What motivates Me To Attend College?

What motivates me to attend college? In anything that you do, Motivation should be the driving force for that entire process. A lot of things in life motivate me. I haven't always had the best of things and life and that is motivation in itself. I never had stuff handed to me and I have always worked for everything that I have. I also was sheltered as a child, and could not really go places or do much - attending college was the only way that I could escape living with my parents, and doing things on my own. Another thing that motivates me to attend college is seeing my mom struggle. Being that I am a first generation college student and I have seen my mom not been able to pay certain bills and us not having certain necessitates that most households have. This is a quote that has inspired me daily:

When things go wrong as they sometimes will,

When the road you're trudging seems all uphill.

When the funds are low and the debts are high,

And you want to smile, but you have to sigh.

When care is pressing you down a bit,

Rest if you must, but don't you quit.

JUST SPEAK UP

To firstly address why I didn't choose one of the given topics:  I personally don't like sticking to scripts and like to guide myself and not be guided by prompts and I have personally endured something today that I think that is worth sharing with my fellow bloggers and that is: "Whatever you feel speak up, don't let it bottle you up". Often times in life we tend to bottle our feelings and emotions inside towards individual people and situations because we are afraid.

This fear is rooted from many different areas - some people fear speaking up for themselves because they always have had someone speak up for them, they fear to say the wrong things, they don't want the person to get mad or become confrontational with them, they don't care enough about the situation, or just they don't know what to say.

My advice to anyone who is feeling this way is to SIMPLY SPEAK UP! The saying speaks now, or forever hold your peace is so accurate. You loose so much peace when bottle things and the real vindication comes when you just let how you are feeling go. If you don't like the direction something is going - speak up! If you feel like someone is disrespecting you speak up! If you feel like people are attacking you speak up! When you speak up, things go better for you.

I had a huge relief when I released somethings that I have been feeling. It felt like I was at my breaking point and today I let people know how I felt and now I feel vindicated. For anyone bottling up fear and etc - just speak the hell up or forever hold your peace. I don't know about you, but I love having my peace.

Failure: The Story of the First Time I got fired and the last time.

The lessons we take from failure can be fundamental to later success. Recount an incident or time when you experienced failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience? The best place that I have ever worked at is Busch Gardens in Williamsburg. I find BGW to be a fun place to work with a lot of benefits to take advantage of. Busch Gardens is also the first place I was fired from. 

During my 10th grade year, I reapplied to work at Busch Gardens as I had just completed a working season in -o-scream and Christmas Town. I really enjoyed my experiences working at the park however my transportation situation got worse as the year progressed. Knowing that my transportation situation was bad and was not going to get any better. 

Ignorantly I applied anyway and got rehired. When it came to training, it was very hard for me to make it to get transportation to and from training and this caused me to get fired. How did this affect me? This affected me in many ways because it clearly showed me that I was very irresponsible. I missed 3 out of 4 training and I was terminated at the fourth training. The main thing that I learned from this is to always be honest. When I was asked if I had reliable transportation, I should have been honest. My dishonesty led to my first termination. 

                  

High School Reunions

It is your fifteen-year high school reunion, and the reunion committee asks you to describe what you have been up to since graduation. Please describe not only your (hypothetical) accomplishments but also the values and personal characteristics that have helped you become the person who you are.

To begin this blog, I would first like to say that since I was the graduating Class President I would be the one to play this reunion and since I am the one planning this, expect this to be a highly organized event with a common goal to bring the "Class of 2015" together. 


Since graduating on June 4th, 2015 I have obtained a Bachelors Degree in Political Science from Old Dominion University, Masters Degree in Educational Leadership & Policy and Masters Degree in Public Administration from Virginia Commonwealth University and currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Public Policy from the College of William & Mary, Education has been the main thing I have been up to. 

 I currently work for "Achievable Dream". A nonprofit organization that seeks to ensure the success of youth who come from hard communities. I am the Director of Certified Academies which essentially means I ensure that all schools in the program meet the outline goals under the AAD mission and core values guidelines. 


  My next goal is to run for public office: mayor or school board member and make a difference in the lives of the people in which I serve. My ultimate Goal is to either become the Governor of Virginia or become the Secretary of Education under a democratic Governor.

 Leadership will continue to be the main goal that I embody, A goal that was heavily apparent in high school and now in my adult life. I will forever live to serve other on a political platform. 

Cultural Enrichment: My time at the Camp Roanoke RA Confrence

Earlier in November, the Richard Bland Collge office of Residence Life Team decided to take 6 RA's to an overnight conference at Roanoke College. This was an all expense paid trip for me also including free meals and a beautiful hotel to stay in. The whole purpose of the conference is to allow other RA's to connect with the other RA's at colleges statewide (VA).

At the conference, 3 schools really stood out to me and they were: Norfolk State University, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Old Dominion University. From the time these 3 colleges walked in I knew that I would potentially be the school I decide to transfer too. They all were so nice and really treated me like family. However on the day od the conference I decided that I would be attending...... ODU. The RA's at the college really treated me like they knew me for years and they also made me feel very welcomed and I am glad that I met the ODU residence life student staff.

At the conference, I tried a lot of new things. From eating new foods and snacks to shooting funny videos with RBC RA team. The RA Conference reality allowed me to step out of my comfort zone. I would have never imagined me stepping out of my zone and talking to literally every school in the state of VA. It was a really a great day. I even started my first bonfire by myself despite a couple burns and bruises along the journey. Life is all about trying new things and meeting people to me and the conference really allowed to accomplish both of those things. I am excited about attending the conference again in the fall of next year with ODU this time lol.

Personal Enrichment: Semester Ending RA Event

Smooth out your college life RA Event

As you, all might already know I am a resident assistant for Freedom Hall. One of our job tasks is to plan events every month. My theme for the month of December along with other Resident Assistants in my building is the simple fact that we should all just have a "smooth" and "chill" week during exams and that we didn't have to be nearly as stressed out as other students are. We wanted to promote programs that help students really relax so that they don't enter into finals week stressed out.

This was a fun event basically we brought a lot of different assorted fruits and lined them up buffet style on a table and allowed residents to pick two fruits and we would make them a corresponding smoothie. After everyone's smoothie was made we engaged in an intellectual conversation about how different fruits stimulate cognitive development. It was an awesome event hosted by me and I was glad that residents enjoyed the program.

Overall this program was very successful. I had people come out that hardly ever leave the room to come make a smoothie and talk with me. This is truly what programs are about. I enjoyed the fact that I created something that was very beneficial to other students. Here are some pictures of students at the event. About 40 students attended this event.

Financial Literacy

I entered into college in the fall of 2015. With $1,000 in my bank account. I was very careful with money, I tired to use my meal plan to it's capacity and I also tried to refrain from careless spending. Today 1 year later I still have 500.00 of this money left. I plan to double this over the summer by working 2 jobs and saving as I go I plan to save 100 dollars each month over the summer which will be 500.00 and do the process over again. Entering into college with $1,000 can truly last you for a while if you are not stupid with your money.