Looking back at my experiences over the past few years there are a lot of things that have influenced where I am today. These experiences are important because if it wasn't for these experiences I could have potentially been a high school dropout. It seems like my life has been a roller coaster but the ride isn't even half way over.
I didn't know if I was going to go to college or not when I was younger. I know that I had always wanted too but I did not think that I had enough potential or knowledge to succeed. Fear of succeeding has always kept me from doing certain things. Going through high school my teachers always stressed the importance of going to college. They said that getting a better education is critical in life if you want to have a good paying career. I never really listened to them, I just wanted to get my 4 years of high school over with and get my diploma so I could graduate and be done. Little did I know that even after graduating my chances of becoming wealthy and successful were limited. I thought to myself "ill just become a rapper or an actor". It wasn't until junior year that I had the desire to go to college. It was at the annual college fair at North Tonawanda High School that I started looking at all my different options. I was going to a trade school called Boces for personal training at the time, and I had narrowed down my profession to becoming something in the health field. A lot of people had told me that even if I graduate and get certified as a personal trainer that it wasn't the greatest paying job, especially around western New York. I finally decided that I wanted to become a physical therapist after a lot of research. I liked helping people, and I didn't want to become a doctor because that would mean that after college I would have to go on to med school, and I just didn't have the patience for that. There are a lot of people in my life that that contributed to my attitudes about college.