Past, Present and Future Essay Example for Free

Past, Present and Future Essay Before studying at the University of Phoenix program, I thought that my career is at its peak, I am married, I have three kids and I have a stable job for 15 years, but then I feel something missing. I attributed that void within me to my lack of a degree, and I want to prove to myself and to others that I deserve everything I have right now by backing it up with a degree. Education, for me, is a very important part of a person’s growth and development. That is why I strive not just to be able to provide my family’s basic needs, but to also provide my kids the best education possible. Then it hit me, I had to set myself as an example to my children that, indeed, education is and will always be important. I had to earn my degree. During the course of my work, I can say that I am competent enough in my analytical skills; I can solve basic problems, find solutions, think logically and perform my tasks efficiently. But one problem I had is that I was weak at my written and oral communication skills because I have not undergone the proper training to develop them both; yes, I was able to apply them all throughout my career, but I was not able to produce formal letters without having to browse through guides that will help me produce my work. Information retrieval was never a problem because I am still young and my memory, although not as sharp as it used to be, is still very much dependable; regarding the utilization and collaboration of this data though, I have been able to manage, but I fear that it is not as efficient as I would like to be because I have not yet been able to hone my skills and tackle formal ways to address issues efficiently. When I started to work, my goal was simple: stay in this job so that in the long run, when I start my own family, I can be able to provide them with their basic needs such as a proper home, enough food, and good education. But no one hinders me from dreaming; as time passed I started to change these goals, I want to be better-off, now I’m dreaming of gaining a high position someday, be able to pamper my wife and my children luxurious gifts, and basically live the good life. Once again I thought about my lack of education; these dreams became the stepping stones which motivated me pursue my education and realize these career goals that I once thought are just dreams. During my stay at the University of Phoenix, the two core courses that I enjoyed the most were public relations and international marketing. The course in public relations has helped me a lot with my abilities to interact with people, the proper ways of doing things – how to address them, how to project myself in a way that it exhibits confidence and knowledge at the same time – these kinds of things. The international marketing course has helped me understand the do’s and don’ts in markets in a global scale, as well as be able to predict trends and fads. Considering that I am in the beverage industry, these courses will pretty much help me as I interact with people, not just the customers but also the higher –ups in both the domestic and foreign markets. The other two subjects that got me interested most were Critical Thinking and Human Motivation. In the Critical Thinking course, I was able to hone my problem solving and =general data processing and it has helped me a lot professionally because of the nature of my work. The cut throat world of industry has become a little easier for me now that I have these skills. The other course, Human Motivation, has helped me with in interacting with people from all walks of life, and I believe that it has been and will be very helpful in my future endeavours. Human motivation, as I see it, does not box the people in, rather it helps them get â€Å"out of the box† by motivating them, not forcing them. My completion of this degree helps prove one of the most obvious facts in life – that life is indeed a never ending journey. I will never learn everything there is to know, but this will not stop me from being curious, that is why I have started to crave for learning not just because it will help me develop myself into an educated, motivated individual, but it will also help bring out all that is best within me. For the next five years, hopefully I can further pursue higher learning and expand my career by getting a promotion. I feel that I now deserve any type of promotion that I will be able to achieve given that I can already back it up with my degree. If I will come across programs such as seminars, forums, and such discussions about critical thinking and human motivation, then I would gladly undertake it because I feel that there is still much to learn in these subjects. For me, human interaction is a skill that one can be good at but can never master, and I will, as I have always done, continue to work on these skills by interacting with my peers, my customers, and my superiors. The difference now, though, is that I have formal knowledge on how to tackle situations that I would not have otherwise known if I had not finished my education.