My Grandparents: The Most Influential People In My Life

My grandparents have been the most influential people in my life. I grew up spending every weekend, summer, and break with them from the time I was two until the time I was sixteen. My grandparents both came from very poor families. My grandmother was the daughter of a teacher and carpenter while my grandfather was the son of a stay at home mother and an average blue-collared man. Growing up, they knew that wasn’t the life they wanted for themselves or their children. My grandfather worked hard graduating from the University of Florida and Emory. He then opened up his own dental practice in Buckhead. My grandmother, also hardworking, put herself through Duke where she majored in secondary education. She taught English, French, and Spanish for …show more content…
My mother, her sister, brother, and grandmother never graduated high school. Though they only had completed the GED program, my mother’s side of the family still pushed my brother and I toward education. They knew how difficult it was for them to get by, and so did we, because they didn’t have an education. My bother and I saw them struggle to keep the lights on, while my father’s side of the family took vacations every few months because they could. My father graduated from Richmond University, and his brother graduated from Georgia Tech. My family members who had gone to college attended well known state schools far away from home. I had always thought that I was going to do the same, because I thought that was just what people did when they went off to college. I applied to several universities in Georgia, and had been accepted to all of them, including The University of North Georgia. I had graduated from an online high school that gave me the opportunity to graduate early. Knowing that I was younger than most of the students attending the universities I was accepted to, and having such a close relationship with my family as a whole, I did not feel comfortable moving away from them. The University of North Georgia was the perfect solution. They had just opened a campus on exit 16 in Cumming, which is the exit I lived off of when I initially applied. The main campuses are only …show more content…
Education was the most important thing in my life growing up. It was forced on me in a sense, but it really showed me who I am, and what I need to do with my life. I strive to make a difference in multiple children’s lives. I strive to take the students who grew up believing that they aren’t going to be anything or students who think their most important job is working, and turning them toward education. I desire to change the opinions of students who don’t care about school or “hate” school, as they say. I want my students to go on and be successful. Most importantly, I want my students to feel like I was a teacher who cared about their success, and about them as individuals. I want my students to know that I will do anything to help them succeed in all of their classes, not just mine, so that they can go on with a positive mindset towards education overall. My culture will influence my students by pushing them to success, and doing everything in my power to get them to