All about me-portfolio

Hello,
My name is Scott and I am a 43-year-old college student trying to find my way through life’s obstacles. I am in the process of finishing my first quarter here at Everett Community College and I have definitely forgotten how difficult and time-consuming school can be since I graduated in 1985 (24 years ago) from Edmonds High School.

I am a father to four beautiful and feisty girls, who much like their mother, like to test me daily and know how the eye roll and the sweet “Daddy” works on me, most of the time anyway. My family has been supportive of my return to school, and my girls never miss an opportunity to look at me with the biggest and brightest smiles that they could possibly ever have and say, “daddy have you done YOUR homework today?” In all honesty, I will never again complain about listening to my children complain about their homework, the dread of this has most definitely come back to me. Having to set a good example for my children though I certainly cannot let them know I do not particularly like doing homework, rather I put on a smile and make sure they see me studying hard.

I came to this point in my life by accident, literally. I was involved in a horrible falling accident at work, which has prevented me from continuing my career as a HVAC Master Service Tech. This is most unfortunate for me because I enjoyed my work very much and I was exceptionally good at it. It took a lot of hard of hard work, effort, and dedication for me to reach the level in my career in which I was at, but my body just simply cannot handle the physical demands required to perform many of the functions of the job. I have always known that life has its ways of throwing curve balls that at times can require one to make major changes in their life, and I have had no other choice but to accept the fact that I have been thrown a curve ball! I thank God that things did not end up being worse than what they are and I try my hardest to stay positive.

Having to start an entirely new career now, moving into something that my body will be able to physically handle, with no doubt meant that I had to go back to school for something. After weeks of reading through materials from different local colleges and online, 3D Engineering Graphics and AutoCAD struck my interests the most so I enrolled in the Advanced Manufacturing Tech – Computer Aided Design (CAD) Program at Everett Community College to obtain my Associate in Technical Arts Degree and a new challenging journey for me has begun.

With all honesty, when I say my journey will be “challenging”, oh boy do I ever mean it! The reason being, I am completely computer illiterate! Yes, you really read that correctly, I am computer illiterate, but I have always loved a good challenge and with this one, I will certainly have my work cut out for me. Additionally, although I consider myself a well-educated man, I tend to get a bit nervous when anticipating some of the tasks that will most likely be required for a job in this field. The one task I worry most about is “written communication”. Exactly how much of this will be required? I have excellent verbal communication skills, but my writing skills have always been marginal at best. In fact, the last time I really ever had to do much writing (of any kind) was back in high school, I am currently in English 98, and this class has certainly changed that for me!

I am actually glad that English turned out to be one of my very first classes because I am leaving here not only with more knowledge, but I now understand the great importance in having the ability to write well. Although I have had some struggles along the way, mainly with the use of the comma, I have improved with things like cutting down on the use of “you” when I write. Overall, I truly believe this class has taught me to be a better reader, listener, and most importantly, a better writer. It has certainly given me the self-confidence and desire to continue with advancing in my writing.

For this portfolio, I have chosen four of my writing pieces that I enjoyed writing the most. The first piece is a major writing assignment titled “Ethical Standards in Business”. I personally believe that people in certain professions should be held to higher standards, and that is the focus of this paper. My second writing piece is an effective writing example in which I titled “Poker”. In this piece, I discuss the play of Texas–Hold Em and close with how I have a love for the game myself. “Hand Guns at Issue”, my third piece that I have chosen to present here, is an analytical writing that discusses the controversial topic of handguns, and as a pro-gun advocate myself I provided my two cents as well. For my final writing piece, a writer’s choice paper, I chose a blog I wrote on my Service Learning Project. This piece depicts the difference in contrast of my attitude from the beginning of this project to present.