks for each hour. I do believe I have inherited my habit of writing a ‘to-do list’ every night from this trait of my father’s! Time management will definitely be one of the tools I employ as I set out to make the most of my college days.