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Jasmine Pascua
BUS 1050-001
Professor Lon Schiffbauer
06 December, 2015

My Renaissance Essay

There comes a point in your young adult life where you think you
know what you want to do and where you want to be. Its called high
school. In high school, you have teachers and administrators that try to
prepare you for college; they try to prepare you for life. You are allowed
to pursue any kind of elective classes as preparation for your career or
college major. Ever since middle school, I had a plan. I had a plan on
what I wanted to do, where I wanted to go and how I wanted to get
there. My vision was clear: I was going to attend the University of
Southern California in Los Angeles and would get a degree in chemistry
and criminal justice. I would have become a crime scene investigator
and be a forensic scientist as a DNA analyst.
I had taken as many science, math, law, and forensic classes as I
was able since I was in seventh grade. I even attended the National
Youth Leadership Forum (NYLF) on Law and CSI in Washington D.C. I
had the same science professor for all three years of high school in
chemistry, human anatomy, and forensic science. He was my mentor.

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He was the one who nominated me out of my entire school to attend
NYLF. I was beyond prepared to graduate and follow my dream. But
somewhere along the way, I fell. I started to care less and less and I
became less interested in fulfilling my goals. I entered a time of
darkness where all I did was doubt myself. I kept thinking to myself
that I was a quitter. I had come all this way and I had done it all for
nothing. My rational thinking thought that going to college, now that I
didnt want to pursue that career, was pointless. I would have been the
first in my family to go to college, and at that time, I didnt want to go
anymore.
After I graduate, I would take a break and think about what I
want to study, I told myself, because if I go, I wouldnt be studying
what I wanted and I would pay all this money for an education that Im
not going to use. At the time, I thought college was for people who
knew what they wanted to do with their lives. I didnt know what I
wanted to do now, so why should I go?
I even thought I would follow the tradition of my family and join
the military. But with the free market system I could still go to college
and become whatever I wanted to be and work where ever I wanted to
work. Pursuing college meant that I would also be pursuing profit
motive; I go to college, I make more money. My grandmother had
always told me that I should never let go of my dreams and pursue
them with not only hope, but with hard work and effort as well. My

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grandmother and Benjamin Franklin had the same idea. One could not
live on their hopes alone. I couldnt just hope that one day I will
stumble across a well paying job with benefits that would support me
and my future family and lifestyle. So then, I decided to go to
community college and pursue general studies.
I continued my education right after high school and took all of
the classes that were interesting to me, which I also received credit
towards my Associate of Arts in General Studies. My grandma had told
me that the pursuit in accomplishing my goals wouldnt be easy. I had
to put in very hard work and push through it even if I felt like quitting.
Of course, college wasnt easy with a mountain of homework and
minimal sleep. Coming my final semester of completing my Associates,
I took a personal finance class. There was something that happened in
that class where I just all of a sudden became invested in learning
about money. I was really interested in stocks and bonds, savings,
investing, and learning ways on how to be financially secure. It was
apart of our assignment to meet with a financial advisor and discuss
my personal finance. During the session, thats when I knew. I wanted
to be a financial advisor and help people gain control of their money
and stay financially secure.
I started taking finance classes and learning the way to wealth. I
also started to take accounting classes and learned how to account for
real estate vs. personal property and all the accounting concepts that

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derived from Luca Pacioli. Now I finally feel like I am on track to a
defined path and feel like coming to college wasnt all for nothing. If I
had decided to take a break or enlist into the military, I wouldnt have
made a life changing decision to pursue a finance degree.