When I decided to continue my education at the age of 28, I was still unsure as to how I wanted to use my education to better the life of my children and me. In this paper, I will take you on the short journey of my life along the paths that lead me to the place I am at now. While on this journey I will incorporate some of the theories from the Adult Development reading guide. I was born in Savannah, Georgia, on August 10, 1977. My father was enlisted in the United States Army, and ended up retiring in Hawaii when I was a year old.
After retiring from the Army my father became a full time pastor of the church he founded, thus making my mother the First Lady. With this being said I can say I have never celebrated Halloween and I do not allow my children to do so either. This reaction to this holiday reminds me a lot of Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Reasoning, specifically preconventional reasoning. “Preconventional morality in Kohlberg’s theory, the level of moral reasoning in which judgments are based on authorities outside the self (Boyd and Bee 2006, p. 3) .
My father enrolled me into a Christian private school when I was in the sixth grade, and because of the work load they gave us, I said I would never attend college because it was too much work. I would not label myself as a solitary adolescent, who did not care much for school, but rather one who did not care so much for all the work it required. I began to use silliness as an excuse to have fun in school, developing the title of class clown.
After graduating from high school my first career choice was to be a cosmetologist that owned my own shop with a daycare center attached so that the mothers could get their hair done and not have to worry about who would watch their children for them. I went on to study early childhood education at Ashworth University, but I settled on culinary as my career. In 1999, I married a service man. We relocated from Hawaii to Ft. Hood, Texas where he decided not to re-enlist in the Army, thus bringing our family to
Richmond, VA. In September of 2003 we were divorced and I really started to reevaluate my life. September of 2003 was a painful period of self-examination for me. It was, however, also the beginning of one of the most important decision of my life. This is when my sense of control or self-efficacy kicked in. According to Psychologist Albert Bandurs, this is “the belief in one’s ability to perform some action or to control one’s behavior or environment, to reach some goal or to make something happen (Bandura, 1977b).
I now transitioned from a married woman and mother of three to a single-parent. It was now up to me to provide for my family. After the divorce, I had a small mental break down. I experienced several job changes, as a result I made up in my mind that it was time for me to start my own business and provide and establish a legacy for my children. My culinary career got started one day while working for a construction company as an office manager. They needed someone to cater a party for about one hundred hungry men.
I offered my services, thus unearthing of my true desire. At first, I was a little unsure how people would respond to my cooking, so I tested it out on strangers just to see what the real reaction would be. So the cooking gradually evolved into a piece of creative work. That’s how my first real personal chef opportunity started. I still had to work at a variety of jobs that included collection agent, mortgage loan closer and office manager. In 2007 I began to fix dinners by request for an assisted living center for those residents who wanted home cooked meals.
From then on, even after being successful, I insist on total creative control over my food preparations, because this is what works for me. I am not where I want to be but perseverance will pay off and I will be able to provide for my family worry free. I am now in my final steps of my journey and only time will tell when my journey will end.
References
- Bandura, A. (1977b). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review, 84, 91-125.
- Boyd, D & Bee, H (1996). Adult Development, Boston: Allyn and Becon.
