Family Diversity Analysis

Education has never been a strong suit in my family. Most of my immediate family went to high school and barely passed, or never finished at all. Both of my paternal and maternal great-grandfathers left schooling during, if I recall correctly, middle school and never returned. My father has a few certifications specializing in his field of work, fiber-optic work. My uncle also has a few certifications, his are in computer programming. Past that, no one in my family has any formal education past a basic high school diploma. My mother was accepted to Ball State, and went for 1 full year before settling down and having children. Her grades were poor; she did not like college. Education isn’t for everyone, I understand.
However, now I believe …show more content…
I was very different than everyone I went to school with, which was a difficulty growing up. I had different interests; they enjoyed sports and dressed different than I. I had a passion for music, and was very interested in video games. Growing up in a small school with different interests than the general population made making or keeping friends very difficult. Around the end of middle school, in 8th grade, I was a very angst-filled teen. I did the stereotypical behavior an angst-filled would do: I did not want to listen to my parents, I never did my homework, all I wanted to do was run off with boys and go to the mall. It seems crazy now I used to be that person. I had one class in 8th grade, a general pre-algebra course. We had small classes, so there was maybe 15 people in this classroom. We also learned this instructor was a new instructor to the school this year. Our class entered the room the first day of school, not knowing what to expect. The teacher entered with a walk like he owned this place; With a great confidence. He began writing his name on the chalkboard: Mr. Hinkley. He began with the usual teacher introduction on the first day of school, saying, “Hi kids! My name is Mr. Hinkley. I get that I’m new here, but I plan to have a great year here.” He carried on with details of where he used to teach, I cannot remember where it was. He had been teaching for 10 years, or something like that. The …show more content…
No homework in hand, just an empty backpack with a few pencils and an iPod. 11:50am came to be, and class was over. As everyone was leaving for lunch, Mr. Hinkley called after me. “Collins! I need to talk to you,” he said. This was different, no one called me by my last name. I scurried over to his desk, and sat at a chair in front of it. Mr. Hinkley sounded irritated, and began to speak with a mostly level tone of voice. “Is there something going on at home? Is there some reason you just don’t care to be here every day?” I shook my head, mumbling how everything was fine at home. I was brief, I did not care to say much more. It was the truth, everything was fine at home. Angst-filled teenage Kari just didn’t do homework, or anything that required work outside of school. Mr. Hinkley began to speak again, this time with a tone that seethed with disappointment. He asked, “So what do you do when you are not at school?” I sat for a few seconds, and finally said the truth: “I just sit at home, play guitar, play video games, or hang out with my boyfriend, really.” I shrugged. Mr. Hinkley took a deep breath in, and sigh very heavily. His eyes were filled with sadness and anger. “Look,” he began, “I was a kid one too. I get it, I really do. You hate everything in your life right now. Being a teenager sucks.” He actually used every word in this paragraph. I will never forget any word he said, that still