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Ariana Adkins

Ms. Bauer

Gateway 6

27 November 2018

Are You Ready For College?

No.

Maybe.

Yes?

College is a huge milestone that I am not sure if I’m emotionally ready for, let alone

mentally. Just writing this paper took me a while because I have no clue what I am ready for

after I graduate high school. High school has probably prepared me well for the academic portion

of my future. Emotionally though, I do not think I am completely ready. I am about to graduate

in six months and I will be an adult, in college, paying bills, studying, and stressing most likely.

In the future, maybe five years from now, I hope to be a physical therapist. I will help

people be successful, I will help people achieve their goals to be healthy and to be able to do

anything they want to put their mind too. I will help people like I was helped when I had to do

physical therapy for my ACL and my medial meniscus that had to get reconstructed by surgery. I

will major in kinesiology, and with that will lead my path to be successful. I feel like during my

highschool career, I have been well-prepared to go into college academically because of

community service, internships, job-seeking, classes, tests, as well as job shadows. I participated

in numerous of community service and internships; as well as, job shadows. I fed lunch to

homeless people, I watched kids for their parents, I helped patients in hospitals, and I also

learned what makes a great business. I learned many commodities about community service and
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I have become an experienced person in many different fields. I would not have been able to get

this far without DECA, without THE Dayton Early College Academy.

College is just around the corner, college is harder than high school of course but that is

why I am grateful that DECA has given me the ability to complete Sinclair classes. This way I

have gotten a feel for college courses and the environment within them. Now instead of actually

going to Sinclair I took my classes online which I feel is harder that is why I did it plus I was

able to move ahead if I wanted to, which I did. College environments are different because

teachers are always different but all my teachers have not been the same my whole life and

especially at DECA. The fact that our teachers change also helps me understand that I might

have to maneuver around the teacher depending on how they teach.

DECA is a close environment, it is home. This is probably why I want to stay somewhat

close to home because I like the feel of family, the feel that somebody in my life has my back.

That is what it feels like at DECA. Sure we have our little drama queen moments, but overall no

one in DECA allows each other to get bullied by anybody outside of school. It is like sibling

rivalry, we hate but love each other at the same time. One way or another we are connected. Of

course some leave and that is exactly why I feel DECA has prepared me to s certain extent. It has

taught me that not everybody who I started the year with will end up finishing the year with me.

Just like in college, of course we have short-term friendships but my past experiences has taught

me to never let that control my life and my education.

Honestly, maybe I am ready for college. More ready than what I thought I was. I can be

dramatic, but I will miss DECA. All the memories, the friendships, and family. It comes a time

where life must go on; on to the next chapter in my life. DECA has given me the ability to grow

as an individual and to grow into the person I am today. So when I am hit with the question, “are
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you ready for college”, my answer will be yes. I am ready for college, and I am ready to be the

future physical therapist that I know I will be. DECA has prepared me to be more than

academically ready and this was why. When I leave DECA I know that I am prepared and I

know that my future awaits as soon as I walk across that stage at graduation. I am ready.