My New Life

Thinking about my life before I moved to Austin makes me remember all of the long conversations I had with friends about our expectations of college and the nights when I dreamed of moving to a different environments. I come from a small town; just about everyone knew of my existence, and if they didn't, they knew of someone who did. That was one of the good things about living in a small town, but it was also bad for some people. Pictured to the right is Crosby Church, which is a nondenominational church and is one that I visited sometimes with my friends. Throughout high school I saw myself changing in good and bad ways. I began to learn the importance of education and that it would get me further than worrying about the drama that constantly circulated around my school.

One thing I remember is the feeling of not being at home in my home. I loved Crosby and all of its people but I just always knew it was not the right place for me. I wanted "scholarship, new experiences, and freedom from [my] past self " (177). I was always the one to sort of run away from things. Every summer I escaped to my second home in Washington, D.C. to get away from the burdens I felt at "home." Going to a different environment allowed me to clear my head and get a sense of what I was experiencing. I don't like to run away from my problems, but I do like to find the best solution, which usually resulted in a change of environment.

When I decided to pursue my undergraduate studies in the state of Texas, UT was basically my only option. I considered other colleges but none of them got my attention like UT. Before I arrived in Austin, my expectations were to meet a diverse group of new friends, learn about the variety of subjects offered to Liberal Arts majors, and ultimately to become a better individual. I also believed that my "my weakness of character, as it may be called, suggested that [I] was the sort of [woman] who was born to ache a good deal before the fall of the curtain upon [my] unnecessary life should signify that all was well with [me] again" (649). Meaning that I expect to fail at some areas I may chose to explore, which is something I am not use to doing. Everything came easy to me in high school, but I expect for UT to put challenges along my path.

My high school was a fairly good academic school, but I always had the feeling of not being on the same level as other students. I had friends from other schools that had excellent SAT scores and above average AP scores. My high school would only have a couple of students every year that would make 4's and 5's on their AP tests, which made me realize that even though I took the hardest classes offered at my school, I still wasn't on the same level as other students around the nation. I remember having a discussion about the academics in my school district with the Superintendent of the Crosby ISD; he made efforts to raise the academic standards in the district, but it would take time to see the full effects of his policies. So when he explained to me about Plan II at UT, he said that " [I] would no longer feel like [I'm] at the top of my class, but [I] would feel like [I] was at the bottom and struggles would be almost unavoidable" (Dr. Hendrix). His words were frightening and exciting at the same time. I felt that I would actually be challenged academically and would have to seek out the help from others. While Plan II's curriculum is different from my high school, I no longer fell frightened. I love the fact of not knowing everything all of the time; the pressure to be perfect is lifted a little of my shoulders. So my expectation to be challenged at UT has been fulfilled, but I appreciate it and know that it will be of assistance in the future.

Austin and UT is everything I dreamed it would be. It is filled with interesting people that are not like me but respect me for who I am. I have met wonderful new friends especially in World Literature; friends that I will hopefully complete my academic journey with and will stay in touch with for a long time. " I love this place...it is the centre of the universe to me, because of my early dream: and nothing can alter it" (644). UT is the place I have been trying to find for a long time; I feel at home here, which will make my learning experience more meaningful and enjoyable. There are endless possibilities here. I want to go to Law School, which UT offers. I want to be able to have a city life whenever I chose and then be able to escape to the country whenever I want; Austin is the ideal for that transition.

The one thing that excited my most about college is the ability to reinvent yourself. I didn't plan on moving here and becoming a completely new person, but I did expect to develop into a better person academically and socially. I can feel the changes occurring; I have never been so happy in my life. I still get stressed out about school work, but I am able to find happiness in my environment.

My expectations of college now is the same as before I moved here; I see my expectations constantly being fulfilled so I feel there is no need to change them. I still expect to meet more people and learn about them, I want to be challenged academically for my remaining time here, and I want to "only connect" my academic experiences into my personal life in order to become a better person that can make a difference in other people's life.

Sitting in room 110 in Kinsolving Dormitory, "[I want] to make this moment last; it would belong solely to [me], and live in [my] memories as a flash of independence" (179).

