	It has taken me a long time to reach this point in my educational career, ten years to be exact. Along the way I have learned so much, not just academically, but also about myself. I feel I have grown over these years, and become a more independent and respectful person. I think being able to receive an education has opened doors for me that would otherwise not be there, and I am grateful for all of my experiences. This paper will reflect on what I learned and how I grew, and what I hope to do in the future.

I started college at Ivy Tech and, at first; I did not know what I wanted for my major. In my second semester, I found out that Ivy Tech had a biotechnology degree, and I thought this might be interesting as I enjoyed a genetics and biotechnology class in high school. I decided to talk to Dr. Smith, who was the chair, and he said the program was small but he was trying to get more students to pursue the degree. He said if it was something I was interested in that he would be happy to get me into the program. He seemed enthusiastic about his work, so I decided that was the degree I wanted. I enjoyed biology and was not worried about those classes, but I was concerned about the required chemistry classes. I never took chemistry in high school, and I thought it would be a problem for me since I had no background in it. I decided I should take an introductory chemistry class in the summer to prepare for the degree’s required year of chemistry. To my surprise, I found that I did well in my chemistry classes, and I ended up liking them better than the biology classes I took. 
After graduating from Ivy Tech, I decided to go to University and major in chemistry. However, after taking organic chemistry, I decided I was not going to be able to pursue a chemistry major. I took about two years off my schooling to decide what I wanted to major in and, in the meantime, I tutored chemistry at Ivy Tech. It was a friend who worked at Ivy Tech who suggested I become a supplemental instruction leader for math. At first I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do that job, but it paid more, so I decided to try the job. It was shaky at first because I needed to brush up on some of my math skills, but after the first semester of the job, it came more easily. It made it easier that the professor was always happy to answer questions from his students and me. As time went on, losing count of the semesters, I worked with Professor Tracy helping his students, and I became more confident with mathematics as time when on. This surprised me because I had never like math, but spending more time working in the field, I found I liked it more and more. 
