My Education Experiences - Essay Example

Education A saying goes that we are the sum total of our past experiences. Though this may be debatable at least we can all agree that our reaction to our past experiences has determined who we are today .Just like any other human being I have had my own share of both good experiences that define who I am today. Some of these experiences may not be unique to me but since I believe each of us is unique then these experiences have impacted me in a unique way. As said earlier all our experiences impact on us. However much as I would want to include all my experiences in this essay together with their impact on who I am today, how I view life and how that is important to my present life at the university and after completing university education , I am limited in various ways. Therefore, I will pick a few of those experiences and discuss them not in any given order of intensity. At this point I would like to clarify that it is impossible to clearly separate the effects of these experiences from each other. When I was 13 years old when my parents divorced, I could not stop wondering why my parents, who I had heard profess love to each other numerous times should keep shouting at each other. Finally the news was broken to me about their impending break up. It was the only time they talked to each other calmly for a long time, at least in my presence. I was happy with the new development because in my young mind if whatever they were calling divorce would lead to peaceful conversations like the one we had that day then it was not a bad thing. However when after some few days my dad disappeared for a whole two days and my mum telling me that’s what the divorce meant, to say I was heartbroken is an understatement. I remember crying and feeling sad and helpless. Among the many frustrations that I had the most chilling was the fact that I could not figure out how I can help my parents not go separate ways (Hektner, et. al, 23). Therefore, I dedicated most of my time afterwards reading about divorce, how it affects parents and most importantly how it affects children. When I read all the negative behaviors associated with children of divorced parents which included things such as that on average, children of divorcees have more behavior problems than children growing up in two-parent families such as difficulties in school, more behavior problems, more negative self-concepts, more problems with peers and more trouble getting along with parents (Freeman, et. al, 56). I decided to prove everyone who believed so wrong. I am happy that I was privileged to get this information because I had to make a choice to either allow the challenge weigh me down or to purposefully determine to rise above. I chose the latter. More than when my parents were together I sought to be a better person both at home and school. I am not saying it was easy, we of course went through the ordinary problems associated with divorce of parents such as loss of contact with our father, less economic resources, change in life situations like change in school and child care, poor parental adjustment among others. However I was determined to raise above all this, together with my twin sister. That has contributed to this far I have come. I realized that I cannot rely on my parents to fight for us since my mother was seemingly still struggling to come to terms with the heartbreak while my father was absent in every sense. I became a student leader in school and started a group for students whose parents had divorced and together with the school administration sourced for resource persons and mentors who have been of great help to each of us. It is through this group that someone noticed my potential and offered to give me the best possible education so that I can be of help to the society. Mentorship is a word that has been used to mean many different things. For me, it is as simple as a process of on-going exchange between individuals that allows for one to support the development of another. It is less about deliberate influence, or "power over" another, and more about accompaniment, Or "empowerment" of another (Gunter, 112). The other experience or may I just call it event is getting a mentor at the age of fifteen. Someone said you are as tall as the people whose shoulders you stand on. My mentor has been my most trusted friend. She has given me career advice as well as both professional and personal enrichment. She has genuinely encouraged me as well as rebuked me and that way she has made me who I am today Another life changing experience is when I read South African’s Nelson Mandela’s Long Walk to Freedom. The book which is his autography changed my world view in a big way. He was legendary activist, Nobel Prize winner and former South African president. That he was jailed for 27 years in his country under the Apartheid government being regarded as a terrorist. His resilience is admirable. That initially he had been sentenced to life imprisonment only for him to help win against apartheid rule and ultimately the president made me believe that resilience pays, that no one can fail me in achieving my dreams except myself. When he describes the cruelty of the 27 years in jail under fellow Africans who had been made guards cautioned me that the greatest enemy cleaves closest. These experiences have taught me very important principles of success both now at the university and as a future world leader. These principles include the realization that the only thing I can control in life is my perspective. Perspective refers to what the meaning of a circumstance is to you and what you do with that meaning. Another lesson has been should regret not trying rather than regretting failure. I have also learnt that failure is only part of the journey to success and no one succeeded without meeting challenges. I have also learnt that I should not concentrate much on what I will be doing for a living but who I want to become in life. I strongly believe that instead of asking children what they want to become when they grow up we should start asking them who they want to become when they grow up. I have also realized that to overcome the challenges outside us we first must deal with challenges within ourselves. That I have to choose what to do with my personal weaknesses, either allow them to become my excuses for failure or my stepping stone to my success. Another thing I have learnt is to work on myself first by owning up mistakes as opposed to acting the victim before I focus on others. I want to become a world leader in my field, I want to impact lives positively especially people who society considers to be underprivileged and especially to make children who se parents’ divorce know that they have the potential to succeed just like children from intact families because the power to succeed lies in them and that looking for someone to blame is usually a common denominator for all failures. And that successful people focus on the one reason why they should succeed without listening to the discouraging voice of fear. Most importantly I look forward to becoming a mentor to as many people as possible in my field and also in other ways because I believe I owe my mentor this, I owe the world this. Works Cited Freeman, Frank H, Kristin M. Axtman, and Mary K. Schwartz. Leadership Education: A Source Book of Courses and Programs. Greensboro, N.C: Center for Creative Leadership, 1998. Print. Gunter, Helen. Leaders and Leadership in Education. London: Chapman, 2001. Print. Hektner, Joel M, Jennifer A. Schmidt, and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Experience Sampling Method: Measuring the Quality of Everyday Life. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage Publications, 2007. Print. Read More