The Path to My Future by Danielle

The Path to My Future by Danielle - March 2014 Scholarship Essay

The road through college has been a difficult one for me. I have done things a bit backwards and it has been discouraging to say the least. I started out going to school out of state at Colorado State University, which is a 4-year university. I had the time of my life there. I discovered a new place, lived in the dorms, away from home, made new and lifetime friends, got the opportunity at a great education, and learned a lot about myself and what I wanted for my future. After two years (the best two years of my life) of education and paying out of state tuition, I couldn’t afford to continue going to school out of state. I had to return to California and continue my education here. While deciding where I wanted to attend school when I got back to California I discovered that none of the schools offered my major that I was pursuing in Colorado. This pushed me to go to Riverside Community College so that I could explore my options. It took me a semester to decide that my passion was anthropology. Another semester led me to the ultimate decision of linguistic anthropology. Finally figuring this out after the struggle of changing schools was one of the best achievements in my academic career.

The decision to go into the field of linguistic anthropology was backed up by the education that I had in Colorado even though my main major was not anywhere near that field. I am going to be pursuing a major in anthropology as well as a minor in German and a German translating certificate. This will enable me to get a job as a German translator when I finish my degree and I can then establish myself in the field of anthropology.

Finally finding a path that I love has motivated me so much more as well. Before I was struggling with life, not really knowing if I was truly passionate about the field that I was preparing myself for. Discovering anthropology just seemed to fit right into the life that I envisioned for myself. This was the best way to increase the motivation to do my best and finish what I had started.

Figuring out that anthropology was the path I wanted to take impacted my academic career in an extravagant way and is proving every day to be the greatest achievement of my academic career. Without it I wouldn’t have the motivation to finish or the plan that I now have for my future.