Walden University Top Questions

Dear Nataki, as you embark upon your senior year, I share with you hindsight from 25 years post-graduation. The underlying theme of what I want to share with you is to implore you to make your goal inner happiness. From that, let me share the following 2 tips I know now, but wish I knew then: 1. Manage fun into your busy schedule. You have always been diligent in making progress, completing tasks, and checking things off the list. However, enjoy life! Allow things to happen rather than trying to plan everything, and deviate from the plan once in a while. 2. Identify and pursue your passion. Don't ignore that strong urge to serve others and make things right. It may not make a lot of money, but that - advocacy and social justice - is your calling. Regardless of what you try to do, you will find that it will be a recurring element in the things that motivate you most. You will be fine in whatever you do...you are must made that way. But take it from me - these 2 tips will increase your joy and your success!

If I could give my high school self-advice there are many things I could say. But one thing I would love to tell my high school self is to love yourself. I would have finished college the first time around. I would have realized that all the parties are the same. I could have taken classes that would have bettered my college experience rather than ones that my friends were in. But I believe that if you want to succeed in life you have to love yourself enough to constantly want improvement. So, high school Joseph, I want you to know that in order to love or care about anyone or anything else in life we must learn to love and care for ourselves, that is taking care of our bodies, being kind, smiling, getting an education, staying humble, and seeking a true purpose. High school kids don’t listen very well but if I had seen myself at 29 telling myself to love myself I think it would have had an effect. But I know that its never too late, and my mistakes have made me who I am today.

Try harder that last year! Skip the parties and worry about working when you're older. Really apply yourself this senior year so that you're ready for college. You CAN do Algebra ll, you just need to get a tutor and try harder. Don't transfer out to easy math, you got this girl! And no one remembers you fainting in the pool your sophomore year on the swim team, let it go! You can talk to the coach, it's ok, he isn't holding that against you. You should have stayed on the team for the past 2 years so you could swim in college to help keep that butt size down just a little bit. But, since no one seems to tell you enough, I want to leave you with one last thing. You are strong, and you are smart and you are witty and you deserve everything you strive for. Keep your chin up, keep smiling, and remember, you have to love yourself before you can truely love another.

I would allow myself time to know what I really wanted to do with my life. I felt so rushed to have all the answers at 18. There is plenty of time to decide. I would encourage young students to not be in such a hurry to attend college. I would start saving for my college years before graduating high school. The debt incrued by student loan is a scary thing today. It doesn't even guarentee a job after graduating. So take advantage of saving money before getting married and having a family to pay off any debts including student loans.

The advice to myself as a senior would be that before I graduate, I am going to to research colleges that interest me. After I narrow the list down to at least 10, I will fill out applications for the colleges. I will also look at my family since none of my family members graduated from college. By seeing what types of situations my family members are in due to lack of college education, this will motivate me to attend college and graduate. Once I graduate from college, I can then have a career so that I can be stable in my life. My college friends would only be the ones that are serious about their studies, and their goals in their lives. How satisfied I am during and after college means what types of individuals I surround myself with in my life whether it is during college or my career. I would always remember first comes a steady job, and then comes marriage and children. Graduating from college would mean that I accomplished a huge goal in my life. In the future, my children will want to follow in my steps since they would see that I am happy.

The advice I would give my former self is, "Know how to fail". Life is full of ups and downs, you will fail a lot of things and you will also accomplish so many other things. But understanding how to fail will get you farther in life. It is no one's intention to fail at anything, but failing helps you grow that much stronger. Failing shows you how to succeed. It is important to learn that if you fail you grow from it. You know what to do differently the next time around. But if you know how to fail, you also learn how to succeed. You grow and learn from your experiences and failures. So use your failures as your motivation to succeed in anything you do. Once you know how to fail, then you will learn how to succeed.

The advice that I could give my 17 year old self would do me wonders. My 17 year old self didn’t want to go to college, didn't realize the importance of grades, and didn’t fully appreciate what a great education could do. In this scenario - present day me would inform my younger self that that even though at the moment I do not want to go to college, I would find something that I absolutely love to do. I would also enlighten myself about how self-discipline is learned behavior - the more you use it the easier it gets. I would tell myself that college was going to change my entire outlook on life. The knowledge I have gained is priceless, and that much sweeter when combined with the fact that I absolutely love the field in which I'm learning. I would tell myself the feeling of accomplishment and self-confidence that I have gained because I put in the effort, and did my best - rewarding myself with a 4.0 grade point average. Finally, I would tell myself that there was no reason to be afraid, I could do it, and I would be amazing.

First of all I would have started college right out of high school, as I took a year off, and ended up starting a family. I waited 20 years to reach my dreams of going to college, being the first in my family to even graduate from High School. I am the first now to attend a 4 year program. I would advise High School Seniors to really look at the aid that is out there, try to get scholarships or grants because I am now $60,000 in debt trying to get a degree at home so I can still raise my family and be the mother and wife I am supposed to be. If I would have started out of High School, school would have been much cheaper then back in 1990. Oh on the survey, I accidentally marked wrong boxes, I looked at the buttons wrong and I could not go back and fix them, some of the Extremeley dissatisfied should actually be extremely satisfied and I did not know how to let you know besides here! Next survey, please have a back button!

Dear Texa, Walking across the stage for your high school diploma is the best feeling in the world. You have accomplished something no other member of your family has. You may not know what to do from here, but I strongly encourage the following bits of advice: 1.Don’t get with Johnny or David – no matter how charming they are. 2.GO TO COLLEGE! You may not know what to study, but by taking the general electives, you will soon discovery your talent for psychology. This passion will soon lead you to discover that you really want to make a difference in the lives of abused women and children. You will also find that you have a talent and a passion for photography. 3.Get the psychological help you need to overcome your abusive past. This will make you a stronger person overall. 4.VOLUNTEER! Volunteering at children’s advocacy centers will not only help future scholarships, but will make you a well-rounded individual. 5.Never give up. No matter what stands in your way, you will find that you CAN do this! 6.ALWAYS put God first. Go to church and study His word. Love, Texa

Knowing what I know now, I would not have wasted my time in the biology field. I had taken an abnormal psychology class and absolutely loved it. I would have switched my major then and by this time in my life I would have been doing what I really want to do instead of having wasted the last 14 years of my life doing something else. The most important thing is to really know what you want to do and go after it. Don't let anyone tell you that it isn't something you should or can't do. Once you find out what you want to do, go for it.