P1: Role Model Essay Revised

P1: My Role Model
Christine Collins, my mother, was born on August 27, 1963 in Lafayette, Louisiana. She was the first born child to Edward and Lucy Williams. The Williams family moved to the Houston area around 1975 to create a stable home for their family. My mother married at the age of eighteen and had me when she was twenty-one. The role model qualities I found in my mother were based on observing her during my childhood years until the present.
Leaders can be established and distinguished in almost every aspect of life; they can emerge in school, the work place, or at home. But wherever they come into existence, it is pertinent that they are there. I got a chance to personally see how my mother was a leader in the work place and at home.

Leadership comes with the very important task of assuming responsibility for one’s own personal actions and the actions of those around them. My mother works for MHMRA, which is a state owned association geared towards the well-being and health of the mental retardation. The logo of her company, MHMRA is shown above. As a Supervisor, my mother is responsible for a specific group of clients. She is responsible for making sure that the home of this specific group is up to the standards given by the state, buying groceries and other necessities the clients need, making and attending doctors appointments, and planning events that allow the clients to interact in the world outside of their normal boundary of the group home and workshop, which is where they work. Along with the list of duties a Supervisor is suppose to fulfill, she has to make sure that the employees working below her are doing their job. For example, she has to make sure they are taking proper care of the group home and the clients, which includes not mistreating the clients and giving them their medication. Her job not only comes with the responsibility of completing her job description, but being responsible for anything that goes wrong. Sometimes during the summer I would tag along for the day with my mom and go to the group home. It was like she was in charge of another household with three times as many individuals; she has her own office filled with file cabinets of important documents and strict guidelines that are to be followed for any possible situation that might arise. This is where she would carefully examine the files of each of the clients and make sure that the group home accommodated all of their needs and read about the certain medications they were required to take. There are huge binders of information about the medications, which she referred to when it came time to refill medications or when it was time to set up doctors appointments. Some of the clients have specific issues like slow mobility and phobias, which required her to carefully plan out the activities for the group as a whole. Also this is where she did her various paperwork; written reports were required for all incidents that occurred at the group home. For instance, if two of the clients got into an altercation and had to be refrained from each other, she had to write down everything in specific details just in case their was an injury or something else severe. Sometimes what she did not complete in her office, she would bring home and finish. My mother’s responsibility for her clients is twenty-four hours a day seven days a week; it does not stop at 4 o’clock when she would leave the group home. Our family could not go anywhere without her cell phone ringing with the voice of one of her employees on the other end calling in sick, which sometimes resulted in my mother having to go back to work later on that night if she could not find someone else to fill in, or the voice of one of her clients complaining how something was not going their way. My mother would get a little frustrated when one of her employees would call, but she loved to talk to her clients. After all, the main purpose of her job was to take care of her clients. Accepting responsibility for someone else’s life is a great task; since it isn’t the easiest job to do, leaders truly emerge in this area. Having responsibility allows you to step back from only thinking about yourself; it makes you unselfish and places others’ feelings before your own. Day after day my mother demonstrated this quality to me; along with being a Supervisor for MHMRA, she had a night job that also included working with mental retardation. Two jobs added some stress to my mother’s life and did not allow her to get much sleep. When it came time for the responsibility of a leader to come into play, she ignored her personal obstacles and assumed her role as a Supervisor.

