Reflective Essay: From My Migration To Arizona

Four years ago I moved from my hometown in Pennsylvania to here in Arizona. My biggest challenge from the move was adjusting to the new schools sinply for location reasons. I had been in community college for about a year and a half at home, so I was established as a college student. In hindsight, to uproot at that point put me behind a little but as a big picture change it helped me greatly. The first step to Kotter’s change model highlights a sense of urgency. The threats that I failed to identify were direction and opportunities that could have been exploited. I missed completely researching out of state tuition which turned out to be unaffordable for me at the time this resulted in about a six month break. I did well with urgency as …show more content…
My mom has been deeply invested in my education and whereas she didn’t pay for my college, she did offer me a place to stay. She has been my rock throughout my school career as well as the only person at the time that I knew. I didn’t have any friends or family in Arizona at the time of my move so we worked as a team in order to build a life here. Step three is creating a vision for change. My strategy for moving out here was undeveloped. I knew what I wanted to accomplish like school and my job but I did not have a true strategy to get there. The move from Pennsylvania was impulsive and happened in a matter of a few months. Looking back I wish I would have planned a little better and I could have avoided taking six months off. One of my other visions was to graduate without debt, I was sure that I didn’t want to take out any loans. Step four goes with step three – communicate the vision. I think that I failed this step too like I said the move was fast and at that time I wasn’t speaking to many of my family members. I had support from my mom and from a few of my close friends. I had deep anxiety about moving but I wanted to move forward and start my life somewhere else. My vision was more of an outline – I talked a lot over transferring my credits and which university I would …show more content…
Whereas I am still working on my long term goal, short term I have succeeded many times. I am debt free as of today and I only have to pay off two more semesters. I have a job where I make a lot of money – to pay for school. I earned my associates degree last year for Business. Lastly I am also taking extra summer courses so that I can have a lighter semester for my final major classes. Seventh, build on change. The longer I continue doing what I am the stronger I feel that I have managed my long term goal. I hit a lot of road blocks but as I reflect I think that I have done well. I also reflect where I could have improved. I would have planned to save more while in Pennsylvania towards out of state tuition and avoided taking six months off at all costs. The eighth and final step is to anchor the change. There is nothing that will anchor you harder than moving two thousand miles away. There were many times when I wanted to go home but time and money invested into leaving and living here outweighed anything else. Embracing change was one of the hardest things that I have experienced so far but after sticking to it for four years my long term goal is almost met. I have not followed the same formula for change that I decided to follow when I moved here on a whim. But through change and tweaks, everything has come