Before our meeting on Wednesday, post a copy of your Road Map Paragraph 1 (the second paragraph of your essay) as a comment to this blog post and print THREE copies to bring to class.
As you are writing this paragraph and the other paragraphs corresponding to your essay’s road map, you should include at least one quote from Project 1, Part 1 or a quote/description of a photo from Project 1, Part 2. Each of these road map paragraphs should quote something from Part 1, Part 2, or both.
Perseverance is a major thing in my life. In my past I have given up when things got hard. I would revert back to the easy things I knew which were always negative. It is very important for me to persevere when things get tough. When I did stick things out, even though they were very minuscule, I always achieved what I wanted. In order for my future self to have the big house, the multiple cars, the multiple wives, a lot of money and a righteous life, I have to persevere now with my education and do not get influenced by the things some friends of mine have. Honing this quality in myself now will benefit me now and later. I remember in one my thoughts “I said I have come a long way and I changed a lot.” I remember saying that because this guy was looking at me because his girl kept looking at me. He then proceeded to Ice grill me, (give me a hard stare). The old me without perseverance would have approached him in a bad manner, but I did not.
To attain the future I set myself 5 years from now I need to focus more on school. There’s a lot of distractions that are hindering my ability to devote more time into my studies. Video games are a prime example of what’s holding me back. Although it is a good way to distract myself from college work I need to regulate the amount of time I do spend on gaming. The City Tech logo i took a picture of is a thought that I should dedicate more time into my work to be successful in the long run. It’s a challenge but I’ve overcome a lot of difficult situations that held me back from attending college and here I am. If I want to be someone with a bright future focusing more on school is the perfect way to start.
In order to ensure success five years from now, I feel I should think of my family more. My family and I are not the closest, but I want to be able to change that. The picture I took to represent this thought is a cupcake, which symbolizes my niece. I always call her a cupcake and whenever I say the word, she is the one who comes to mind. Family can be stressful occasionally, but they are still an important factor of one’s life. If I were to think of my family more often, I would feel like I at least have succeeded as a family member and would have a support system to succeed in all other aspects.
Living the life back in 2015 was really rough for me and my family. As we can still remember back in the year of 2014 in August where I was living with my grandmother the house had caught on fire due to an electrical fire. It mainly took out one room but everywhere else had water damage and smoke damage. I was really thankful that everyone made it out alive but at the same time all I had in my head was doubts. Doubts on whether I’ll make it or not and just thinking if what I am chasing for really worth it? Yet again this goal is all I ever dreamed of coming true. I feel that I was born to be somebody but in the back of my mind is these thoughts telling me otherwise. As I remember our day of thoughts back in City Tech, I recall that I mostly thought mainly about my future. “I really want to become successful and have the best for my family”, is what I remember that I’ve recorded and from then I stayed by what I’ve said and continued to chase and achieve my goal.
“ Ehh ill do it tomorrow”. That is probably the number one phrase you say when you get lazy. That kind of mindset has to change from now on. Stay focused to your future. Surround yourself by people that not only want to be successful and also want to see you become successful. Remember those thoughts you had on train about maybe taking advantage of the long train ride and do some homework? “Maybe I should do some homework since i’ll be on this train for more than a hour…nah”. Those little moments like that really affected yourself on the long run. It becomes a bad habit and leaving things for last minute just became a natural occurrence. This is your chance to stop all that. Think about the big picture and become serious about life. You are not in high school anymore and life at home was not pretty five years ago, I remember. This brings up another point I would like to share with you about the things you waste your money on.
Attending college will be beneficial to me. College is my main challenge at the moment and it will be my main challenge for the next three years. However, attending college plays an important role in my preparation to be a Coast Guard and it gives me a better chance of success in the future. To become a United State Coast Guard Officer, I need to attend college for at least four years and maintain a good Grade Point Average (GPA). The GPA proves that I am well educated, dedicated and I am willing and capable to serve my country. The reason why the recruiters are interested in people who attended college for at least four years is because college is a tough process. If someone was able to accomplish college with a good GPA, the Coast Guard thinks they will be a good candidate since it proves that the person is ambitious, strong, a fighter and someone who does not quit during hard times. While attending college reduces my time for personal activities and I am overwhelmed with homework. I ensure I study in order to get good grades. Before college began, I was able to exercise (especially swim) daily, hang out with friends and sleep. Unfortunately, it is the other way around now, where I sleep, swim and hang out with friends less.
