My journey is very special and unique; there are a lot of reasons why I am here right now professionally and personally speaking. One of the reasons why I am here is because I want to make sure I don’t depend on others in order to achieve my goals. Coming to a country with a different culture was a great idea until I had to adapt to a new culture and everything that came with it such as the language. Another reason why I’m here is because I am very committed to my dreams and I am dedicating myself to accomplish them, I will not stop until I see them all come true. In addition, I am here because I am working every day on myself to become a better person so I can be an inspiration to others. Also, because I want to make a difference in life especially in my family members’ life since I am the first member getting a college degree and pursuing academicals dreams. Additionally, I am here because I want to be a motivation to my younger family members, a role model they can look up to and count on. Last but not least I am here because I want to be my own inspiration and I know that with my drive of being a better person I am going to make it. I want to live by the example that when you want something you don’t stop until you get it.
Moreover, I am here because after obtaining my associates from Bronx Community College during the 2010 school year I thought I was going to get the job of my dreams right after graduating, but it was not that simple. I like to challenge myself and I always go for more so right after graduating I made my transfer to Lehman College where in 2012 I got my bachelors in Psychology. After graduation from Lehman I took a year off, which turned to be two years deciding what to do next. At that time I was working already for the New York City Department of Education as a teacher’s assistant substitute then I decide to do the job full time. Yet I was not sure what to do next but I knew I was going to do something relate to kids and schools because I was already working and enjoying the job in that field. At the beginning of my career I wanted to be a school psychology but I was not sure if I was going to enjoy doing assessments to students for the rest of my life so I looked at other possibilities for my masters. I thought there was more than assessment when it comes to students so I decided to look for other options relate to kids, school and giving back to the community. After two years out of schools and not much success of getting a job with my degree paying more than what I was getting at my current job I decided to stay working for the DOE and to start my masters in school counseling. I recently started my second year in my grad program and I am looking forward to finish as soon as possible so I can start my PhD, yes I said PhD because I’m going for more.
Furthermore, I am here because working for the DOE has gave me the opportunity to see that there are so many teachers/professors in the field doing their jobs for all the wrong reasons and as a consequence they destroy student’s dreams. I love working with children and I believe that school is one of the most important foundations for student’s development. As a teacher assistant I take my job very serious and every day I dedicate all my energy towards my student’s learning. One of the reasons is because I love seeing happy faces of students and parents at the end of the school year appreciating that my help and dedication made a difference in their life. There was a special case where I had the same group of student’s for two consecutive school years and not only did their family notice their children’ improvement and the difference that my work made in their learning but also did I. Their test scores and social life among many other things improved in a way that nobody expected. After two years of experiencing that wonderful feeling I decided that if I could do that with a couple of students what a huge difference would I make in the world if I do it to impact a whole school.
Additionally, I am here because after having a bad experience with a professor I decided that I was going to accomplish all my academical dreams in life because I want, I can and I deserve them. As a result of that incident I discovered that as humans we should not let other peoples’ opinions influence our decisions or future. As a student there are times where I have to tell myself positive thoughts in order to stay on track. An example is when I wrote on my notes everyday “I was born to inspire others with my successful story on how I overcame obstacles while accomplishing my career” in order to block discouraging influence by certain people. One example of those teachers is a professor that I had. When that professor referred to me or made indirect and discouraging comments I let it affect me. One day he said that he did not understood a word of what I was saying because of my accent. He made it seem like a joke but he quickly noticed that I didn’t and so how we managed to finish what we were doing quicker than expected. After that incident I felt so upset, disappointed and angry that I thought that was going to be the end of my career. A couple of days after that incident I talked to my family about what was happening and that I was thinking to drop out of college. My family turned to be very supported and even when they did not understand much of what was happening they encouraged me to continue, to learn how to overcome barriers and to see the positive side of that situation. To this day I still can’t believe how the professor’s bad experience game me strength and courage to continue working towards my goals in order to see my dreams come true. On the other hand, my family’s support gave me another reason to become the best version of myself.
Also, I am here because I love to make a difference in others people’s life and that is exactly what I am going to do after I accomplish my dreams, to inspire other people who had been through similar life situations. However, in order for me to do that I have to reinforce the knowledge that I already have. As I had mentioned I believe that learning is a key to success but if we don’t reinforce it can turn into a useless tool. Learning English as a second language has given me the opportunity to understand that practicing the language “writing and speaking” on an everyday basic is a fundamental key which demands a lot of dedication and discipline and that is enough motivation for me. One of the reasons is because I know that if I made it this far with the little English I know reinforcing it will take me places I never imagine or that I thought it was impossible for me to get.
As you can appreciate there are a lot of reasons of why I’m here right now, however, I know I have to keep pushing for more even when I had accomplished my goals because there is always time for growth. I like to help people to discover how powerful they are and to project their power through meaningful actions. Everybody has their unique and special way of empowering others and that’s exactly what I want to become, an empowering person. With almost ten years in this country I had accomplish many of my dreams but still I have a lot more to go. I believe that if I made it this far I can make it to infinity and beyond. Through my journey I had learn that no matter what the situations is there are always going to be barriers. I also had learned that barriers make you stronger and sometimes teaches you the real meaning of life. It hasn’t been easy and it will never be but I can feel it is worthy. I want to be there for those people that want to give up just because they feel there are no solutions for their situations or because someone tells them they can’t do something. For these and many other reasons I am here, right now.
