College Admissions Essay: The Decision That Changed My Life

A very wise uncle used to offer me guidance, which included “stay in school”, “you have plenty of time to make money”, “life will only get more complicated as you get older”. Nevertheless, I was young and foolish and did not heed his advice. I wanted to make my way into the world, and start earning money as a professional, not as a short-order cook in the family restaurant. Looking back through the lens of time it is easy to say that one of my greatest regrets was the decision not to go to graduate school, because I now realize how quickly life does change and that years really do go by in a flash.
Like many, I worked my way through college, my parents encouraged, or one might say mandated, a college education for all of their children. I was the oldest of three and the first person in my family to attend and graduate from college. I worked by my father’s side in the restaurant from the time I was nine years old, and knew that life of restaurateur was not for me. The thought of another year or two working in the “store” and going to graduate school was not my
Over the intervening years, I learned new languages and skills as a software developer, software engineer and technical lead. Now, more than 30 years later, I am an extremely successful and well-respected enterprise technology architect focusing on strategy, guidance, governance and thought leadership. After several years of managing development teams and architecture teams, I made a career decision to seek a role as an individual contributor for the remainder of my professional career. This past January, I was able to transition my management responsibilities and go back to being an individual contributor. Meanwhile my girls are now all in college, we are no longer attending soccer games, dance recitals and track meets as a result I have more free time than I have had in