Writer's Name
Professor's Name
ENGL 0950-0x
Date

Essay 1 / Draft 1

Up to this point, I really have not thought about what has helped and hindered me on my road to college. I've been simply living in the moment, trying to finish high school, working my summer jobs, and getting ready for classes to start. As I think back, yes, this past year or so has been hectic with college planning things. For one thing, I really haven't been sure where I was going to end up. I was looking at St. Olaf College, Gustavus Adolphus College, and the University of Minnesota, but tuition at those places is very high and the financial aid packages that I got back from them were not very satisfactory, to my parents or to myself. Also, I'm really not sure what I want to study, so that has also made the decision more difficult. Both of these things probably explain how or why I've ended up here, at Anoka Ramsey Community College. I'm here for my generals and to try to figure out what exactly it is that I want to do. But all this aside, I would say that I have been helped more than hindered on my road to college.

One thing that has really helped me get to college was the quality of high-school courses that I took. Yes, I did take the standard Algebra and Geometry and Trigonometry courses, but I also moved ahead to take Pre-Calculus, a course intended for those going on to college. I was also in the accelerated English courses in grades 9 and 10, but I then started taking courses like "Composition" and "Language and Logic" and "British Literature" to get ready for college. Similarly, after regular science courses in grades 9 and 10, I took Chemistry and then Advanced Chemistry, and I also took Physics. But it was not so much that these courses were "college-prep" and a bit more rigorous than normal courses, it was also that these courses were interesting and challenged me and got me to love learning more about these things. If these courses had been dry and boring and poorly taught, I might have ended up differently, but luckily, and thankfully, I had the benefit of good teachers who planned good courses.

As I think about the classes I took, I'm not sure if I would have taken the same courses if it also hadn't been for my friends taking the same courses. Most likely, I would have ended up in them anyway, but I think it is easier to register for things when you know your friends are going to be in the same courses because you talk about them all the time. I hung out with a small group of people who often talked about what colleges they were thinking about going to and which courses and extracurricular activities would be best to get  them there. I think of this now as good peer pressure. Hearing so much about really good colleges like the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, or Boston University got me thinking about college and aiming higher than just working after high school or going to the technical college. And thinking about college after high school also got me thinking about which courses would help me to get there. [Note: Does this paragraph need more of something?]

Related to hearing my friends constantly talk about colleges, I think I started to become aware of the difference between my friends' parents and my own parents. Whereas my father had a maintenance job with the State of Minnesota and my mother had a job with the county license bureau, my friends' parents included a stockbroker, a hospital pharmacist, and a college services coordinator, all jobs that had required four years of college and, in some cases, even more. Perhaps it was easier for my friends to think about college because they had probably grown up hearing stories about college from their parents, and it was probably just considered "normal" that they would go to college too. However, in my case, my mom and dad probably had two years of college between the two of them, so it just wasn't talked about in our house. But if I did talk about it, and they probably did ask me about it, I did say that I was planning to go to college. However, I don't recall them jumping up and down enthusiastically, nor do I recall them getting mad or sarcastically telling me to "get real." I think they were just neutral, letting me decide and supporting me either way. I just don't recall them using those exact words.

Finally, if I can think of a big "hindrance" or obstacle on my path to college, it might be my hearing impairment and speech impediment. I was born not being able to hear out of one ear, and possibly because of that, I also had some difficult forming words without slurring them. These things were diagnosed fairly early on, possibly in pre-school or before, so when I got to elementary school I was paired up with a speech pathology clinician to work on my speaking, and I was often tested for further hearing loss. Also, I was always assigned to sit in the front of the room in every class I took. But looking back, I consider myself lucky that I wasn't judged as "stupid" or labeled as "special ed" because of what I had. I was probably in the special ed section of the elementary school for the speech appointments, but I wasn't put in any different classes and I only had to go maybe once a week to see the speech clinician. If someone back then had decided that hearing loss or poor speaking also meant low intelligence, I might have been placed in very different classes and ended up very far from where I am now. (This all seems similar to my current professor's experience.) Also, I tend to view my hearing loss and speech impediment as Jeff Richards, in the essay "LD," views his learning disability. I think these things made me work harder, and they continue to make me work harder. I still pay attention to where I sit in class and I pay close attention so that I don't miss anything. I also am careful to speak more slowly and carefully so that I don't slur words. In a nutshell, what may have started out as a hindrance has become helpful. [Note: Does this paragraph "ramble" too much?]

In all, I think I've had an easier time on my road to college than is average, and the big thing that may have hindered me has not been so much of a problem as the years have passed. I think people considering college need to recognize that it is a big step and that entering college should be because you want to go, because you need to go, either for yourself or for the job you eventually want. It should be because "everyone else is doing it." While it might look that way in my case, based on what I've written, I'm here, really, because I love learning. I love reading and finding out new things. I'm still not sure what's going to "turn me on" the most, so I can't pick a major yet, but I'm full of anticipation for the moment of revelation. [Note: I don't like this conclusion, but I needed to write something.]

Word count: 1256