first paper
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Personal Goals
Personal Goals
My personal goals are vast and wide. My main focus as it has been for years is to be an excellent role model and mother to my 12-year-old son. For many years I have wanted to enter college and better myself however my main focus was on the betterment of myself as a mother only. Recently that focus has broadened into something more concrete.
When I graduated from high school in 1988 I had strong secretarial skills but found myself living in the small town of Johnstown, PA where there was little opportunity for someone with those skills, so I had to take jobs that did not offer a decent wage or much opportunity for growth. A few years later I got married and moved to the big city of Dallas, Texas. When I entered adulthood and found myself having to make a living and provide solely and entirely for myself as well as contribute financially to a family it became a matter of simply doing that. I did not have the luxury or the maturity to envision anything but accomplishing that goal. I took a few random jobs throughout those years, which included telemarketing jobs, entry-level clerical jobs, etc. I was never happy with these positions as I would quickly learn the job and find myself not only bored but I soon felt less than satisfied with the experience. I often entertained the idea of going to college but with a small child and a husband I most often felt I had to succeed at being a wife and mother first. I always put my own needs last.
As the years went on my family moved from Dallas, Texas to St. Petersburg, FL as my husband�s career took off. It was a good move for his career and I felt somewhat frustrated about what I had done for the first 5 years of my son�s life as far as my own work life was concerned. A few fly by night jobs and a factory job that was less than desirable later I was determined to get my own career in order. I sent my son off to kindergarten and set about improving my own career situation.
I sought out and took a job working for Home Shopping Network and when I found that the company was providing computer training I quickly signed up. Soon after that event I decided that rather than stay stagnant working in a position where there was little to nothing left for me to learn, I moved on to a position with Eckerd Corporation where I could take further training and achieve autonomy in my position of Energy Management Delinquent Bill Clerk. The company often had in house training and I signed up and completed many beginner computer courses while working for them.
I moved through several jobs and spent an average of one to two years at each position before growing bored and seeking more. A few years later my marriage ended and I then sought a job that would provide opportunity for growth.� It was then that I landed a job with the University of and happily took it because it was something different. I would no longer be stuck behind a desk for 8 hours a day doing one task over and over again. This excited me immensely. I soon learned that as part of my employment benefits tuition was provided.
I had long felt that I was going through my life and working at jobs that I had to work at rather than working at something I was excited about. Since coming aboard with the University of, my employment experiences have greatly changed my outlook on my future.
My goal at this point in my life is to work only at job�s that make me happy and fulfilled as a person. I want to move up within the University by gaining my Bachelors Degree in Business Management and moving into the position of Academic Counselor. I want to gain a more hands on experience with the students that I come in contact with daily. The idea of changing peoples lives the way the University of will change mine excites me and drives me to work hard, achieve and move up the ladder of my career. For the first time in my life I know that I can obtain these things.
My goals are strongly fueled by my companies tuition program, and in addition I strongly believe in the quality of education I am receiving as reported in an online article posted on Thompson Peterson�s website:
����������������������������� University of
Online provides students with the same high-quality education, curriculum,
faculty, and resources offered to more than 80,000 University of students at
the fifty-two campuses and ninety-two learning centers established in
thirty-five states, Puerto Rico, and Vancouver, British Columbia. Their
commitment to educational excellence and unsurpassed student service has made
them the leading accredited online university in the United States. The
consolidated enrollment in their educational programs makes them the largest
private institution of higher education in the United States.
My personal goals include more than moving up the career path within the workplace. I strongly and personally believe that as a parent what we do is a very strong message to our children about what they themselves can achieve. Telling your children that education is important is one thing, showing them it�s importance is quite another.
When I was contemplating enrolling in college and taking on new responsibilities that would most certainly have some effect on my relationship with my son I did some research online. I found a website that said, �When your children see you continuing to learn, they�ll realize that learning is a lifelong pleasure.� (Dorothy Dubia, 1997) This is something that I feel is important to me because my main goal for the last twelve years has been to be a great mother. It is very pleasing to me to now realize that I can achieve my own career goals and further achieve my original goal at the same time. I�ve long wanted to be a good role model and teach my son by being a strong and exemplary parent. For me to tell my son that education is important is one thing, but for me to show him by personal example the good results of spending the time and giving the effort to your own education is quite another thing. It is a relief for me to realize that I do not have to give up one goal to achieve another.� Knowing that I can be a success in the workplace and with my own personal education and not damage my efforts at being a great mother is truly a wonderful thing.� With the addition of the financial worries of educational costs being dismissed from my list of concerns, I feel very confident that I will succeed in all of my aforementioned goals.
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