In order to accomplish these major goals of mine, I would have to focus on my small goals that led to each of my major goals. In order for me to join the Air Force, I would need to re-take the ASVAB test and meet the score requirement for this branch. The ASVAB consists of ten tests, although four tests are scored and combined to compute the final score. I have heard from many veterans that out of all the military branches, the Air Force is very hard to qualify for mainly because they require a high ASVAB score. When I heard that, I remembered the photo I took of Forrest Gump’s quote on his bench and my thoughts on it. I thought “life is actually not like a box of chocolates, because you know what you are going to get, you are just not prepared for it”. The photo made me think that I always have to be mentally and physically prepared of any obstacles I face in life. Therefore, my obstacle in this situation is passing the test. In order to become an Air Force officer, I would have to be mentally prepared for the test by studying very often and taking a lot of practice tests. After I join the Air Force, I would focus on my major goal, which is becoming an officer.
To be able to persuade my past to achieve my goal that I had achieved today, I would have to first change my sleep schedule. Even though I get up well during mornings, I tend to look for more sleep at around one to three o’ clock in the evening. This can be because I spend too much time thinking about my work. From my day of thoughts, I complained to myself that I was falling asleep during two in the evening. I also mentioned that I can still do physical activities but my brain feels it is in a comatose state and is very hard to stay awake. Thinking about my work, I always worry that there might be a chance that I do not meet a deadline for my paperwork. It is not because my boss will yell at me, it is due to the fact that I try to strive to push my limits. I believe pushing my limit is good, if not the best way to improve, not just in your workplace, but generally your lifestyle. I have always been a “night owl”, I can never commit to a time for sleep so my brain can rest.
Many people say you sleep because you are physical incapable of doing tasks. I believe that is not always the case. In my understanding my body can function very well throughout the day, but only the physical part. “Mind over matter” a quote that tells one that it is only in your head. I stand by that quote and when I started adapt it to my lifestyle, I feel that now I think way too much. I believe due to my overly analytical mind I try to find more sleep and those hours, according to a book authored by John Medina called, “Brain Rules” are called the “Nap Zone”. “Nap Zone” is a term used for a range of time, specifically in between two through five in the evening, where people generally feel sluggish and wanting to sleep more. The best thing for my past self is to set a strict sleep schedule. Although that is unlikely to happen, I learned that having a great night sleep can improve your cognitive skills, in comparison with less sleep. By a chance, I could have been further in my career if I had more sleep, and should be thinking more on less stressful things, other than work all the time.
April 13, 2012 is the day I received my bone marrow transplant. Spending 27 days in the hospital was the easy part, seeing I had a 24/7 care team. It was the days following that were frightening. Being discharged from the hospital, I would have to take a minimum of 50 pills. I had to be closely monitored by my doctors, so visits were every other day. Doctor appointments would last two to three hours at most, from running multiple test and waiting on results. If I had a setback- bad test results or me mentioning pain- blood work would have to be redone and I would possibly have to have scans to leading to longer hours at the doctor’s office. As days past and signs of transplant was a success, doctor visits went from every other day to once a week. The better I would get the longer the streched would be until I saw my doctors again. The photo of the blood bank of New York I took on my way to an appointment at Sloan Kettering Cancer Center reminds me of this period. Because I was diagnosed with leukemia, which is a blood cancer, seeing the blood bank takes me back to my whole transplant experience and what I’ve been through. I am currently in the survivorship program at Sloan Kettering and I see bone marrow transplant doctor every 6 months. I am anxiously waiting on annual visits, which is goal. The farther out you see them next means you’re doing better.
I am Connor Kempf, Computer Engineering Technology student at New York City College of Technology between 2014 & 2019. I know I have some imagination of thoughts, reference to pictures pertaining to my thought. I know I am interested in computers and technology as a whole. As for hobbies, these might be illicit, but I like to test the boundaries of things on the Internet. This relates to my hobby/interest computers and my major which has to do with engineering put these together and you get my major and career path. I have always looked into my future and seen possibilities for my future; memories from my past; thoughts from the present. Why am I me? Who am I really? Me,myself and I; I have always attempted to pursue my dreams, sometimes visualizing what they might look like or how they might relate to me. Now to my past self, visualize your thoughts, exploit mental capacity, succeed, survive, and what else just be yourself, for crying out loud how badly will that hurt. There is an amazing world out there, you are simply a part of it, by part I mean small snippet. If you need imagination, look up at night, think about what you see. I am me, imagination, thoughts and all, and as far as I know you are me five years in my future, the year 2020, me as my past self I wonder what it holds.
In order to achieve my goal, I should stop make a plan and just do small things regularly in my daily life. So that leads me to accomplish my goal. I often make a schedule for everything, classes, exam, homework, exercise and so on by the time daily, weekly, monthly to year. Sometimes I couldn’t catch up my schedule, and make another plan for it. This is because when I make plan or schedule, I used to set time between tasks impossibly or give barely tight time limit. Some of my schedule is too tight to catch, in consequence, I just give up. Obviously, it shows I’m rushing on myself to become a licensed architect. The photo that I took “clock” is reflects of my worries on this. Even though I graduate college in 2020, I still need a couple of years of work experiences or master degree in architect major to apply for the test of New York architect license. On the other hand, making plan helps me some sort of relief myself that think I am on the right track. Also, it give the time that I can remind my priority every day and shows how much time will remain until finish tasks.
