Short Response Two

After graduating from High School in the spring of 2005 I immediately started my freshman year of college at Towson University in the fall of 2005. It took a lot of getting used to; I went from an atmosphere that was governed by my teachers, they told me when to study, what to study, how to study, what to do etc. to now me making all my educational decisions on my own. I am a big procrastinator so separating from the dependency of my high school teachers to now doing for me was hard. By the end of the school year I would like to think that I began to get the hang of the college life, I began to pace myself; I developed a schedule for myself that was strictly for study, school assignments and anything else pertaining to school. I didn’t live on campus but I still attended a few events that were held on campus. I strongly believe my transition would have been full-fledged by my sophomore year.  Unfortunately, I didn’t return to Towson the next school year. I became pregnant with my son and school was something I had to put on the back burner for the time being.

Today I am a full-time mother to my 5 year old son, full-time employee at an Urgent Care center and a full-time student, so as you can see my world is pretty busy.  I started my college career back up last school year, so I have already been working on the separation process. I was only used to working, being a mother and hanging out during my free time.  I have learned to separate myself from hanging out, that time is now consumed with school. The transition has been very hard because my time management skills need a lot of work. After working and dealing with my son I don’t feel like doing anything else so once again I will procrastinate. But I have to sit back and look at the bigger picture. Back in my TU days I was doing it just for me, now I have a little person who I do this all for and I can’t let him down. So I had no choice than to transition into new habits, they are not where I would like them to be at the present moment but once I get used to this new way of life and incorporate them everything  will fall into place.

 

Short Response One

My name is Ashley King.  Ashley is a very common name amongst females of my age group. From the start of my education in grade school until I graduated high School I’ve had a class with someone by the name of Ashley. I’ve even had a class with a boy named Ashley, which I thought was bizarre but learned that up until the 1960’s the name was most common amongst males. Since my name is much shared amongst my peers, I really do not like it. When my parents were deciding on what to name me they struggled in choosing between the names Ashley and Erica. My mother wanted to name me Ashley; after a character from her favorite Soap Opera and my father wanted to name me Erica because his name is Eric. As you can see my father lost this battle and because of my mother’s stubborn ways I was given such a widespread name.

I used to get teased a lot when I was in Elementary school by classmates because I was a girl whose name was King. Some children would utter “Why is your last name King, shouldn’t it be Queen since you’re a girl?” Both of these questions I thought were dumb because my name and gender was nothing I had control over at that age. Although I dislike my first name and as a young child I didn’t care too much for the name King, as I got older I learned to embrace my last name and I absolutely love it today, it’s even my nickname. King doesn’t seem as common to me as Ashley is, but it is well known. Martin Luther King Jr., the world’s most notable civil rights leader shared the same name as I. Webster defines King as: One that holds a preeminent position especially a chief among competitors. That is how I feel about myself. Not to seem self-centered or even conceited, I know I’m not perfect but I take pride in myself. Something I think every person should do.