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As I go into my last semester of college soon, well for my bachelors degree. I can't help but be excited and scared all at the same time. I am so excited for the growth I am going to take this coming semester but I am scared that this time of my life is coming to an end. I do know that no matter where life takes me, I will always learn and grow. I know that even down the road, my students will often surprise me and teach me new things. I cannot wait!

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Aside from family, friends, peers, and professors, the community I live in has given me the practice I need for literacy growth. The community we all live in grows us everyday when it comes to literacy whether that be, slang of words, resumes, document reading, projects, our children's school works, job interviews, and so much more!

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As my college career begins to come to an end, I can't help but think about every single person who has influenced my love for English. I have had amazing classmates, friends, family, and professors influence my love for English. I have met some amazing people along the way as well.

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There are times where I believe that I have too much on my plate, too much to juggle, and honestly, there are times where I just want to give up but deep down, I know that giving up is not an option for me. I know that my son relies on me, my fiancee relies on me, I rely on me, and thats the strength I need to push forward. The strength of being needed. I want to give my family, my dogs, myself the life we all deserve and I will do that! Giving up is not an option for me, no matter how hard things get.

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As the days go on, as the doctors begin to tell me that they believe I have cancer at this point, I am just trying to remember to focus on myself, my family, school, and my overall well being..

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Since COVID, my life has changed drastically. I have fallen out of love with school and being a parent, holding a job, and having the health problems I have encountered in the last six month has been terrible. When COVID first started we all thought it wouldn't last, we thought we would get our lives back, and we could go back to normal but we haven't and we can't. It's been very hard. I have lost 4 grandparents since COVID happened, some of them related to COVID and others not. I have encountered my own set of health problems and yes, I am trying to get mine figured out but its been difficult. During all of these problems, I have become depressed a little more than I was before. It's hard being sick all of the time. It's hard not knowing what's wrong with me and it'd even harder when at times, you are scared to talk about it with your family.

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So, at this point, I am currently into the second semester into my career as an English major. I am excited because my first semester was absolutely amazing, but this time, we are in covid and things have definitely changed. So, going to class was a big NO, engaging with students is a big NO, and engaging with the professor in a way we hoped was a big NO! This is when I felt like I made the worst decision by becoming an English major. I have never really written a college level essay at this point. Yes, I have written papers but not in the way an English major should. My experience with my English professor was horrible. This is the first time I have ever been told that I should drop my major, learn how to write, be a better person, not sound like an idiot, and just choose a different career because I would never succeed in the one I am. I was shocked and hurt. I have never heard a professor say things like this but honestly, while thinking I chose the wrong major, I decided that I need to fight, be better and one day, prove those who didn't believe in me, WRONG.

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My very first English class was 43A. This is the moment I knew choosing English as my path was by far the greatest decision I have made so far. I loved this course! The professor I had was absolutely amazing, she made this course fun and engaging. I loved going to this class.

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My sophomore year of college, I was walking into my last two semesters of community college, not in love with my major, I went to a counselor and that was the moment I changed my mind. We talked about the English courses and what English had to offer. She asked me, "do you love to read, expand your knowledge, learn a lot of amazing things?", of course I said YES! This is when my English career officially began.

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When Literacy began to play a role for me..

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When Literacy began to play a role for me..

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It was not until my junior year of high school when I started to fall in love with English. I had a teacher, her name was Mrs. Mars. Mrs. Mars taught at C.A.R.T (Center for Advanced Research and Technology), I was in her Bioengineering course, but she taught the English portion of that class. In her class, we read poetry and some other amazing books. Mrs. Mars was amazing, each time we read a new book, she would find a book geared toward certain holidays, and then she would decorate the classroom. My favorite one thus far is Frankenstein. Mrs. Mars made me fall in love with English but it was still just a thought in the back of my head when it came to my college career path.

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As a child, I never imagined I would be an English Major. Growing up was difficult for me but when times did get rough, I used school as my escape. I was a great student. I received principals honor roll every semester. When it came to reading books in school and taking A.R. tests from elementary school, I would often be stuck because in my household, reading was not something we did. I was often called nerdy for reading, so I just never did it.