My Motivation to Attend College

College Education has not come easy to me. I graduated High School in 2006 and started college right after. It was about halfway into the quarter when I started questioning myself if this was something that I really wanted to do. After a week of going back and forth, I dropped out. I started working, and the idea of making money hit me really hard. The more money I made, the more money I wanted. I started moving up in the company and eventually became an assistant manager. I thought I was happy with what I was doing. So summer came along, I decided that with the money that I had saved it would be really nice to take a vacation. I took a month off work and did a road-trip all over the East Coast, from Miami all the way up to Niagara Falls. When I came back, my mentality started to change. I really liked having time off work, traveling, spending money, meeting new people and what not. So then, I realized that in order for me to do all of that, I had to pursue a higher education to be able to earn more money and take as many trips as I wanted to. So I decided to go back to College! Everything was good until I started to experiment what many people call “real college life”. I became the center of attention to every party, gathering, and night out every single weekend. Meeting lots of people, partying, having fun, clubs, alcohol, man I was having a hell of a good time. But one day, down in Santa Barbara for Halloween weekend, I was drinking with my friends and next thing that I know I’m on the floor with my knee cap dislocated, tore tendons and meniscus, broken cartilage and ACL. This fracture sent me to bed for 3 months. During those three months I started to realize that I was not really doing anything with my life. I had lost my job because of the injury. I threw away another change to start college again. I let my parents down, and mostly, I let myself down. After three months in bed I started walking and doing Physical Therapy. Then, medical bills started to come in the mail, twelve thousand dollars worth in medical bills. I had no choice but to find a job and started working like a maniac to pay off that debt. Luckily I found a job that paid me good enough to finish fast. Then I stared college again! And I was told by the counselor that it was going to be my third and last chance to do well. So I started with one class, just so I could get the hang of it again. I did pretty good, finished the class with a B. I started getting involved in student activities, clubs, school events and I really liked it, and it was through this whole involvement and activities that became across the opportunity to join the Puente program. It was a great opportunity for me to become what I have always wanted to, a leader, a mentor and a person that one day some will say, “I want to be like him.”
There are many events that change someone’s life. But it is up to the person to decide what you want to learn and what you want to get from those events. In my case, I’ve learned and gotten a great gift which is Determination. To be able to do what I want to do.