Attaining a College Education and Degree, I

¶ … attaining a college education and degree, I do not think that I was identified as a college-bound person in High School. I know this statement sounds like a contradiction, but hopefully the explanation that follows will succeed in clearing up any ambiguity. To start with, I think it is important to understand that my high school persona was pretty much that of the typical, all-round, average American teenage girl.

As such, I dressed according to the fashion statements of that time and hung out with the crowd I personally felt comfortable with. When I reflect back on my High School days, I believe that perhaps the image that I projected affected my identification as a college-bound person. I am consciously saying this because I am well aware of the prevalence of some rather unfortunate stereotypical profiling.

For instance, it was, and perhaps still is, commonly perceived that the career goal of many teenage girls is to simply establish their own families. Of course, to be honest, my average grades did not help matters any! Perhaps if I had consciously made an effort to associate with the college "prep" clique, my identification may have been different. But, for some reason, I could never see myself as belonging to that group even though I was hoping to attend a 4-year college or university.

Neither did I make any effort to disassociate myself from the general or vocational track crowd. I simply presumed that improving my grades would see me through to college. It never occurred to me that it would help my case if I were identified as a college bound person. Therefore, I made little or no effort to join any school club or activity that would support my becoming college bound. Fortunately, I come from a family who worked towards creating a home environment that fully supported my school life.

In fact, my family made every effort to ensure that nothing came in the way of my efforts as a High School student. My parents, in fact, brought me up to respect the value of a good education and the knowledge gained through it. Thus, for my parents, the importance of education went way beyond just the grades I achieved in school. Of course, this is not to say that the grades weren't important.

They were, but for my parents the role they played was to serve as a benchmark and a goal. Every 'A' or good grade that was achieved was cause for a family celebration, while every poor or below average grade meant a family discussion on how I could improve on it. My father, in particular, used to spend a great deal of time in coaching me on my weak subjects or in holding lively discussions on points of interest.

My parents were also well aware of the American system of education and high school student role expectations. To that extent, they always encouraged me to take part in school activities that would help me build a sense of belonging. If at all, they imposed any restriction, it was only in the area of my social life, as they feared that too much partying would be detrimental to my academic effort and college goals.

Of course, like any normal teenager, I used to get rather disgruntled when my parents would not give me permission to socialize as frequently as I wished. Today, however, I am grateful for their wisdom, guidance, and support all through my student life. My original plan was to attend a four-year college or university right after high school. However, as it turned out, I ended up applying to only community colleges.

The decision to attend a community college was influenced by the advice of my school counselors who felt that such a step would be financially more affordable. Thus, they suggested that I should look at attending a community college first and consider applying to a four-year college or university course at a later point in time. The important point to note here, however, is that my family and I always saw my attending college as a given.

Indeed, I remember my parents constantly waxing eloquent on the benefits and value of a college education. They did this in several ways. For one, they would talk to me, from time to time, about the untold value of a college education in terms of both earning and learning potential. On another level, my mother particularly would tell me stories about college educated women who went on to becoming more independent, knowledgeable, cultured, confident, and open-minded.

But perhaps the biggest contribution that my parents made was to encourage me to dream about the potential that my life held. In fact, it was my home rather than school environment, which gave me the confidence that I was capable and deserving of attending a four-year college.

In addition, I also got a tremendous amount of support from relatives and family friends who helped me explore my options through sending me a great deal of information on career fields, the educational qualifications needed, and the requirements of the more reputed colleges and universities. After spending a good amount of time in thinking through my options, I ultimately enlisted in a community college, with the goal of obtaining an Associate in Science degree in the field of Electronics.

I took this decision after I realized that my school counselors had given me the right advice. In fact, although my family and I had dreamt of my attending a four-year college, we had to finally accept that community college was a financially far more viable.