Lack of confidence was my main issue back then with my past self. I’ve always had a bad habit of questioning myself of whether or not I would reach my goal or if what I’m chasing for really worth it. I had so many obstacles that I have face that kept me thinking this way which start to hold me back from actually going for it. There we’re a lot of issues but the main issue was my family financial status. This really made me want to push myself even harder to achieve my goal to have the best for my family. I couldn’t just keep sitting around pondering on whether I should keep trying or not, I should just stick with it and keep fighting. I started to notice that I had less and less doubts then I usually did and I started to gain more confidence because I really wanted this goal to become my reality for the sake of my family. It’s best to not doubt or question yourself and to just go for what you really want in life because you never know the outcome until you actually try and succeed.
Lack of confidence was my main issue years ago. I’ve always had a bad habit of questioning myself on whether or not I would reach my goal or if what I’m chasing for really worth it. I had so many obstacles that I have face that kept me thinking this way which start to hold me back from actually going for it. There we’re a lot of issues but the main issue was my family financial status. This really made me want to push myself even harder to achieve my goal to have the best for my family. I couldn’t just keep sitting around pondering on whether I should keep trying or not, I should just stick with it and keep fighting. I started to notice that I had less and less doubts then I usually did and I started to gain more confidence because I really wanted this goal to become my reality for the sake of my family. It’s best to not doubt or question yourself and to just go for what you really want in life because you never know the outcome until you actually try and succeed.
I wanted to go to the military since I was in high school. They have many different offers such as schooling and traveling. The idea of traveling to different places and seeing new things is very exciting. I want to pursue a career as a military doctor. Helping and taking care of other’s has always been a passion of mine. “If it does not challenge you it will not change you” this quote helps me daily in life because I like challenges and I am trying to grow into a better person everyday. I think that is one reason why I want to join the military because it is a big challenge and one not only has to be physically strong but mentally strong also.
Hardwork and self-motivation is the key to success, or at least, to where I am now. Without it, I would never imagine where I would be today. Hardwork is the catalyst to any college students. In the past, I had a habit of doing as minimum effort I could, just so I would get that passing grade. That will have to change. I have to break this norm of laziness and work hard in all I do. There is no such thing as short-cut. If it means that I would have to go tutoring, I will go. If it means that I would have to do extra assignment for extra credit, I will use my utmost energy to do a good job to get that credit. It does not only apply to school life, I figured that most of my school performance affects while I am not in school. Being hardworking outside the class is as equally important as in classroom. It is important to be prepared before class, that means reading assignments, and getting all my materials ready before class starts.
Self-motivation is one key factor that I wished I had back in my days. Most of the late assignments handed in, or not being hardworking is the key result of not being motivated. To succeed, I need to have motivation. One way to motivate myself is to create a schedule, where it will include things that needs to be done on that day. And when I finish things that need to be done, I will reward myself with some treats such as watching an hour on Netflix, or have a slice of pizza. It is important not to include my schedule with a monthly works of due because, the amount of work I may see can be overwhelming, and will result to not finish one work at all. Apart from making a schedule, I need motivation in everything I do. Because, college students are often led to high pressure, I need to be motivated when things do not go so well in school. It is important not to give up when problems arise, just remember, the problems will not kill you, so do not stress. Never run away from the problems, always deal with it one at a time. And remember, do not run away from your problems, it has to be dealt with it accordingly.
I had to sacrifice a lot of stuff to get to this position and one of them was time with my family. Back then I was so caught up with my studies and my career that I barely got to spend any time with them. In the “Thinking Visually” part of this project I posted a picture that I took of the family photo wall and I remember how I used to look at it when I used to miss my family. They have supported me in every possible way they could and they also have helped me so much to reach to this point today. I regret giving them really little time because now sometimes it feels as if they’re so far away from me even though they’re right next to me. I had such a strong bond with my sisters but now we barely sit and talk. As you grow older and go towards your career you have more responsibilities, no one is going to do anything for you, you would have to do it yourself. I still miss them and now since I’m all settled in my job at Deloitte, I usually visit my mother and father in Brooklyn. I’m working on getting the bond back to where it was five years before.
To be able to communicate better with people I need to have a personal opinion. I noticed this when I thought “I’m still worried about how I am being viewed by them”. This thought showed me that if I was confident in whatever I had said at that moment I wouldn’t be second guessing myself. If I know the answer to obvious questions (whats my favorite color, food, place to hangout etc.) then they will find me interesting to converse with. If I could be better at communicating the I would be able to handle any verbal dispute more easily thus it is important to have better communication skills.