Educational Autobiography

Educational Autobiography

I studied the five years of my primary education in the countryside. As we know, the majority of the schools in the countryside are far away from home, I had to walk 30 minutes every day to arrive school. When I was in third grade I deserted school for 3 months. I did not want to go to study because days ago my family had received an anonymous letter asking for money and threaten us if we did not do what they want or if maybe we tell the police about what was happening to us. I was so scared and I thought that if I go to school maybe those bad people arrive home and something horrible could happen to my family. When the nightmare for us finished, the school teacher send me a letter telling me that it had been three months in which I did not attend to class also, that I had some many absences and if I did not arrive at school I could fail third grade, so I decided to go back at school. I finished my primary education there and I always was the best in school.

In high school, I had to move to the town to study there. During 6, 7, 8, and 9 grade I studied at high school in the morning so, a car picked us up with my sister at 5 a.m. because the classes started at 6 a.m. and in the afternoon we went back to the countryside, to my home. In 10th and 11th grade I chose to study a technical program with SENA called “Desarrollo y programación de software estructurado”. During the last two years in high school I studied the whole day, in the morning I studied some subjects related to the technical and in the afternoon the academic subjects so it led me to move to live in the town during the week, so I only went to the farm on weekends to see my parents. I remember that the fact of living in a town far away from my parents was a hard time for me because I always had been close to them.

In 11th grade, I presented the Saber test and I got a high score, especially in English. Honestly, I did not know what to study when I finish high school but when I got the Saber score, I decided to study English at the university. My father bought me the “pin” to apply to the English program, but I was not selected in the first call and I was so sad because I did not know what to do. I had to wait until the second call.

In November, some classmates and I received a letter from the Ministry of Education telling us that we were selected to have English total immersion in Santa Marta, Magdalena with all the expenses paid during a week due to the high score that we got in English in the Saber test. It was a marvelous week, it was the first time I traveled on an airplane, I met many special people, and everything was perfect. I returned so happy but a little bit worried about the university. In January I received an email notifying me that I had been selected in the University.

When I began university, everything was new. All the people were new to me, all the teachers, all the environment, everything. I remember clearly that the English classes were so different for me, yes, I was good in English at high school but there were so many people better than me. Honestly, I did not know what a speaking test was about or what listening test was about, really, it was so different for me. At this point in my program, I do not know how I dealt with it. I have learned a lot. I feel happy because I have learned a lot, I did not expect to be a teacher and look at me, nowadays I am working at a school as the principal English teacher and I could say that I am convinced to be a teacher.