Metropolitan University Alice Dana Bobadilla

School of Professional Studies English 102 Basic English

Undergraduate Program Dr. Roberto Olmeda

Homework

Workshop 2

Essay

June 23, 2014

Becoming a student later in life isn’t at all what I expected, it’s so much better! As a

younger student I had a blast! Actually, I had too much of a blast. I often missed class to go

drinking and most of my test reviews were held at some beach while emptying my cooler and

playing dominoes with my friends. So, you can imagine my grades were no Suma Cum Laude

material but hey, I was passing so, kudos for me!

Of course, my professional life would not be Suma Cum Laude material either. Although

I had a good job and was earning good money there came a time in my life when I knew I was

ready for more. I was bored and thirsty for knowledge. Hanging out with my friends wasn’t as

interesting anymore and I found myself googling for information about the best way to teach

and all the new strategies that were evolving. The curious thing was, that I already was using

them. Actually, I had been using the so “avant guarde” multisensory approach from the

beginning of my teaching career so, why not become a specialist? As I began researching, I

encountered a major issue. I had to have my bachelor’s degree in education to become a

reading/writing specialist. So, as I began my training in the “States”, I enrolled in college.

Wow! Going back to school as a 38 year old, technologically challenged mother of a

teenager seemed overwhelming. But then again, the school I was enrolling myself in wasn’t

competitive, so I was going to be A OK. What really had me worried was going to bed after 8:00

p.m. I was going to cut short my beauty sleep! Boy was I wrong…not only had I the wrong idea

about how competitive the Education Department was at this school, my sleep went from

beauty sleep to survival sleep. I miss my pillow so much. As much as I wanted to just go with

the flow and achieve passing grades, the competitive side of me took over. Somehow,

somewhere in my psyque I had decided to graduate with a 4.0 gpa.

And so…my life as full time student with an overtime full job, a husband and yes, I

mention him again, a teenager began leaving me with no time to rest. My schedule basically

was sleep, work, study. I gained forty pounds in one year, developed a vitamin D deficiency,

high cholesterol and pneumonia. Now that I think about it, doesn’t marriage do that to you

too? I loved studying about everything there is to know about early childhood development and

education so much that I forgot about the most important thing, me! My health was

deteriorating to the point I had pneumonia for two weeks and didn’t go to the doctor until I

couldn’t handle the pain in my lung. Of course it didn’t slow down me down, after a week in the

hospital I was better than ever except for my weakness and shortness of breath.

It took me another semester to realize I wouldn’t make it to graduation if I didn’t start

taking care of myself. So yes, I began taking time to sleep, exercise and even to go out once in a

while. Hey, I even squeezed in time for some facials and laser hair removal. I never imagined

that with maturity my desire to do the best that I can in school would be so overwhelming. I

guess everyone should take some time off after high school and live a little before going to

college. You would just have to make sure you don’t overdo it and learn to balance everything

from the start, so you don’t get the marriage side effects, I mean, well, you know what I mean.