Believe in Yourself

I was not born into a rich or even educated family . The chances of me making it through

high school were slim , so the thought of college never even crossed my mind . My

never made it out of middle school , and my mother never passed the ninth grade . My

mother was only sixteen when she had my older sister , and nineteen at my birth . It was

never easy trying to get an education . My mom didn’t let us ( me and my sister ) go to public

school ; she was scarred something ” horrible ” would happen to us . She did , however , enroll

us into home schooling . the only problem with that was she didn’t have the money to buy the

books or supplies we needed , and she lacked the education to teach us the material . Because

I was only about twelve when my mom stopped helping us with school work I wasn’t really

concerned with my education , and my future was the last thing on my mind . It wasn’t until I

was eighteen that I realized I couldn’t get anywhere without at least a high school diploma , so

I went and registered for my G.E.D at Florida Community College . I took the test and I was so

excited I was on my way to being a ” real person ” . When I got the results back I was

thrilled to find out I had actually passed , and was now a high school graduate . Still I was

unsatisfied with my level of education . I was made fun of constantly by friends and family for

only having a G.E.D. I didn’t understand why I was so depressed , even after I had pushed

myself so far . I had gone much further than anyone in my family ever had . For some reason I

never thought I’d make it to college , but after having my first baby , and trying to raise him

by myself , I decided I had to give it a shot .

So now that I’m in college , and on my way to a bright future for me and my kids , I realize

how lucky I am to have enough self-motivation to make it this far . I could have given up long

ago like the rest of my siblings , but I haven’t and I’m still pushing for that better day everyone

keeps telling me about . I’m sure life never really gets easier . I know I’ll be fighting and

pushing my whole life , but that’s better than just ” making it through life ” .

Finally , I feel a sense of self-confidence . I don’t think a lot of people realize how lucky they

are to have to push them to get a good education . Even when I had no one else to tell me I

could do it , or tell me I could be anything I wanted , I always had myself . And that’s why I

believe so strongly in myself , and the fact that we can all be anything we want as long as we

push ourselves hard enough . And now that I have a kid , and one on the way , I only hope I

can instill my beliefs of self-motivation in them . Even though I will always be there to support

them I always want them to believe in themselves .