Shown above is a picture of my mother and her sister-in-law’s baby shower; along with the other women in my family, she takes responsibility by contributing her hard work in preparing for family events.
At home, my mother’s responsibilities just about parallel those in the workplace. Being a parent and head of the household already comes with certain responsibilities like paying all bills, providing food for everyone, cleaning, and ensuring the well being of your children. Most parents, like my mother, teach certain responsibilities to their children, which in turn releases some burdens off of themselves. I learned how to clean and do other various tasks at a young age. Fortunately for my mother, having the responsibility of finding a babysitter was not a huge factor. Since there is a six year difference between my older and I and a nine year difference between my younger brother and I, the eldest in the house would assume the responsibility of being babysitter. The responsibility of taking care of others was instilled into my mother when she was young because she is the eldest of five children. Responsibility can be picked up at home or in the work place, but without it leadership can not be fully attained.
Whenever a leader is chosen, it is with the assumption that they will complete all tasks to the best of their ability. In order for that to happen, determination has to put into play; there has to be a certain drive in this particular individual to do whatever it takes to complete the goal. For some strange reason, a task or goal cannot be accomplished without some sort of obstacle; it is like part of the criteria of reaching a goal. You have to go through a dark tunnel before you see the light, which truly tests the determination in an individual. If they are willing to keep going, feeling their way through the dark, then they are determined and ready to do whatever it takes to reach their area of accomplishment. My mother, as stated previously, worked two jobs while running a household; she was determined to do everything in her power to ensure that her family would be taken care of, which made her spend more hours at work than at home. Growing up, I resented my mother for working so much; I was completely oblivious to the amount of money it takes to support a household for a single parent. When I got older, I understood exactly the sacrifices she made and determination that guided her everyday, which allowed my brothers and me to do some of the same activities as our friends. For me, it was cheerleading; I can remember dreading the days when we would receive the final calculations of how much we owed that year for camp and various other things. I know it put a strain on my mother but her determination for us to live a fairly decent childhood over rid her temporary feeling of agony. A very strong passion of mine at the present moment is to become more determined. Determination involves the concept of actually believing that you can accomplish your goal; this is the area I need the most work on. I am a very determined individual but sometimes I lose faith in myself. My mother is a real example of where determination can get you in life, and I look at her in order to build my determination.
The best quality a leader can have is the ability to help others or give back to others, the will to develop other leaders and not desire all of the attention. There has to be communication between a leader and everyone else; positive communication that makes everyone feels they are equal and not one person sitting on top of a throne in order to achieve a common goal. Even though my mother is the Supervisor, technically in charge of everyone, she has a certain bond with her employees. Importantly, they communicate outside of the work place; they will eat lunch occasionally, celebrate birthdays together, and sometimes visit each other’s homes interacting with their families. They have developed a friendly relationship; whenever her employees don’t understand something or have a personal problem, they will call and consult with my mother trying to find the best solution and vice versa. Even though this won’t happen in all working environments, there should be some sort of communication that involves everyone contributing in some way. Outside of the work place, she is a bid giver and helper. Being a single mother of three hardly ever left my mother with excessive finances but when she had extra money, it would usually go to others that she felt needed it more than herself; her favorites were the homeless. It did something to her spirit when she gave to others; I too experience this feeling whenever I give to others. Whether an individual helps others in environments where they are already established leaders or giving to others in society where they become an example of a leader, it is important to pass your wisdom and good fortune to others that are not fortunate to reach that level of leadership yet.
Christine Collins, my mother, is an average individual that we all walk next to on the street everyday not thinking how they have impacted some else’s life with their knowledge. The leadership qualities of responsibility, determination, and helpfulness are characteristics that can be possessed by a single mother from the south all the way up the President of United States.


Word Count: 1,760

Liberal education

When I made the decision to attend the University of Texas at Austin, I was somewhat aware of the liberal education its students received; I understood that the teachings at UT went beyond the textbooks and into higher learning. I didn't know about the existence of Plan II; it was introduced to me in a meeting with a friend. As a result of this meeting, the possibility of such a prestigious program immediately became one of my short term goals. I learned that Plan II would put me in a classroom with some of the most intelligent students at the university and expose me to an environment that would challenge me academically and personally. By being accepted into Plan II, I am getting the best learning experiences offered at the UT.

A liberal education goes along with the definition of liberal, but instead of "freedom from narrowness of mind" there is an emphasis on expanding your knowledge of the arts and sciences among other areas (319). You are just not focused on your area of study alone, which sometimes sparks objection to liberal education. I have always wondered, "why do I have to learn this particular subject if it has nothing to do with my field of interest?" The answer came a couple of days into classes my first year at UT; I began to realize that education and life are not just focused on one particular subject. There are many subjects like mathematics and science that are interrelated and is fully comprehended with the teachings of both; there are aspects of life that are dependent of each other like the well being of your family is dependent on the your success at work, which is normally determined by the amount of education received. When I connected education with everyday life, I began to understand the benefits a well rounded education, which is what liberal education offers, can have on my life. I believe it isn't enough to just know the skills of your particular field of study, but to know the basic skills and information of other subjects.

