My main goal is to go to college. I am looking at a degree in forestry. My next goal is to find a job in the career field of my choice. To do this I need to make sure that when I am in college, I am putting forth my best effort in my classes and networking with people in the field. These goals have to be reached for me to do well out in the real world. High school may seem like it doesn’t matter, but it does because in the end without high school, I wouldn’t be able to go on to college and then on to a job that I love to do and work.
To make my family proud I want to graduate and go onto college, get my degree, and finally make a living in my career field choice. I have many strengths as well as areas to grow in, some of them overlap as both a strength and an area of growth. One of my strengths is trying hard to get any job put in front of me done no matter what it may be. Another is the inability to say no to anything someone asks me to do such as pick up a shift at work or can you help them at home. This one is as much an area of growth as it is a strength.
Some areas of growth that I am focusing on improving include being more patient and not speaking too much. I’m not patient when it comes to small children, but my biggest area of growth is when there is a situation and I need to be quiet. I can’t be in a room where it is quiet and awkward, I have to be either working or talking. These are my biggest strengths and areas of growth. I have made considerable strides over the last couple years in improving my areas of growth and my strengths too . I have learned from my areas of growth and turned them into strengths..
I try to stay quiet and not talk about dumb things or just keep quiet in general. Also, my impatience has actually helped me learn how to deal with certain people and work certain jobs. Now instead of getting mad and upset from little kids not listening I just learn to take their attention away from whatever they are doing wrong. My strength, of trying to get the job done that is put in front of me, has helped me become better prepared for the real world and what is to come after high school and college. Other strengths which were the inability to say no has helped me do well when working outside of school.
I have shown leadership in my community because I participate in my local church youth group, in my job, and finally in my home. To start, I have to make sure that I show the kids of my church group that I am a leader. For example, I do that by not goofing around and taking the role of a leader when someone needs to step up to keep the kids in line so we can get everything we need to get accomplished. I’ve shown leadership in my job because my supervisor trusts me with training several different people as well as keeping other people in check and making sure they know how to do their job and get it done correctly.
She has confidence in me to let her know if anything has gone wrong or if something goes wrong. My leadership in my job may not look that important, but it keeps things running and keeps my job going and by showing others the way that a job needs to be done the correct way. Another place I show leadership is at home when I get my siblings to listen to me so, they can help mom and dad out and they don’t have to work so hard to get the house chores done after a long day at work. My parents try to get my siblings to get the housework done, but they just don’t listen so I have to take the lead and start the housework to motivate my siblings.
Even though it may be something as simple as starting the house work to be sure it gets done, I know my parents appreciate that I take the lead and get everything in the house done. I give back to the community by participating in United Methodist Youth Foundation, my church youth group, as well as in the local FFA chapter. In UMYF we do a lot to give back to the community, such as we pick up trash out west of town for about 3 miles worth of highway. We do it once, maybe twice a year and we do it to keep the highway looking clean.
UMYF also, helps the community by holding a cardboard campout that teaches people about homelessness and it also, brings in food to take down to the local shelter in Norfolk. When we take the food to Norfolk, we participate in a church service while we are down there. Next, our FFA chapter gives back to the community by doing a work and pie auction, and we do different community service projects. At the work and pie auction, our members and the advisor are auctioned off and are to work eight hours for whoever buys us.
The different community service projects that we have helped with include building a fence for the local daycare center and building a concrete pad for RVs out at the park. Personally, I have given back to the community by helping someone with their driveway if it needs scooping after it snows. My mom has volunteered me to help move furniture or help someone out even though I don’t know them. These are some of the ways that I have helped give back to others and my community. One major challenge I’ve faced in my life is my family’s financial situation.
My parents are very hardworking people and do the best they can to care for us four kids, but it has been tough. When my brother and sister both went off to college, my parents were helping them pay some of their bills while in college. And this has left them hanging on by a thread with my little sister and I. Between my parents, they work three jobs and can barely make ends meet. I, at seventeen years old, had three jobs over the summer and had many expenses of my own, but I managed my money well enough that I didn’t spend it foolishly.
My parents don’t like to take handouts, and I know it hurts them to ask me for money, but they have to so they won’t go further into debt. They just asked me a few weeks ago for a large sum of money to help pay for some tax they had to have paid by the end of the month. I know they will pay me back eventually, but it hurts me to see my parents struggling through a tough time. I have faced this challenge for the four years that I have had either a summer job or a job in general. To keep up with my bills I have taken to two jobs during the school year, so I have a lot on my plate and don’t get a lot of days off.
What I have learned from this struggle is that there is a big struggle for people who do honest work and are hard working people. It has also, helped me learn good work ethic. Lastly, I have worked hard to achieve getting on the A and B honor roll.. I have to work harder in a couple of classes because those classes are the ones that start to struggle in. Math was the one class that I had to work hard and study harder to get good grades in. If I didn’t get my grade up and it fell to a C my mom would be disappointed and make me stay after school to get all my assignments done and get them right.
She was constantly encouraging me to get my work done and this is what made me work harder to achieve an A and B average throughout high school. I made myself work endless nights to get my homework done and to be sure that it was done right and done completely. So, when the grades came out and my mom saw that I had achieved my goal of better grades, she would be happy with me. It made me think about how hard I have to work to achieve something, even if was something as simple as A’s and B’s. Working harder may be hard to do sometimes, but it is the right thing to do.
