Introduction to a future teacher!

My name is Patrick Garrett and this is my last semester at Los Medanos College.  I have been attending LMC now for 3 years and will be transferring after this semester.  This is my second attempt at school after high school, and it has been a successful attempt! 

Right after high school I started working full time, 2 weeks after graduation.  I worked at an automotive car dealership in Modesto full time in washing cars and keeping the service department clean.  I tried to work full time and attend the local junior college, but I could not manage both at the time.  I just did not have the drive or motivation to go to school at the time. I was too caught up in working and I really just had no idea what I wanted to do with school. On top of all this, Modesto Junior College was so impacted that I very rarely got into any classes that I really needed.  The last semester I applied for there was a total wash.  I registered for my classes right at my registration time and I was waitlisted on 4 of my classes.  After the first week of classes, I was not able to get into any of them.  I then lost all motivation to go to school there and I decided to focus on my job to see where it would take me and to see if I could spark an interest to go back to school.

I worked right out of high school at Modesto Subaru in the service department.  I started the job making minimum wage washing cars that came out of the garage for service and then cleaned up the shop after the mechanics.  I worked there for a little over four years and made the best of my time there, taking any opportunity I was given and running with it. I worked my way up through the service department and eventually was working the front desk, writing service.  I went from washing cars to changing oil and doing maintenance work, to running the parts department and then to writing service.   The next step up from writing service would be management, and that is when I understood the power of a higher education.  Everyone in management had at a minimum a college degree, and if I wanted to be in management to make the big bucks, I was going to have to go back to school.

I received a job offer to work at a Subaru performance shop that I couldn’t turn down.  Being a Subaru performance nut and a passionate automotive enthusiast, this was a no brainer for me!  I am still currently working at this automotive shop and I am coming up on four years here and I love it just as much as I did on my first day on the job.  I have learned a lot of useful trade skills working at the performance shop as well as being able to take advantage of a lot of great parts and accessories for my own car. 

I still have had the interest to get back into school and get my college degree.  While still working full time, I enrolled at LMC and signed up for classes. I worked full time and also took 12-14 units each semester.  The experience I have had at LMC is a night and day difference than when I was at MJC a few years back.  I had no trouble getting into my classes and I now had motivation and the drive to get my education done.  It was difficult however to work full time and stay on top of my classes.  Managing the performance shop is a dedicated task and requires a lot of commitment.  School is also demanding and requires a lot of attention and time to stay on top of 4-5 classes a semester.  I kept the job at the performance shop to pay my way through school and to live in the bay area. I knew if I were to go back to MJC, I would fall back into the slump I fell into before. 

My end goal is to become a high school english teacher.  I took English 90 at LMC and I discovered how much I actually enjoyed to read and write papers.  Throughout grade school I always struggled writing papers and never did well on them.  English 90 was the ice breaker for me, Professor Ashmore taught me how to write papers and how to get my thoughts and ideas from my brain into essays.  I then wondered why some of her important lessons and tips she presented to us were never presented in high school.  My english teachers in grade school really lacked on teaching the students the proper ways to set up an essay, or show how to brainstorm or do background research effectively.  This is what inspired me to become an english teacher.  I was a little shocked when I got into my English 100 class and none of the students right out of highschool knew where a thesis statement went....or what it even was!   

I am excited to continue my education at the university and I look forward to the challenges that lie ahead!