This I believe, that in life you get out what you put in. I believe that every person has the ability to achieve their goals.
When I was young I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life; one day my father gave me advice that left a lasting impression. He told me, “Son find a career that you think you would be good at and that you would enjoy and put all of your effort into obtaining that career and you will achieve it.” I took his advice and as soon as I knew that I wanted to be an engineer I took every step I could think of to become an engineer.
Once I graduated middle school and entered high school I applied myself to my studies. I took difficult classes even though I wasn’t instructed to do so by the school or by my parents. I even started planning for college at the beginning of my junior year. I enrolled myself to take the ACT test in the Fall of my junior year, and I started thinking of ways to pay for college.
I worked every weekend at the store where my parents worked; I started working there at the age of 14. It wasn’t easy to give up my weekends and go to work especially during my teenage years but I knew that college was not going to pay for itself, and I had committed myself to becoming an engineer. I also signed up for the Army Reserves to pay for college when I was 17 in the first semester of my junior year, my parents had to sign for me because I was underage. The recruiter explained to me that the Army was hard work and hard training but that they would cover the expenses of college tuition for me. By the end of my senior year I had already been accepted to college, finished the first half of my military training, and earned valedictorian at my high school.
After I graduated high school I started my first semester of college, it was really tough but I worked hard, once again I remembered my father’s advice, and I didn’t give up. After that I was called up to go to Iraq for a year. It was tough but I never gave up and I was lucky to come back nearly unharmed. I came back a month before the Spring Semester, I wasted no time in enrolling and I quickly picked up where I had left of.
Now I am one semester away from receiving my Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and I already have a job waiting for me once I graduate. I thank god for his blessings, they have helped me get to this point, but so has all my hard work and sacrifice. I’m finally getting out what I put in.