My Liberal Arts Education
I started my higher education at a university in Thailand. At the time I wanted to be an English teacher. English classes there, as you could imagine, are more about grammar, reading comprehension and conversations. I did not have to learn about literatures. I took an accounting class three times and I failed. I am not very good at mathematics at all. As I started my academic journey in the United States I did not know which major or concentration I would take, and I still am not sure now. I was advised that I should just majored in Liberal Arts major which would allowed me to explore different subjects and to helped me find out what I would like to do with my life.
I began my academic journey at a local community college. I started by taking more basic English and Mathematics courses. I learned how to properly write a term paper. I read poetries and short stories for the first time. As I mentioned earlier I am horrible at Math. I always think that we only need to know basic math. We only use basic math in real life. There was one math course I took, Math Modeling for Liberal Arts, which has taught me other math skills such as how to calculate car loan or mortgage and how to do simple income tax. I did enjoy that course a lot since it applies to my life. Then, there was another course I took that I could truly say it has changed my life, Introduction to Human Behaviors. I have learned the basic knowledge of why other people and I do things the way we do. I have learned about what might be the reasons. I have learned that there are many components to human behaviors. I have also discovered myself. I also took Introduction to Sociology which taught me about other cultures, communities, and people in this world. I enjoyed these two courses very much. They have helped me learned that I may want to pursue a higher degree in Community Psychology. To my knowledge, University of Massachusetts Boston is the only university that offered that program of study. I was very excited to enroll in that program there after I have earned my Associate degree in Liberal Arts at the community college.
My life has taken another turn after I have gotten accepted at University of Massachusetts Boston. I had to put that on hold. I got offered a full time job at the community college. Although I was not able to travel and study what I wanted I still continued my education. I kept taking all the Psychology courses that were offered there. When I got a new boss I could no longer taking courses I wanted. My new boss preferred that I take courses online. I