My Personal Goals

My Personal Goals

The personal goal s I want to achieve as a student at University of Phoenix is to receive a college degree and make my mother proud. I know once that has been achieved, my future prospects are limitless. I am a product of a parent who grew up on welfare, but not only obtained her Bachelor's degree, but went back to school two more times to obtain her Doctorate of Education. Her mother sacrificed plenty to send her to college and my mother always knew the power of education. As my sister and I were growing up we would always listen to my mother tell stories about how she had to walk about 10 miles to and from school, but she was never discouraged. She would also tell us about having to go to the cotton fields on some days to work and then go to school. My mother worked at a very early age and saved for college any time she had extra money to spare. With the money my mother saved for college, the college fund my grandmother set up, and a partial scholarship, my mother was able to attend Prairie View A&M University. She decided to go into nursing, because she enjoyed helping people. After 4 very hard years, my mother graduated magna cum laude from college. She told us that was the best day of her and my grandmother's life. My grandmother told her she was so proud of her. Eight months after my mother's graduation, my grandmother passed away. My mother was devastated, but she knew she had to go on because it was what her mother would want. One year later, my mother got married and moved to Salt Lake City, Utah where she found a job as a pediatric nurse at the Children's Hospital. She worked at the hospital about a year and then decided to go back to school to receive her Master's degree. Her husband was not happy with her decision to do such a thing, and was not supportive of her at all. At that time my mother realized she had made the best choice to go back to school because it was apparent her marriage would not last. My mother graduated sum cum laude from University of Utah and was divorced shortly thereafter. The relationship became so strained while she was in school, by the time she graduated; she and her husband had grown far apart. Now a newly divorced woman with no family in Utah, my mother packed up her belongings, and moved back to Texas and was hired to teach nursing. After realizing that something was missing in her life, she adopted me and two years later adopted my sister. She worked as a nursing professor at University of Texas and then at her alma mater Prairie View College of Nursing both in Houston. She worked for Prairie View for about 10 years when she decided to go back to school to obtain her Doctorate of Education. She continued to work full-time and take very good care of my sister and me and go to school at night. My mother would literally have to drag my sister and me to Texas Southern every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. We had to wait in the break room for her for 3 hours, but when you are young, it seemed like forever. She would always tell us when we were whining and complaining that it will all work out in the end, and it did. My mother graduated and received her advanced degree, retired from teaching and became a head nurse at a psychiatric hospital. I asked her why did she go to school all those years and not use her degree to advance in life financially. She told me it was never about making more money, it was about her making her mother proud and letting her know her hard work and determination to send my mother to school was not in vain. That statement is what's motivating me now to achieve my personal goals. Now that my mother is getting older and her health is not what it used to be, I have a sense of urgency to complete the program and graduate from college. She has never pressured me to go` back to school, nor has she judged me personally for dropping out, but I know deep inside she was disappointed in my decision to not finish. I have made a conscience decision that I am going to make her proud and with the grace of God and the faith of my family, I will graduate from college. I will continue in the steps of my mother to honor my grandmother and become in inspiration to my children. My grandmother always told my mother that she believed that of any one who had the opportunity to go to school should do so and my mother has always reminded us of that as well. My mother felt she honored my grandmother's memory by graduating from college and I want to do the same for my mother. Once my mother says to me she is proud, my personal goals will have been achieved and my life will be forever changed.