My Crazy, Confusing, Random Education Adventure

Daryl Shreve

I begin any educational biography about myself with elementary school, because it offers the foundation of who I am.  Between kindergarten and eighth grade I attended four different schools with a variety of demographics, though all were in or around the city of Chicago.  For example in kindergarten I was the only Caucasian student in my class, but in eighth grade there were only two students of minority descent in the entire school.  The other two schools were very diverse in both ethnicity and socio-economic background.  I include this information, because I think it tells a lot about where my values in education began to develop.  Until seventh grade I honestly thought that I was a minority in this country.  This fact that I lived with for so long no longer exists, however because of this I have an intrinsic notion that diversity should be a part of education.

            In high school and even in my undergraduate studies, which I loved, I felt like I was missing out on possibilities being in places that were so monogamous.  Both high school and college were about 90% Caucasian and very similar as far as the economic background.  I still find it difficult to pinpoint what exactly I feel is missing from these experiences, because it is not a comfort level.  I was perfectly comfortable in high school and college, but I guess somehow it did not seem natural.  I took many of the diversity and awareness courses that Drake offered.  Though I learned a lot in these courses, I developed a feeling that dealing with people from a different background than me was a huge chore to be handled with kid gloves, and I had never felt that way from my own personal experience.  Well I did learn of several issues I was unaware of, like housing discrimination, I am not sure if I prefer where I ended up when I finished those courses more than where I was to begin with. 

            Other than that lurking, odd feeling that lingered around my years at Drake University I was very happy there, though I had no idea what I wanted to do.  I knew a lot of the campus, had some fun classes while studying English and Rhetoric, and had a lot of time for recreation, which is where I found my passion.  Which was a huge blessing, because I walked onto campus hoping to find what I would do after college, but not having any idea what it would be.  Like I said, English and Rhetoric were the most enjoyable classes that I took, but they did not offer much in the way of a post-Drake life if I didn’t want to teach, which I didn’t.  I absolutely loved intramural sports and kind of figured I would as soon as I heard I could get paid for officiating intramural events at an orientation I attended.  The experience didn’t disappoint and in fact it opened up some exciting doors for me.  I loved it because it was a laid back atmosphere, with fun people, and most of all it had to do with sports. 

I also found out that I could get graduate school paid for if I wanted to run my own intramural program, which I knew would be a blast.  I figured out that I could go into campus recreation or athletics as a profession, though I was not yet sure of what capacity I would like to do that in yet.  Which is what has led me to Arizona State, I now hope to be a director of a campus recreation program at some point and being the Intramural Graduate Assistant down here is an awesome opportunity that should help me along the way to that goal.  Though, I am certainly not ruling out the option of hearing about other new and exciting opportunities that I may want to pursue.  My graduate assistantship is giving me a new network of people in a new part of the country, and Arizona State also offers me a much different experience than I had at Drake and I know that will help out on future job resumes.  Arizona State also offers a diversity and new experience that are very important to whom I am personally. 

            I feel like I am blessed in my current this situation, because I have double the chances to learn.  Not only do I have the higher education program, but I also have my graduate assistantship, where I am surrounded by professionals in the field I am hoping to break into.  Though I know this is just a transitional period for me to get to what I hope will be larger responsibilities.  However, I currently have plenty of responsibility and I have basically been giving the job of sinking or swimming on my own.  Which could be a negative or a positive, I think it will be the latter.  I was reassured by this quote I read in Baxter-Magolda’s (2001) book Making Their Own Way: 

I wasn’t piggybacking off of what other people told me works that I may not find worked for myself.  And I think I remembered it a lot better than having someone show me their way.  Trying to figure out my way to do it, I think, was definitely better.  (p. 44)

I am glad it worked out for Gwen and her quote certainly comforted me in any securities that I may have had about my graduate assistantship, but it was also reassuring for my experience in the Higher Education program, which is already providing readings that are applying directly to my new experiences.  Everything about Arizona State is new for me and I was looking for that, mostly because I am always excited for the challenge, and I know what I do in the next two years will say a lot about who I am.

End of Text Citations

Baxter Magolda, M.  2001.  Making their own way:  Narratives for transforming higher education to promote self-development.  Sterling, Virginia:  Stylus Publishing, LLC.