Liberal education goes beyond what is outlined in the syllabuses; it strives to let each student learn who they are as individuals and take what they learn in the classroom to improve themselves and the world around them. On the concept of Liberal education Newman states, "Let our students go forth and with the products of our laboratories and institutes, meet the economic needs of our time. But let us as an institution focus on the greatest of all resources-the human intellect" (319). Newman touches on an important issue; it isn't just enough to teach students how the reaction of certain gases yield a specific compound or how plugging in "A" and "B" into this formula will result in "C" but to teach them about the themselves and how can they make a difference using the products taught.

Plan II does an excellent job of unifying the the intellectual left side of the brain with the more emotional right side of the brain. Professor Bump will occasionally turn on stress relieving music, turn off the lights, and allow us to close our eyes and focus on our personal feelings in a classroom setting. It is very helpful because after we have had time to deal with our stress or tiredness, we can fully commit to the educational topic of the day. By allowing us at the beginning of class to give attention to our more emotional right side of the brain, we can turn on the intellectual left side of the brain without the neglect of the right side, which allow our discussions to include both.

Another aspect of Plan II that allows its students to get the full effect of a liberal education, is its smaller class size, which allows more interaction between students and teachers and students with their fellow classmates.

Since liberal education focus not only teachings learned in the classroom but also on human intellect, it is important to realize how the community, which includes individuals and nature itself, around you effect how you may perceive certain things. Adam Smith states, " 'As we have no immediate experience of what other men feel, we can form no idea of the manner in which they are affected, but by conceiving what we ourselves should feel in the like situation.' " Having the ability to think about your personal views and beliefs, you can in turn be able to help others even if you don't know exactly how they feel; the ability to imagine how you would feel in their situation was developed through the process of learning about yourself, your "human intellect."

P1:Role Model Essay

P1: My Role Model

Christine Collins, my mother, was born on August 27, 1963 in Lafayette, Louisiana. She was the first born child to Edward and Lucy Williams. The Williams family moved to the Houston area around 1975 to create a stable home for their family. My mother married at the age of eighteen and had me when she was twenty-one. The role model qualities I found in my mother were based on observing her during my childhood years until the present.
Leaders can be established and distinguished in almost every aspect of life; they can emerge in school, the work place, or at home. But wherever they come into existence, it is pertinent that they are there. I got a chance to personally see how my mother was a leader in the work place and at home.

Leadership comes with the very important task of assuming responsibility for one’s own personal actions and the actions of those around them. My mother works for MHMRA, which is a state owned association geared towards the well-being and health of the mental retardation. As a Supervisor, my mother is responsible for a specific group of clients. She is responsible for making sure that the home of this specific group is up to the standards given by the state, buying groceries and other necessities the clients need, making and attending doctors appointments, and planning events that allow the clients to interact in the world outside of their normal boundary of the group home and workshop, which is where they work. Along with the list of duties a Supervisor is suppose to fulfill, she has to make sure that the employees working below her are doing their job. For example, she has to make sure they are taking proper care of the group home and the clients, which includes not mistreating the clients and giving them their medication. Her job not only comes with the responsibility of completing her job description, but being responsible for anything that goes wrong. Sometimes during the summer I would tag along for the day with my mom and go to the group home. It was like she was in charge of another household with three times as many individuals; she has her own office filled with file cabinets of important documents and strict guidelines that are to be followed for any possible situation that might arise. This is where she would carefully examine the files of each of the clients and make sure that the group home accommodated all of their needs and read about the certain medications they were required to take. There are huge binders of information about the medications, which she referred to when it came time to refill medications or when it was time to set up doctors appointments. Some of the clients have specific issues like slow mobility and phobias, which required her to carefully plan out the activities for the group as a whole. Also this is where she did her various paperwork; written reports were required for all incidents that occurred at the group home. For instance, if two of the clients got into an altercation and had to be refrained from each other, she had to write down everything in specific details just in case their was an injury or something else severe. Sometimes what she did not complete in her office, she would bring home and finish. My mother’s responsibility for her clients is twenty-four hours a day seven days a week; it does not stop at 4 o’clock when she would leave the group home. Our family could not go anywhere without her cell phone ringing with the voice of one of her employees on the other end calling in sick, which sometimes resulted in my mother having to go back to work later on that night if she could not find someone else to fill in, or the voice of one of her clients complaining how something was not going their way. My mother would get a little frustrated when one of her employees would call, but she loved to talk to her clients. After all, the main purpose of her job was to take care of her clients. Accepting responsibility for someone else’s life is a great task; since it isn’t the easiest job to do, leaders truly emerge in this area. Having responsibility allows you to step back from only thinking about yourself; it makes you unselfish and places others’ feelings before your own. Day after day my mother demonstrated this quality to me; along with being a Supervisor for MHMRA, she had a night job that also included working with mental retardation. Two jobs added some stress to my mother’s life and did not allow her to get much sleep. When it came time for the responsibility of a leader to come into play, she ignored her personal obstacles and assumed her role as a Supervisor.

