Commitment

For many years I didn’t think much about my future goals. I surely didn’t have any dreams or expected outcomes. I just went through life one day at a time without much direction. It wouldn’t be until I met my wife, Sonya, that my life started to change. I began to realize that I had way more potential than I thought. She helped to guide me in the right direction.

My goals and dreams prior to meeting Sonya were not anything that I wrote down and looked at every day. I may have in my mind thought of where I would like to be. It really just came down to money: having enough of it to be comfortable, enough to retire, and if I could assist my father. I had no road map to get there. These were just great ideas that I didn’t put into action. 

Sonya showed me that I was not only capable of more, but how to get there. I knew that my line of work wasn’t something I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Without higher education I wasn’t going to have much of an opportunity to succeed in another industry. We slowly set up a road map for my future, as well as ours. We made a plan to where we wanted to be together, as well as individually.

I committed to advance in the auto industry, to see if there was any way I could make it a long term success. For a short period of time I did. However, I still wasn’t happy with it. The money became less and less important. I wanted to do something where I would be happy to go to work every day, learn, grow within that industry, and be part of an organization that cares about their employees. I started to see myself in a much happier situation.

Committing to going back to school was one of the easiest as well as challenging decisions I have ever made. I dreaded going back to school. Most of my prior school experience was negative. I didn’t like high school, and the little bit of college experience I had wasn’t very productive. However, knowing I needed to further my education to advance in the workplace gave me guidance, and a path to succeed. I still may not know exactly what I want to do when I grow up, but I will have the tools available to open future doors.

I am still figuring out what exactly works best for me. Balancing a 50 hour per week job and three classes has had its challenges. However, I have dedicated myself to being better. My day-to-day routine on my off days has definitely changed. Instead of being able to do what I want, I find myself doing about 15 hours of homework over those two days.  

I am also finding time before and after work to get more assignments done. This works fairly well for me. I do wish I had a little more time for myself, however I know that I have an end game. This new life isn’t a permanent one. I am committed to do the work so in the future, I can have all the down time I want.

I no longer hope that I will succeed in life and have a successful career. Now I know I will succeed. The only thing holding me back at this moment is time. To get to the end of the race I need to keep my current pace. I can’t rush through my work, procrastinate on assignments, or do things half-heartedly (like I have in the past). I just need to stick to my road map of success. I do this by checking on my goal sheet weekly, not over loading myself with school work, and by balancing work, home, and school life.

When I first started to sign up for classes, I looked at how many I could get done as quickly as possible. I started to look at school once again as a chore. I realized I was getting myself back into old habits. After meeting with a guidance counselor, I was able to put together a college success plan. By taking classes that were not only important but interesting, I quickly realized that I enjoyed going back to school.  

Having the weekly assignments in On Course has easily kept me on the right path. Reading the Student’s Stories has been very impactful. I have found that there are plenty of people in my shoes, and in some cases much worse off than I am. If these people can succeed, so can I. Maybe someday I will even have my story in On Course.