My name is Chelan Hoffman I am twenty years old and I just enrolled in college for the first time. I have decided to come back to school to better my education and set a good example for my daughter, Alexis Mae, who is six months old.
In seventh grade I was having some difficulty participating in school. I wouldn’t show up and when I did all I did was sleep. So after awhile I decided to change to Central Kitsap Alternative Junior High School. I quickly fell in love with the teachers there. They were amazing but I was still in the same pattern there as I was at the regular junior high. Not showing up for the three hours of class four days a week and when I did show up I was not meeting my full potential. Very soon after that I went down a very dark road and became addicted to meth. I started getting into trouble with the law, running away from home, stealing for stores and from my father. I was in and out of juvenile detention and always on the run.
I have no idea how I got through junior high or stayed alive for that matter but I did. I made it to tenth grade and the school I went to was awesome. It was also an alternative school. There were very good teachers there. They hooked me up with a job being a office assistant in their office. Not too soon after that I dropped out in the middle of the year and of course lost my job and just didn’t care because I was on drugs.
About two years ago I started getting into the rooms of Alcoholics and Narcotics Anonymous. Six months after that I decided to start taking these programs seriously. This decision has changed my life drastically and I have been clean and sober for about eighteen months. In the last eighteen months I have acquired so many things that I would’ve never acquired if I had never quit doing drugs. I got my drivers license, a vehical, auto insurance, my family back and of course my beautiful babygirl who I probably would have never met if it hadn’t been for my recovery.
After I had Alexis I decided I wanted to further my education but I couldn’t go to college unless I had a highschool diploma or a GED. So I started looking into the GED program. I started going to GED classes in March of 2011. It seemed so easy for me so I started taking the pretest and passed all of them. I had my GED in no time.
I have chosen to come back to school and study Medical Assisting. I wanted to study a field that I that I felt there was always going to be work in and that pays better than fast food. I also wanted to earn a degree in something where I would be helping people. I am very excited about college and very nervous also.
I am very proud of myself today and I would not change my life for anything. Nor do I regret my past.
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