Cottle - Assignment 22

I've lived a pretty normal life, or at least as normal as one can be. I have been fortunate and had many opportunities at my fingertips, so I've never truly needed anything; I've worked extremely hard for a lot of things in my life, but I've never been without anything I needed to survive is what I'm ultimately trying to get at. I come from an all-American family, with Kentuckians for at least 5 generations back on both sides of my family, so aside from family traditions and cultural aspects of my life because of that there is nothing "in my blood" that I can contribute to an unusual circumstance in my life. So instead, I wanted to talk about my experience as a summer camp counselor and a student teacher for kindergarten and preschool classes. Don't get me wrong, I know that many teenagers are counselors or do something similar over the summer, but my personal experience showed me exactly what I wanted to do with my life. I've always loved kids; I was the mother hen of my younger cousins and in all pictures of me at family events growing up, you'll see one baby or another on my hip. As a counselor and student teacher, being that involved with a group of kids for long periods of time showed me that I wanted to pursue a career where I could work directly with kids so that I could form meaningful connections. Before that, I had flip-flopped over and over about what I wanted to be. Did I want to be a doctor, or a nurse, or a veterinarian, or a teacher, or a pharmacist? I'm a planner, so it always bugged me that .I truly had no idea. Those years however, gave me a career path that I've been devoted to ever since. Funnily enough, communication disorders can be a difficult major to find, especially in a lot of smaller schools. Because of this my experiences and subsequent ambitions for my future have narrowed down my college search exponentially, and overall given me a sense of what I want in life. Like I said, I'm a planner.