Motivation My Motivation to Seek

Motivation

My Motivation to Seek Education

There are many reasons that one might decide to attend school at different points in their lives. Many people simply go on to college as the next step after finishing high school simply because this is what society or their parents expect from them. Others are motivated by more internal forces, deriving personal satisfaction from their academic achievements in and of themselves for purely intrinsic reasons, or seeing higher education as an opportunity to feed an unquenchable curiosity of the world around them. There are also a multitude of other reasons that others might choose to attend college, and every individual is likely responding to a unique combination of both internal and external forces. I have always had a curiosity about the world and a desire to succeed, but in truth the primary motivational force that made me decide to attend college was external and did not really have an impact on me until relatively recently, when I truly began to appreciate its implications.

Neither of my parents ever received any education after high school, and though they are both relatively happy individuals and provided up a comfortable enough living, it was clear that there were other opportunities they wished were available to them. As I grew older, I began to realize the differences between the way we lived and the way my friends with better educated parents lived. The differences were not only economic, though these were often fairly evident as well -- in addition to greater luxuries, there was a generally lighter atmosphere in many such homes as there were fewer day-to-day worries -- but there was simply a brighter view of the world and future possibilities in these homes as well.

The final piece of the puzzle clicked for me during the recent (and possibly ongoing) recession, when I viewed the extra strain that was placed on my parents due to cutbacks at work, worries about pensions, and the falling value of their home. Their lack of education severely limited my parents' options in terms of dealing with and recovering from the recession, as there were fewer occupational opportunities available should one of them lose their job, and moving into a different area of work would also have been more difficult both for lack of experience and because employers so often look for a college degree simply as a prerequisite during the application process. Witnessing their fears and the very real change in their lifestyle that occurred due to my parent's lack of a sense of financial security made me increasingly determined to never be in this situation myself, and to prepare myself as best as possible for any future events so that I would be assured of being able to land on my feet and earn a decent living. A major part of achieving this involves continuing my education, and this is something my parents have inspired me to do through their example.