My obstacles and solution

Most of people would say money is their first obstacle for going to college. However, my story is a bit different. I got financial aid to cover my school fee. I live with my parent, so I do not have to pay for housing. I pick up cans and water bottle to earn money for my daily uses. I try to not let money worries me in my path to school. 

I did not have problem with money, but I had problem with language. After a year I came to United States, I started my first semester at Chabot Community College. I asked my uncle for opinion on taking classes because he used to be a student in here. As he recommended, I took my first class is General Chemistry. I could not speak clearly and  my pronounce is bad, so I always had to say a same sentence for several times. My classmates did not talk to me, even after I tried making a conversation with them. It made me think they did not want to talk to me because they could not understand me. The teacher talked so fast, so I could not understand him. Even taking note was difficult for me. After my first week at college, I was depressed and stressed. I did not know what to do to solve this problem. I scared I could not even pass this class not mention to get A. I this is how I am, I always think far. 

I tried to talk more and make friend, so they could help me.

After the language obstacle is family obstacle. Since my second semester, my mother have started working, so she could not take care my sister. she is seven at that time. I have to stay at home with my sister after her school time and take care of the house. I have less time to go to school. and my class choices are limited. I had to pick classes in the morning. As you know, there were not a lot of choices for class time nowadays. And the sit is also limited. therefore, I could not take the classes I want. As a result, I drop out of school for a semester.

I searched programs which can help me to register early, so I could add classes fit my time. I took online classes so I can study at home. It was so much better because of the helps of the support program from our school.

Passion and Spiritual Poverty

 “We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, and forgotten by everybody is the greatest poverty.” by Mother Teresa.

You may be in poverty. But if you have passion, you are not poor. If we do not have money, we may not have cars or houses. We may not be called as a high level class. But we still are not different than other, we still are human. However, compare to people who do not have passion or deny following their passion, we are richer. We are rich because of our knowledge. We are rich because we have more happy days. We are rich because we have freedom.

Those who are in knowledge poverty do not know what is right for them to follow their passion.

Those who are in mind poverty usually do not accept what other think. They choose what is right or wrong base on only their thinking. And there is always a reason for them to convince other that they are right. Because of these people, some other cannot find their true passion.

Those who are in feeling poverty think everything is same. They cannot explore and gain joy from their passion.

Those who are in skill poverty cannot help people to find their passion. Some counselors do not have enough skill to lead a student to find their passion. This make student cannot decide what they have to do to find their right path, so they may choose to not choose. 

Passion and Material Poverty

Passion sometimes goes together with ambition. Because of this ambition, many people willing to take advantage of other. In the past, we passionate to improve the world, so we use Earth resources. As a consequence, our Earth gets in to poverty. Climate changes, the extinction of animals, and the loss of resources are important issues in today world.

Passion can lead you to poverty. Our current society is a society of money. Unfortunately, not all passions produce money. Most of people, whose passions are in art and work as painters or singers, usually do not earn enough money for their family to live. I remember in my childhood days there were a family whose father is a painter lived near my house. All the members in that house have to work to earn money, even their child an elementary kid had to work in the market. Because in Vietnam most of low income families do not receive material supports from the government. The child and his mother had to earn money for his father continued to paint. They moved from a house to a rented room, then; they moved out to another town. This story prove that not lots of people who follow their passion can have a succeed life. If you cannot gain money from that passion, you can fall to poverty.

If you do not have passion, you do not have a goal to achieve. If there is no achievement, there will not be improvement. Follow this logic; poor people who do not have passion cannot escape from their poverty. Passion is a tool for us to fight our material poverty.

Passion and Education II, My Opinion

From the movie The Passion Project, I saw ideas about passion and  the effects of society to passion. The movie points to me that I do not have to be worry if I do not know what is my passion. Schools can help me to find out my passion. However, today school system have not completely fulfill this job. This is not only their fault, but it also is our fault. Because of the idea "everything has it own job to care about" we have for surviving in today society, we all have forgotten the basic idea of everything.

Some teacher forget the basic of teaching. It is sharing, learning and loving. As Emily says today teacher just teaches and doesn't interact with the student. They share to students paper and words they think can help their student to gain knowledge. But they do not learn what their student think about it. They do not showing their love for what they teach. They cannot instill their passion to student. They just care for their teaching job and forget their students.

Some student forget their basic meaning of school. School is not just where you come to take a degree to get job. It is not where you come to be seen as a normal person. It is where for you to find out what difference about you to other, and to learn how to work with others. Some people think coming to school is not important as going to find money, so they put school aside. Thus, school cannot help them in their path for passion. Some other scare of taking risk. They choose an easier path, and deny helps from school. They all just care for themselves. They forget that school need their collaboration.

Passion and Education I, The Passion Project

"Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world." by Harriet Tubman