(no subject)
I am surprisingly glad to have graduated late. Waiting helped to give me an extra appreciation for the significance of my diploma from Avalon. I was academically prepared at the ceremony but not emotionally ready to graduate. I wasn’t mentally prepared for life. The time I spent looking for employment and working full-time made my education much more important to me.
I walked the graduation stage in 2007 with more credits and graduation standards than necessary. I took a tour of the Hamline grounds in high school. I was simply amazed. Just walking on campus gives someone a homey comforting feeling; the professors had been very friendly and my tour guide seemed more like an old friend than a stranger. Knowing that this was the university I wanted to attend I started the application. Just before graduation, however, my advisor discovered a required graduation standard I had overlooked. As I did not have the time to finish a project I could not receive my diploma at the ceremony. After the ceremony, the end of school and the start of summer, my distant last project seemed unimportant. I did not have the financial stability I needed to start my higher education at Hamline or elsewhere. Procrastinating and only working on the project occasionally, I focused on taking care of my mother by getting a job, one of the essentials of life.
I worked for Cub foods from August 2007 to October, when I was hired by Erberts and Gerberts. I lost sight of my project entirely. I spent six months working very hard at the sandwich shop. The management changed in January and after a dispute over my job description at the end of February, I could no longer stay. It was then I realized that I had never technically graduated; I didn’t have my diploma. I never fulfilled the requirements. Therefore, I threw myself into that last project.
In June 2008, as I was completing my last project, I was hired as a seasonal employee by IKEA. With my finalization complete, I officially graduated with the 2007-2008 class. After that, I relaxed a bit, I did not go to pick up my diploma right away, I was officially graduated, why did I need the document? My employment with IKEA ended in October. I worked for my dad’s girlfriend a short while (she just opened a restaurant in the St. Paul skyway) but my life focus turned to my hobbies. I volunteer for a local science fiction convention and I am an avid activist. Both have given me organizational experience with highlights in planning, emergency response and handling or working with large crowds.
In November my uncle had a severe stroke and heart attack. I stayed in Duluth for several weeks, spending as much time as I possibly could with him and my other relatives. The day I heard that my uncle had passed away my best friend got an acceptance letter from the University of Wisconsin. Both of these brought more changes and challenges. After planning the memorial with my aunt and father, I gained a new insight on my life. I moved out of my mother’s house and into my best friend’s house to take care of the two dogs that weren’t allowed in her dorms. My school mailed me my diploma in January of this year and when I received it I felt my whole life shift. Not only had I graduated, but I could prove it.
While I was working at IKEA, a co-worker and I began to talk about religion. We began to study the bible together. Although I had continued to study Japanese after leaving school, having a new subject gave me renewed passion and enthusiasm. I realized, after throwing myself into studying whatever subject came close to my attention, that I was missing education as a practice. I consider myself intelligent and a hard worker, I look forward to an engaging education, with plenty of active learning. I may have taken longer than most to get to this point, but I am eager and ready to learn. I feel I am ready for a higher education and I am ready for life.
I walked the graduation stage in 2007 with more credits and graduation standards than necessary. I took a tour of the Hamline grounds in high school. I was simply amazed. Just walking on campus gives someone a homey comforting feeling; the professors had been very friendly and my tour guide seemed more like an old friend than a stranger. Knowing that this was the university I wanted to attend I started the application. Just before graduation, however, my advisor discovered a required graduation standard I had overlooked. As I did not have the time to finish a project I could not receive my diploma at the ceremony. After the ceremony, the end of school and the start of summer, my distant last project seemed unimportant. I did not have the financial stability I needed to start my higher education at Hamline or elsewhere. Procrastinating and only working on the project occasionally, I focused on taking care of my mother by getting a job, one of the essentials of life.
I worked for Cub foods from August 2007 to October, when I was hired by Erberts and Gerberts. I lost sight of my project entirely. I spent six months working very hard at the sandwich shop. The management changed in January and after a dispute over my job description at the end of February, I could no longer stay. It was then I realized that I had never technically graduated; I didn’t have my diploma. I never fulfilled the requirements. Therefore, I threw myself into that last project.
In June 2008, as I was completing my last project, I was hired as a seasonal employee by IKEA. With my finalization complete, I officially graduated with the 2007-2008 class. After that, I relaxed a bit, I did not go to pick up my diploma right away, I was officially graduated, why did I need the document? My employment with IKEA ended in October. I worked for my dad’s girlfriend a short while (she just opened a restaurant in the St. Paul skyway) but my life focus turned to my hobbies. I volunteer for a local science fiction convention and I am an avid activist. Both have given me organizational experience with highlights in planning, emergency response and handling or working with large crowds.
In November my uncle had a severe stroke and heart attack. I stayed in Duluth for several weeks, spending as much time as I possibly could with him and my other relatives. The day I heard that my uncle had passed away my best friend got an acceptance letter from the University of Wisconsin. Both of these brought more changes and challenges. After planning the memorial with my aunt and father, I gained a new insight on my life. I moved out of my mother’s house and into my best friend’s house to take care of the two dogs that weren’t allowed in her dorms. My school mailed me my diploma in January of this year and when I received it I felt my whole life shift. Not only had I graduated, but I could prove it.
While I was working at IKEA, a co-worker and I began to talk about religion. We began to study the bible together. Although I had continued to study Japanese after leaving school, having a new subject gave me renewed passion and enthusiasm. I realized, after throwing myself into studying whatever subject came close to my attention, that I was missing education as a practice. I consider myself intelligent and a hard worker, I look forward to an engaging education, with plenty of active learning. I may have taken longer than most to get to this point, but I am eager and ready to learn. I feel I am ready for a higher education and I am ready for life.