Personal Narrative: My STEM Career

My father always told me that nothing worth having comes easy. I carry these words close to my heart and they have driven me to challenge myself through life, especially in my STEM career. My major in the science field has been similar to riding a roller-coaster, but I have learned to overcome most of the obstacles I have faced along the way. No matter what situation brought me down, I remained positive and tried to think of solutions rather than giving up. Finally, in the last few months, many of my peers would mention that I am the type of person who is able to withstand obstacles and recover quickly. Indeed, life is full of challenges. One of them was to overcome my shyness. Being a shy, timid, introverted person was affecting my grades
and holding me back from reaching my career goals. For example, in my school activities, I feared asking for help from teachers. I was afraid of being judged for not knowing the material as well as my other classmates. My first step to overcoming this obstacle or weakness was to become more involved in the school activities and to learn new ways for managing school resources. Managing the school resources has proven to be quite effective considering the lack of resources available to me at home, due to my parents having little to no college experience, especially in the STEM field. Gradually, I have learned to overcome my shyness. Now, I have created close relationships with professors in the STEM field. In addition, I am actively engaged in taking advantage of school tutoring centers and resources that are available to me. Finally, I feel like I am on my way of reaching my goals because I have learned how to grow out of my shell and overcome my shyness. I feel stronger than ever and have chosen not to give up and focus on better understanding the material in the difficult and rigorous STEM courses, as well as finding better ways to improve my studying habits and surrounding environment. My studying environment at home was not helping; therefore, I decided to form my own study groups outside of home which contributed to learn to better adapt to new situations. Overcoming some of these obstacles has not been easy. However, if I want to succeed in my academic career, it is important to be a resilient person who can quickly adapt to change. Even though, as humans, we face difficult situations, the end result is always rewarding especially when it comes to education and learning.