Education in my household was only discussed by my mom. Dad never seemed to care a whole lot. His motto was,"Well, she's got my good looks and her mom's brains so that's all she needs." He was just being funny, he's always been like that. Mom, on the other hand, was the person who made sure I had my homework done and wanted to know how I was doing in class. She never did come out and give me lectures about getting a good education I just understood that it had to be done.

Mom is a very smart woman. She graduated from high school and got an associates degree in nursing at Bluefield State College. She has been a nurse for years. Dad only graduated from high school and according to Mom he did that by the skin of his teeth. Mom and Dad have done well for themselves. They both work together at a home health agency now. Dad works with the medical equipment and Mom is the home health aide director and one of the nursing directors. She has gotten far in her career but it has taken quite some time and a lot of hard work.

I have always respected my parents. If I got a bad grade in a class I was always so ashamed to show it to them. As I had written in my personal history, my first year at Marshall was terrible. I had failed quite a few classes. I didn't even want to get my report card in the mail. When my second semester grades came to the house, the only thing that she asked was if it was OK if she seen them and I said no. She never asked anymore questions, to this day she has never seen those terrible grades. I made a decision right then and there. I was never going to put her through that again. I had never done that bad in all of my life! I wanted to make her proud of me and I wanted to do it for myself. The next year, I began CD 101 and 241 in the fall. I had decided that I was going to get somewhere in my life and then was the time to do it. I took the classes over that I had failed and I ended up getting an A in them. Isn't that crazy. After that I decided to just do it right the first time.

Mom and Dad are very proud of me now, not to say that they weren't before they just were a little heartbroken after my freshman year. I'm just glad that they didn't make me go to the community college at home after that one! I'm so happy to have parents like them because they definitely supported me in all of the education decisions that I have made. They do a wonderful job being role models of hard work.