Plans for Success

            In school, at least in my experience, I have always been told to be prepared for the future and have a plan for my education, career, and life. I look back in my past and think of how blessed I was to have people telling me the right thing and positively influencing me. My high school career was decent at best but I knew I still had a chance during my junior year to make the best of my future. The feedback from my friends and family help me realize that I'm going through a great path in my life and I feel enamored by satisfaction. Throughout my school career  I've felt distraught at home with little support, but with the influence of education and the people I envelop myself around, I've developed a plan for the future and it makes me feel truly triumphant.

            As I started high school, I decided to take higher level courses to challenge myself despite the lack of prior guidance. I always had teachers talk about college in the future and how it was expected of all of us in class, I didn't feel as if college was forced upon me but it was heavily influenced. Other students would come in and tell me the importance of education and how it would help me in the future. Although the topic of college was running through my mind, my unsupportive family at home kept me from caring. I felt depressed at home with all of my family issues; parental separation, sibling drug use at home, and house foreclosure, and according to McCann, Lubman, and Clark, "being unsupportive, highlighted how, in the young people's view, lack of understanding, poor communication, criticism, family conflict, and coexisting mental illness in families compromised their ability to cope with their depression"(1). Eventually, I looked past my depression and felt that my situation was only going to get worse unless I put matters into my own hands. I decided that in my life I had to succeed and take care of all of the issues at home if things were to get better. Thus the start of my future goals and plans for my education and work.

            I moved into a smaller town house from my single family home and it was my adopted mother taking care of three boys in her home with me being the youngest. The eldest brother in the home was in between jobs and stole from the family to purchase drugs, while the other brother did absolutely nothing with his life. My mother's bills piled up and I decided to get a job at Best Buy during my junior year to help pay for bills. The coworkers I had always supported me and pointed out things I could do with my life. Most of the people I work with are prior military, that being said, I have always thought of military as an option. Throughout high school, I realized college and higher education was the path for me and planned to pay for it with my own money. To this date, I have never asked for money from anyone in the family to pay for any of my education needs while taking care of the two brothers and my mother. The support of my friends and coworkers relieved my stress at school and work, as McCann, Lubman, and Clark say, " other forms of coping [...] include social environments" (1). I am in my second semester of community college and I realized working at Best Buy will not be sufficient for four year colleges. This led to my plans for the Air Force for the benefits to pay for my future endeavors in school and take better care of my family.

            When I think about my past, I do not feel regret for any events that have happened but feel blessed that it made me the person I am today. Without the past problems at home, I wouldn't have wanted to plan so much for the future. I feel proud when I have friends or family asking me what I'm doing with my life because I know exactly what I want to do and how I'll reach my goals. In the end, having planned and thought over my future in high school, led to my current success as a student and will lead me through a bright future.

McCann, T. V., Lubman, D. I. and Clark, E. (2012), Views of young people with depression about family and significant other support: Interpretative phenomenological analysis study. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, 21: 453–461. doi: 10.1111/j.1447-0349.2012.00812.x