This is my first peer review so I hope it is helpful. First, I think the idea behind your review was really interesting and a good story. Since I believe you said English isn’t your first language it would probably be helpful for you to first type on Microsoft Word or something similar because it corrects your grammar and spelling mistakes quickly by underlining the words or sentences by underlining them. This is something I find to be helpful because sometimes when typing I misspell things, also have run-on sentences and fragments. Another suggestion would be to add a little more background information about coming to the United States, and maybe any work history you had before. My last suggestion would be to explain the situation that happened at work a little more in depth. I think using some things we learned this week could be helpful for describing that tough work situation!

High school is a time for new experiences, minimal responsibilities, and most important in my mind – fun. High school mainly consisted of a 6 hour day of school followed by practices and games for whatever sport was in season. I was a three sport athlete at school so it took up most of my time. Weekends for me started out pretty simple and boring, but eventually turned into lots of going out with friends and partying. In the midst of everything parents and teachers were constantly talking about college, encouraging us to visit them and begin applying. This thought scared me, plus I already watched my older brother fail within his first couple of months, so I kept it in the back of my mind but kept procrastinating. My grades from freshman year until the end of junior year (application time) went from Dean’s List to almost failing. So at this point my grades were failing, and I was caring less and less about my sports. This was different for everyone around me because these were always the most important thing to me. But I was only worried about friends and relationships at this point. This blew my chances of ever getting into my “dream” schools. At this point I could feel my parents beginning to be very upset with me, but that just made me angry I at them. It made me lose any motivation I had left to go to college.

After talking my parents into what seemed like the impossible, I was registered for a community college. They weren’t necessarily “against” community college they just wanted me to move away meet new people and gain some more new experiences. They settled, and seemed excited once again that I had some motivation to do well again. After graduation, I landed a full time job as a preschool teacher. Since I went to a vocational high school and took Early Education, I was able to get a teaching certificate from the state after graduation. My family was excited about my new job and they thought it’d fit me very well since working with kids has always been my passion. This is also what I wanted to go to college for. After working there for the summer I realized how much I loved being a teacher. My days at work were fun, and always so rewarding. My days were spent doing crafts, playing games, learning songs, and writing names and letters. I also enjoyed getting full time paychecks, it definitely beat going to school everyday. This made it a lot easier to not attend my classes in September. After all this is what I was going to school for, and I learned from working that I can move up on the pay scale just as easy by experience.

After working here a couple of years, I eventually learned this wasn’t something I could do forever. Although it was extremely rewarding in so many areas, it was very stressful. The paycheck seemed great for a twenty year old, but that would only last so long. I realized I needed to go back to school, and that I needed to take it serious this time around. I spent countless hours researching careers, tuition, schools, and majors. Eventually I found myself at Bristol Community College. I’ve decided to study dental hygiene with huge hopes that I will get into the program after a year of prerequisites and some really difficult work. I have so much motivation to finally accomplish a degree. I know it’s going to be a lot of stress and work but I feel like at this point in my life I am beyond ready to give it one hundred percent effort. I still love teaching children though and wasn’t completely ready to give it up. So, for now I’ve decided to nanny so I can hold on to it a little bit longer. It’s very flexible and works well while I’m attending school. I am beginning to get stressed out because school does have a lot of expenses, and is time consuming. But I am not giving up and I know I just need to relax and have patience. I’m hoping after I receive my degree that I can still carry on my love for teaching with it. Maybe even work in a pediatric dentist office so that I can teach children about hygiene. My life is turning around and I am heading in the direction I need to be in to reach my goals.

http://brevitymag.com/nonfiction/the-hard-part-of-community-college/

This memoir was written by a community college professor. It is about a troubled student in her class. It seems the student had a difficult childhood which led to a much more difficult life in his young adult years. He had dropped her class his first semester, but returned again the next semester. She learned a lot about him from his writing and began to understand him through it. The student tried to commit suicide multiple times, but couldn’t commit because he says he “couldn’t bear never seeing my mom again.” He worried that his hand would be covered in someone else’s blood if it were not his own. In a matter of time it was, he murdered two girls from school and turned himself in for it. The professor didn’t give up on him and he knew that as he wrote her a letter from prison, and in return she asks for a self portrait.

This reading was really emotional to me and that’s why I chose it. It was inspiring to me how people can see the good in someone who most people see such horrible things in. It was a sad memoir of course, but reminds you that it takes someone really special to see through it and understand the reasoning behind one’s actions. I don’t think it necessarily gave me any ideas for my own personal memoir since I can’t relate to it much, but it was a good read and I did enjoy the writing technique that was used here.

The theme that I would like to chose is Education. It is the one that caught my attention most while reading the list of different themes. Since I was young education has always been important to me. I always loved school and learning new things which influenced me to want to become a teacher. Although I have now changed my career interest education is still important to me. I was a preschool teacher for three years and it really changed my life. Something I would like to write about is my own personal education experiences, and how I ended up at BCC. Some arguments that grab my attention are the debate on standardized tests, as well as special needs services. Since I previously worked at a daycare I could observe there or at a public school classroom. I think that education is the best theme choice for me because I have a lot of opinions and ideas about it. Also, since I am a student I think it will come easy to me.