Personal Goals Essay, Research Paper
As the most of my peers, I have been asking myself a question, what is it really I want out of my life? This question has been bothering many people, and not only the college students who are trying to figure out the path which will lead them to the comfortable life. One might ask, what is that comfort that we all are striving for? Is it a state of mind or is it some unknown world that we are so eager to enter? Well, it varies from person to person, it depends on the life that the person has left behind when the decision to go to college was made. There are several aspects of our lives that could influence us and the future decisions that we’ll make. The biggest part of our decision making is the way we were raised and the culture we have got used to. Many Americans believe that the success depends on the family background that you have. There are those who say that if the person was raised in a rich family, all opportunities are available to them and there is a high! chance that the person will live a comfortable life. The same people are saying that if the person was raised in a poor family there are too many obstacles to overcome and most of the time these barriers on the way are too hard to cross. On the other hand, there are those people who say that the America is the land of opportunities and any person could achieve his/her goals if they set their mind to it.It is true that being born in the rich family helps a great deal during the course of your life. You are brought up in the household that provides the best conditions for exploring the world of knowledge. There are no worries about the basic needs like food, shelter or security, and all the resources are provided thanks to the excessive amount of money. Being rich allows people to worry less about the material things and more about the fundamentals of the learning and knowledge. Being born in a rich family also means meeting people and making the contacts earlier in life, which will later be helpful in that most difficult step of finding the first job. There is also the morality, which comes from the conditional learning of the environment that person is surrounded by. Person that is surrounded by the morally and financially stable people will adopt that thinking. Another aspect of being born to a rich family is the set example by the surroundings. When people that! you feel close to have accomplished some things in life it is only natural to want to strive for something high in life. Influential people in American society, just like in any other societies have a great deal of appreciation for education and schooling in general. On the other hand, we have a poor family. A person that was born to a poor family has been exposed to a lot of worries about financial situation. Most likely, the person at the early age had to think how to support a family or just help them out. Most likely that person will have to work along with going to school, of course the job will take away concentration from school. There will be a little chance that the person will finish high school or even go to college. The family will show little or no support for the higher education, because they will look at the short run problems, they need money now, not four years from now. Secondly, the person will not be as motivated to go to school of higher education as the person who was born to a rich family. The surrounding of that person does not provide the proper environment for the logical thinking in terms of long term life goals, because most likely the family will live in the area that is consistent with their income. ! Meaning that the child will never get a chance to see the full meaning of completing the higher education. To every rule there are always exceptions. There are people who would totally disagree that the opportunities are limited only to the rich. They see world as a much brighter place, the place where any person could reach the desired goal if he/she want it bad enough. The programs that government offers to the financially challenged supports every individual that would try their best to succeed in this life. That includes such things as financial aid, state and federal scholarships, Educational Opportunity Program, and subsidized student loans. There are various job opportunity programs or internships available on campus or off campus. These job opportunities have not only monetary benefits, but also possibility of meeting new people that could affect the future employment. There is a lot of evidence to support this view. Lets take for example the immigrants who come into this country with limited resources. Especially, immigrants from the former Soviet Union had come into this country with as much as four hund! red dollars in their pockets, with no knowledge of English language and no previous experiences in the capitalist world. This people had little or no time to assimilate to the American culture, but they know that it is essential to their future and the future of their children. The older generation knows that they will do what ever it takes to put their children through school, even if it takes working late nights. For the most part the immigrants do not go to the restaurants very often, they try to save money by cooking home meal and limiting the extra expenses, such as entertainment, clothing and vocation. Within a short period of time, in less than three years immigrant families began to receive middle class income. Their children are in school, and most likely they had gone to school as well to obtain a better profession than the one that pays minimum wage. This is a clear example that it is possible to achieve something in life for any person in the United States.This argument will not be solved until people realize that the excuses are not the easy way out. It seems to me that many people would use their family poverty as an excuse for themselves not to make something of their life. To strive for a certain goal and not to loose interest or motivation is the name of the game for the twenty-first century. Only then, the desirable state of mind and your “pocket” will be achieved. The life that so many people are dreaming of only few steps away.