Reflective Essay

At the start of this venture one thing that I set out to do was accomplish things that I have never even dared to think about. This journey, much like everyone else’s journey started way before I even had the sense to realize it. As an immigrant the last thing on our minds is to earn money and help the family. We don’t have the luxury to sit around and wait on a four year degree. Simply put we are completely living to survive from the devastating relocation from our homeland. I, like many immigrants had the fortune of being taught at a young age that education was the most important thing to the family. My well-being totally depended on how educated I was going to be. So with that mindset I started school knowing that this was the most important journey. Regardless of what others say I knew that getting my education was paramount. Needless to say that there were a lot of obstacles, roadblocks, and huddles to jump to get to this destination that I am at now. There were times when I had to work every day just to literally survive. There were days that seemed gloomier but never the less we got through it and I sit here today almost a college graduate. Throughout high school I had no inclination as to what I wanted to learn or do as I grow old and now looking back that hindered my abilities to make the best possible decisions for myself. Even though education was a serious matter I never really took it as serious as I needed to at times. There were times that I would ask myself what will you be when you grow up or what will you do to achieve your dreams and be successful. I could never answer those questions because I really never wanted to answer them it all seemed irrelevant at the most because as a young teenager all you want to do is play basketball and fool around with the other kids. While my peers were already ahead of the curve and knew what they wanted to do I had to figure things out when I got to community college. As soon as I stepped in community college I knew that there were so much more expectations on my shoulder to make something of myself and really achieve the things that seemed impossible but I was sitting there in my first class clueless and dumb found because everyone was moving with a purpose. Even though I was clueless I knew that I always wanted to help people especially my community and the larger immigrant community. That was the one purpose that kept me in check and always helped me stay in school. As soon as I was done with my first quarter of community college that was when the realization came in that I needed to figure my life out and figure out what I wanted to do and become. This new found zeal took me all over the community talking with all sorts of people, advisers, and elder individuals to really see what people liked about the things they were doing. One thing I quickly found out was to always be yourself in this process and to never take for granted the gifts that I provide to society. It reassured me that this was something everyone goes through and that it wasn’t specific or exclusive to me. After this realization I started to ask myself many questions to figure what interest me and how I can better facilitate the realization of my dreams. After looking for a long time trying to see something or even picking a career one thing that came to my mind and was constantly there was how I wanted to better help my community. That was how I was led to CEP.

Junior year:

I think this was a time of extreme happiness because I never though going to the university of Washington before CEP, nor did I ever want to. But I still remember vividly my first class “Intro to restoration ecology” and the reason why I wanted to take it was to shed light on conservation especially with the immigrant community. I was shocked when one of the things discussed involved how to get minorities involved and always looking for a way to take advantage of conserving this planet of ours. After the lecture I remember talking to the professor about this specific issue and how I never thought that people worried about such things in general. It was eye opening and it brought a lot of joy to start a long journey. One thing I set out to do in my junior year was to challenge myself to be more creative and be more design focused. All my life I considered myself creative challenged but only because I was too afraid to get in there and do something that people might not like. There is nothing like producing something working hard on it only to be told that it isn’t as impressive as we thought. But I knew that this time that wasn’t the case but that I only needed to get over the challenges that were in my head and only the impediments that stood in my way was myself. I remember coming the first day getting lost all the time and not knowing where I was. That first week was a very uncomfortable week simply because I wasn’t used to all the people that were around me. But the second week when everyone started to get familiar with each other it made everything easier and more relaxed.

Senior Year:

Senior year went by ultra-fast and it seemed like whenever I wanted to sit down and reflect on what I needed to do there was something that came up that was more pressing. The one thing that I am really proud of was the senior project. It challenged me in ways that I thought was never possible. For example, going to classes and taking exams or working on class projects is hard enough but to do it with and additional project that demanded the same amount of attention it complicated life but it made me a better person because it taught me to manage my time better and to squeeze every drop of minute throughout the day to be productive and be ultra-engaged. The other thing that was a goal of mine and now that I look back and have time to reflect on it is that my design capabilities has thoughtfully enhanced. I remember the first GIS class that I took I had no clue what I was doing or what this GIS software was all about but throughout the process it brought back a lot of fear and at the same time it brought excitement. The every knowledge on knowing that I was a senior was a very complex issue. On one side I was glad to be done with school and move on with my life but the other side I was afraid of what is to come. All my life I have been a student and now all of a sudden I am no longer that and it was freighting. It’s like waking up one day and now knowing what to do or not being able to do the things that you have been doing all your life. School defined me and to not have that was scary coming into my senior year. Although the nerves are running high one thing I know is that CEP prepared me for this and I am confident in saying that it prepared me at a high level. The things that we went through in CEP not a lot of students go through that. We learned to take ownership and be intentional with the things that we do. A lot of students follow a set of guidelines that form who they are the problem with that is often times these students have a crisis after a certain amount of time. After the excitement and the nerves calm down you are left looking at the curriculum set before you and questioning it. But with CEP everything was done with an intention behind it. We learned that this major was our, and in the long run it taught us to be individuals who can go out there and learn anything at a fast space. Perhaps, this is what I most gained from CEP. The ability to teach myself and be completely successful at doing it.

Reflective Essay