At home, my mother’s responsibilities just about parallel those in the workplace. Being a parent and head of the household already comes with certain responsibilities like paying all bills, providing food for everyone, cleaning, and ensuring the well being of your children. Most parents, like my mother, teach certain responsibilities to their children, which in turn releases some burdens off of themselves. I learned how to clean and do other various tasks at a young age. Fortunately for my mother, having the responsibility of finding a babysitter was not a huge factor. Since there is a six year difference between my older and I and a nine year difference between my younger brother and I, the eldest in the house would assume the responsibility of being babysitter. The responsibility of taking care of others was instilled into my mother when she was young because she is the eldest of five children. Responsibility can be picked up at home or in the work place, but without it leadership can not be fully attained.
Whenever a leader is chosen, it is with the assumption that they will complete all tasks to the best of their ability. In order for that to happen, determination has to put into play; there has to be a certain drive in this particular individual to do whatever it takes to complete the goal. For some strange reason, a task or goal cannot be accomplished without some sort of obstacle; it is like part of the criteria of reaching a goal. You have to go through a dark tunnel before you see the light, which truly tests the determination in an individual. If they are willing to keep going, feeling their way through the dark, then they are determined and ready to do whatever it takes to reach their area of accomplishment. My mother, as stated previously, worked two jobs while running a household; she was determined to do everything in her power to ensure that her family would be taken care of, which made her spend more hours at work than at home. Growing up, I resented my mother for working so much; I was completely oblivious to the amount of money it takes to support a household for a single parent. When I got older, I understood exactly the sacrifices she made and determination that guided her everyday, which allowed my brothers and me to do some of the same activities as our friends. For me, it was cheerleading; I can remember dreading the days when we would receive the final calculations of how much we owed that year for camp and various other things. I know it put a strain on my mother but her determination for us to live a fairly decent childhood over rid her temporary feeling of agony. A very strong passion of mine at the present moment is to become more determined. Determination involves the concept of actually believing that you can accomplish your goal; this is the area I need the most work on. I am a very determined individual but sometimes I lose faith in myself. My mother is a real example of where determination can get you in life, and I look at her in order to build my determination.

The best quality a leader can have is the ability to help others or give back to others, the will to develop other leaders and not desire all of the attention. There has to be communication between a leader and everyone else; positive communication that makes everyone feels they are equal and not one person sitting on top of a throne in order to achieve a common goal. Even though my mother is the Supervisor, technically in charge of everyone, she has a certain bond with her employees. Importantly, they communicate outside of the work place; they will eat lunch occasionally, celebrate birthdays together, and sometimes visit each other’s homes interacting with their families. They have developed a friendly relationship; whenever her employees don’t understand something or have a personal problem, they will call and consult with my mother trying to find the best solution and vice versa. Even though this won’t happen in all working environments, there should be some sort of communication that involves everyone contributing in some way. Outside of the work place, she is a bid giver and helper. Being a single mother of three hardly ever left my mother with excessive finances but when she had extra money, it would usually go to others that she felt needed it more than herself; her favorites were the homeless. It did something to her spirit when she gave to others; I too experience this feeling whenever I give to others. Whether an individual helps others in environments where they are already established leaders or giving to others in society where they become an example of a leader, it is important to pass your wisdom and good fortune to others that are not fortunate to reach that level of leadership yet.

Christine Collins, my mother, is an average individual that we all walk next to on the street everyday not thinking how they have impacted some else’s life with their knowledge. The leadership qualities of responsibility, determination, and helpfulness are characteristics that can be possessed by a single mother from the south all the way up the President of United States.

Why am I here???

