The gift of knowledge- My journey so far

Education is a gift, a gift we give ourselves. Every time I log into my student portal, read a chapter, take an exam, I am giving myself something wonderful: A bright future. Everyday life can take over and we forget the one thing that is most important – ourselves. Family, work, friends, while all important they tend to take over and we put ourselves on the back burners. The best thing about education is while you give it to yourself, it benefits everyone around you.

To me, getting an education is so much more than reading a few books and taking some exams. I am building a future for myself that I have always dreamed of. It’s the ability to grow in a field I always thought of was too far from reach. The chance to prove myself to MYSELF, that I am smart enough, and worthy enough. Going to school is so much more than building a future in a career, its building a future for yourself; showing yourself that YOU matter.

 Each day I wake up and think about the day’s events, what HAS to get done, what I’d like to get done, etc. It’s so easy with online school to push it back to the ‘like to get done’ list. However, each day I remind myself that my priority is myself and therefore my education is a priority. Even if I read just one part in a study guide, I am moving forward. My past guides me forward, having a really hard time in life early on, I am able to push myself along knowing that with each day and each new lesson I am one step further from my troubled past and a that much closer to my future.

For years my little family has struggled, while it is just my husband, myself and our pets, making end-meat with no education is a difficult task! I have had a difficult life, my (single) mother died when I was 15 on Thanksgiving. My mother had cancer, diagnosed shortly after I was born, so my childhood was spent in doctor’s offices and cancer treatment centers. I was placed into foster care only to have horrible experiences and married at age 17 (to get out of foster care) to an abusive man. That is when my own health failed. Without health insurance I quickly racked up over $500,000 in medical debt. Flash forward several years, after several downfalls and a divorce; I was once again on my own when I met the love of my life. I married my second husband and we will be married twelve years this coming June (2019). Because of all my struggles when I was younger education was not first on my list, it wasn’t really even on my list.

I spent years working as a caregiver because that is what I knew (taking care of my mother my entire life), and then went into fast food management. While each of those jobs (mostly) paid the bills, the struggle, as they say, was real. “The bill shuffle” was the term I came up with to move around payment due dates and make payment arrangements. Nothing was ever paid on time, and due to my credit issues trying to pay several doctors bills I was unable to even purchase a working car to get to work. Something had to change; that something was me!

My education journey started when I finally sat down and realized after everything I’d been through, what was most important- myself, my husband and my pets. I had always had a love of animals and I was at a point in my life where I needed to get an education to better our situation. When I started looking into education options I never even considered working with animals. I (like so many others) didn’t know that a “Vet Tech” was a career option. I thought the only people that worked with animals were veterinarians or biologist. Several months of research later I had found not only the world of Vet Techs but Penn Foster.

Penn Foster was a dream come true, I could obtain my education while still contributing to my family at an affordable monthly rate. When I signed up for PF I didn’t realize how much more I would get out of it. I got a family of dedicated educators who have made it their life’s work to pass on not only knowledge but their caring dispositions. I got a team of hard-working student service advisors that do everything in their power to help out each and every time I call. Most importantly I got a family. After not having a true full family my entire life, I was welcomed into a community of people who all shared the same goals as me. Every single student I have been in contact with has opened their hearts and made me feel like part of something so much bigger than ‘school’. Penn Foster isn’t just a school, it is so much more.  

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