The ups and downs of my wonderful life

The Ups and Downs of My Wonderful Life
I had actually never planned to go to college at all, but I had an awakening. I am going to present some of my life experiences that have made me the person I am today. I will also compare and analyze these experiences using the adult development theories from this class. Near the ending I will also provide the goals of my future.
I grew up in a household that included my mom, my stepdad, Steve, and me. My parents divorced when I was five years old. Though I was very young I still remember this being a very hard time for me because I was so close to my dad. As Daniel Levinson says, “the primary components of life structure are the person’s relationships with others.” (Witt & Mossler, 2010) My relationship with my dad was like no other. I was definitely daddy’s little girl. When I turned 7 years old my relationship with my dad started to go downhill. He remarried and was busy to busy living in another world so I started going to see him less. This is the point where my step dad stepped in. Steve was a great guy. He is the one who helped me through school all the way from second grade up through middle school. I always knew I could count on him. He grew into being the dad I needed. Even to this day I am still very close with him.
After my dad had been remarried for about four years my sister was born. Kylie Ann was the prettiest baby in the world. I loved her so much and I did everything in my power to be around her. I would feed her and rock her. She became my best friend. We did pretty much everything together up until I turned sixteen. That was when I met my “first love”, or at least I thought so then. I began to spend all my time with him and his sisters, Holly and Tiffany. I will never regret dating even though our relationship was terrible because Holly and Tiffany became my “sisters.” We were completely inseparable. You would never see one without the others at all. These girls helped shape me into being a better person and the ones I turned to when I thought about giving up after the dreadful experience I had on my seventeenth birthday.
On the morning of my seventeenth birthday, I woke up like any normal day except something felt off. I kept getting feelings of anxiety consume me. However, I pushed the feelings aside so I could attend my birthday dinner with my family and friends. There were so many people there, including my mom, Steve, Kylie, Holly, Tiffany, and even my step mother, but yet one person was missing. My dad wasn’t there and had not even tried calling me to wish me a happy birthday. After realizing this I panicked because of the anxiety feeling I had pushed aside. I rushed out of the restaurant and went straight to my dad’s house. As soon as I pulled on the road I saw six police cars all sitting in the driveway with blue lights everywhere. I flew in the driveway and jumped out of the car. As soon as I shut the door to my car I turned around and looked up to see my dad being escorted in hand cuffs to a police car. I rushed over to him with tears pouring down my face trying to ask him what was going on. I had no idea at that point. The officer escorting him let me give him a hug and kiss and then took him away. Come to find out my dad had been manufacturing and distributing methamphetamine and had been doing it for years. I was completely devastated. I lost my dad for a total of six years because of the mistake that he chose to make. I do feel, however, that after this experience it helped me. I turned down every drug that was ever offered to me in school and even started my own drug free club. That was also the day I pledged that when I had kids I would make sure that they never experienced anything like that. My dad missed out on the best parts o my life. I became a majorette my sophomore year in high school, and all I could think about every time I stepped onto that field was that my dad would not be there to watch me. He would never know how good or bad I was and he would never be in any of the pictures.
I graduated high school in May 2007. Right after graduation I got married to a man I had been seeing for about six months because I got pregnant. Though I did not truly love my husband, Matt at first, I did grow to love him. We both got jobs and moved out of our parent’s home so that when our son was born we would be on our own and be able to raise him our way and not the way our parents thought we should. We had our first born son, Aiden in October of 2007. He was absolutely perfect. His birth brought Matt and I closer than ever. We had the perfect family for about two years. A few months after Aiden turned two years old I became pregnant again. Matt wasn’t very happy about the situation. He had always only wanted one child so throughout my entire pregnancy I felt completely alone. He started cheating on me when I was about four months along. I did my best to handle it and stick around so that we could be a family. That all changed when our second son, Ethan, was born though. I went into the hospital to have him on Christmas Day. Matt accompanied me to the hospital and stayed to watch the birth of our son and then as soon as Ethan arrived in this world he left. It was literally ten minutes after I gave birth. I was in shock. He had left to go spend Christmas with the girl he had been seeing. I could not handle anymore so I decided then the string had to be cut. I filed for divorce a week later. I knew that I had to leave so that I could raise my kids in a good environment.
My kids are my whole life and without them I do not know what I would do. They are the reason for everything that I do. My personal goal is to be the best mother that I can be for them. I want to always show them that I am here for them no matter what problem they encounter and to show them that I love them unconditionally to no end. I also want them to know that I am their protector and I will always do my best to keep harm and evil away. I will discipline them when they do wrong things and I will correct the wrong things by being their teacher. They will learn what is right and what is wrong, and I will hope they always choose the right path. I am currently pursuing my associate’s degree in early childhood education. I know this degree will help me better my children by providing me with a better job. My long term goal, however, is to stay in school while working so I can obtain my masters in education. I want to be a kindergarten teacher. I want to be a teacher and role model for small children. I believe that children are the future generation, and it is up to us to be the leaders and teachers they need so that they can pass it on to other children when they become adults as well. To know I have a part in a child’s success will mean so much to me.
In conclusion I have provided specific examples of some of the life experiences that have shaped me into the person I am today. I also used the adult development theories we have used from the textbook in this class. Lastly, I gave you a listing of my future goals and how I plan to achieve them. I feel that this class provided me with enough knowledge to make the rest of my educational journey a complete success.