Why am I at the University of Texas? The answer is really simple; I want to secure a better future for myself. It is almost impossible to have a stable career without a college education nowadays. When I began to search for a college that would best suit me, I did not imagine it would be in the state of Texas. I have lived in Texas all of my life, and I wanted to get out and expand my horizons. I particularly looked at schools on the east coast; they seemed to fit my idea of the perfect area to pursue law. I really considered Washington, D.C. because it is the heart of the government and politics. Then I realized that I would rather be a little closer to home and move to a different part of the country when it came time to attend law school. The best university in Texas that would give me a great background in law, I believed, was the University of Texas at Austin. Not only would it provide me with a good education, but it would take me out of my normal environment and expose me to individuals with different backgrounds and inspirations. Even though UT isn't in a different part of the country, I knew the university would give me "the knowledge, too, which is thus acquired, expands and enlarges the mind, excites its faculties, and calls those limbs and muscles into freer exercise which, by too constant use in one direction, not only acquire an illiberal air, but are apt also to lose somewhat of their native play and energy" (312-313). I suspected that I would not only learn curriculum and about the circumstances of those that shaped the curriculum, but I would learn more about myself and see the parallels or "unity" of it all.

The main quality of the University of Texas that attracted me was its diversity; in my little small town of Crosby there were mostly whites and a mixture of Hispanics and blacks. While UT have these three categories of people, it also has so many more. I really wanted to be exposed to a large variety of people and UT provides me with that diversity. When choosing a college, I also looked at the academic side of the spectrum because my main goal is to get a good education. UT shined in this category as well; it is an honor and great achievement to say you attend the University of Texas at Austin. Even though I was in the top 5% of my class, I was still anxious to see the arrival of my acceptance letter. Since it is such a large university, thousands of applications pour in and not everyone will be chosen. I was reassured of the spectacular academics this university possess because I have personal relationships with several Alumni of the university. The recently retired Superintendent of my old school district is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin; he is one of the most intelligent individuals I have met so far. His vocabulary and demeanor alone shows that he is no average educated individual. Two other Alumni of this great university is my high school counselor and my AP Calculus instructor; they are two extraordinary women that exemplify the amazing outcome of going to a university like UT.

When I was asked "what university are you going to," a common reply was "now don't go up there and get all liberal on us." I can remember thinking, "what is so awful about becoming a liberal?" When I think of a liberal, I think about individuals that are more adapted to change, willing to see both sides of a issue, and just go with the flow of things. According to Newman, a "Liberal" education is "a habit of mind [that's] formed which lasts through life, of which attributes are, freedom, equitableness, calmness, moderation, and wisdom..." (309). I strongly feel that the education and individuals I come in contact with at UT will stick me for the rest of my life and shape me into a better person.

I know that I am here not only because I was automatically granted a spot as a result of the top ten percent rule, but because the University of Texas at Austin allows me to feel at home. My ability to try to understand both sides of an issue is accepted here; I will not be taunted for not picking a side. I am able to stray away from the conservative "men, whose minds are possessed with some one object, take exaggerated views of its importance, are feverish in the pursuit of it...and are startled and despond if it happens to fail them" (311). I want to be able to move on with my life if I make mistakes. Austin is truly wierd, and I won't become a social outcast because you can always find a wierder person on the drag.

An important factor of why I am here is financial aid. Even though UT was my first choice, I had to be realistic and weigh my options based on financial aid. Luckily enough I was able to pursue my dream of attendind UT. Then the determining factor was receiving a scholarship from the Terry Foundation. In order to become a Terry Scholar, a series of events occured, which ended up with an interview that would ultimately determine if you would receive the scholarship. The interview process is an experience that will stick with me forever. I sat in a chair facing six individuals, one was a board member of the association and five were previous Terry Scholars. The last question asked was, "Will you be willing to give back to the Terry Foundation and the Universtiy of Texas?" Of course I said "yes," but that question made me realize the main purpose of attending college. Giving is the key; a university gives to its students an education that they can take with them in the work field, and the best way to return the favor is giving back to the university, who can then help out other individuals. It isn't too much to ask or too much to give. My favorite quote that is displayed in the tower is "What I spent I had; what I saved I lost; what I gave I have." (Ancient Epitaph, 302).

The University of Texas at Austin as a whole reminds me of a huge machine with different parts interacting with each other. Everyone giving and receiving. I am extremely happy to be apart of such a great instituion that is "...changing the world."