In high school, I was far too busy with clubs, classes, and tutoring to get ahead to really cement relationships and go to parties.I spent most summers in classrooms just so I could add more classes during the school year. I would attend language classes just further my skills as my family traveled overseas to spend time with our extended family. When I left high school I had the confidence of kings and a devotee 's belief of the plan I had created in my life. I began my freshman year in the fall of 2006 at the University of Arizona, I majored in Psychology to understand the human mind with a goal …show more content…
I had an English professor once tell our class about his educational failures and how he was dismissed from his college after his second year. His college had told him that his grades were just not enough for their standards. He didn 't take what was given to him and surrender. Instead, he took stock of his life and worked his way back. It made him find a hunger to prove that he was deserving of the opportunity he had originally taken for granted. He told us that every failure is just an opportunity waiting to happen. He put in the time, hard work, and grit, but he found way back to his university. I didn’t understand what the core of that lesson was till I found myself in the same situation. I had taken for granted the opportunity I was given at eighteen. I wanted to find independence and do it everything I could possibly do. It wasn 't till I was dismissed, full of doubt, and completely broken that I started to take stock of my own life. On a long drive one summer night I took a hard look at where I was in my life. I had stretched myself so thin that I couldn 't focus and manage all the plates I was spinning. I had lost who I was. It was time to stop playing games and really put in the work towards the real things that mattered. I found a program that took students overseas to teach English as afterschool teachers. It was a long …show more content…
As an after school English teacher, I created monthly lesson plans for an hour-long structured after school program for 200 kids between the grades of kindergarten and sixth grade. I worked with students at all levels to improve their verbal and reading skills. I also shared many western holidays like Halloween and Thanksgiving. I learned very quickly that some days even with the best-laid plans when you work with children, you have to learn to move at the moment and have just a bit more patience. The biggest lesson I learned from these students was to open up and be vulnerable. That being vulnerable let them see that I was human and that they could trust me with their vulnerabilities. After my time in the school, I was asked to work at the Provincial Office of Education in the province I had been teaching in. My main objective as the coordinator of the T.a.L.K program in the province was to be the voice for student teachers in their schools and districts. From the first day, I knew I would have to win the trust of past teacher and new income teachers in the province. It also meant I would have to win over 50 schools in the province that were a part of our program. The coordinator who had left the job to me also left me big schools to fill because she was seasoned in the workings of Korean office politics and culture. I had to learn quickly how to talk to people,