What Achieving a Degree Means to Me

"What achieving a degree means to me"

Hello my name is ______________ I am a twenty nine year old married mother of two. I've been married for twelve years and I have an eight years old boy and a two years old girl. Since I was nineteen years old in the fall of 1991 I've attempted to earn a college degree attending first Tarrant County Junior College and second Weatherford College stop and starting back again several times over the years trying to reach my goal. In the summer of 1995 when my oldest was two my husband and I moved our mobile home on to new land, which required my assistance helping out financially. I started working for a great company that I loved, Auto Rail Services of Texas they are an afflation of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway were I worked part time in the evenings doing data entry. Six months later I started working full time as the assistant office manager in charge of the day-to-day operations. I was sent to Tarrant County Junior College to gain a certificate in Microsoft Office applications. I continued to advance with in the company and enjoyed working there but in the July of 1998 the company suffered financially when Ford Motor Company moved there business to Union Pacific Railway, which caused downsizing in the company I was laid off. I contemplated going back to school after this but couldn't financially afford to stop working full time. The following October I became pregnant with our second child and after her birth my husband and I decided to downsize our financial situation so that I could remain home with the baby. When the child was seven months old I took a part time position in my aunts security company where I assisted in the office and was able to bring my child with me. Not long after my aunts company was forced to go out of business, which caused me to relay on unemployment compensation, threw Texas Workforce Commission there I was informed I could return to college and receive assistance with childcare. I began all the necessary proceedings for the program and was informed before I could actually get the assistance I would need to pass the TASP test a mandatory test required before you are eligible to receive a degree in the State of Texas. Having passed all but the math section of the test I decided I would take a preparatory tasp math class. The next six months I attended two such classes and in August of 2001 was successful in pass the math portion of the tasp. In June of that same year our home suffered water damage from a roof attempting to be put on but not finish before a storm hit water leaked in every where causing on the ceilings in the home to cave in. From June until September when were living in a hotel awaiting the finish of our home. Having so much going on at that time I decided not to attend college that fall. I am currently enrolled at Weatherford College 9 semester hours. Do the all the kayos this summer I was never able to update Texas Workforce Commission with my status and to ask for assistance with childcare. I had qualified for a seven hundred and fifty dollar federal Pell grant, which barely covered the costs and enrolled. I took a part time position as a tutor for Fort Worth Independent School District and I have received assistance from two family members with childcare on a temporary bases. Now that I have introduced myself and caught you up on my life history I would like to start telling you how strongly I feel and how important it is to me that I reach my goal of obtaining a college degree. I am going after a degree in the business field and I hope to eventually get a master degree as well. I know that people say that being a mother is a great accomplishment in itself. Don't get me wrong I too know it is, but sometimes is just not enough for some of us I just happen to be one of those some bodies. I love being a mom first and foremost but growing up as a young girl I always wanted and even thought that for sure I was gone be a great something or do something grand in life just what that was though I didn't quite know. Life some how takes you this way then that way and you sometimes end up off course as though you had a sail on our back a the wind was just drifting you around through life. Then some times being stubborn headed and getting way a head of yourself also contributes to blowing you way off course but you manage to grow in time and slowly start to see the way back on course but getting back on course isn't as easy as getting off course was. Even though it takes a slow, long and hard course back