Opening

This personal narrative looks back on a time in my life where I had little direction in what I wanted to do after High School, let alone what degree I wanted to pursue in college. I will recount some of the lessons and challenges that happened in my life that lead me down different paths that changed and will continue to change my life. These stories that I recount will lead into my decision to choose cybersecurity as my major at Old Dominion University and choosing military service as my career after graduating from university. I will also talk about some patterns while taking a look into some of the challenges that I faced. These patterns will be something I highlight in my personal narrative as they played a crucial role in my story. 

First Experiences with Cybersecurity/Military

Growing up I was a military child, I moved across the world multiple times before the age of 10. This life of moving around a lot gave me a different perspective on what someone could do as a job. I was very interested in what my dad did, and from this I began to take an interest in what the military was about. So much so, that when I was in 8th grade, I was signing up for classes in preparation for my first year of High School. Out of curiosity there was a course in which you could learn about the military. From my previous experiences as a child, I chose this course. After choosing this course I enrolled in this class and took a greater interest into what the military had to offer, and throughout High School this course led me to continue on this path in College. At the same time I also had an interest in computers from my time as a child being interested in how they work and playing video games. This also led me to my chance in learning what cybersecurity was about. Before my senior year of high school my dad told me about a course my High School was offering. This course was centered around introducing students to a potential future and career in Cybersecurity. This course interested me and I knew I wanted to continue my studies in Cybersecurity. However, these two interests of mine would not come without great challenges once I reached the college level. 

My struggles with Math

When I first got to Old Dominion University I enrolled as a Cybersecurity Major and at same time, I also enrolled in the military program. I was excited to finally pursue both my passions that I discovered in High School with the help of my dad and life experiences. However, what I didn’t realize is that both these interests required me to learn math and pass multiple math classes. Prior to attending Old Dominion University, I didn’t excel at math in High School but I definitely did not perform too poorly either, but in no way was I confident in math. However, little did I know the challenges that I would have to overcome to continue in my interest at the college level. I knew that to meet the standards upheld by both programs, I knew I had to pass all of the required math courses. Throughout my time in these math courses I knew that this story could turn into a “contamination story”, where my story goes from good to bad, or this story could turn into a “redemption story” where I overcome this challenge. (Smith, 2017) These two types of stories are just how we interpret our situations, and we have the choice to pick which story we want to write for ourselves. (Smith, 2017) I knew that I had no choice but to overcome this challenge, and I succeeded in doing that. If I quit when things got hard I would have lost the opportunity to continue my career in pursuing both of these fields. Overall this challenge that I had to face is one that made me stronger and helped me persevere in times of tribulation. Like I talked about earlier, this “redemption story” helped shape me into the person I am today, and having these challenging experiences has made me better off. (Smith, 2017) 

My struggles with Public Speaking and recognizing patterns

Like I mentioned earlier, in combination with studying cybersecurity at Old Dominion University, I also enrolled in the military program. This military program challenged me early on because I had to learn how to speak in public. From an early age I was always soft spoken and rarely spoke in a prolonged fashion. This caused me to be hesitant when I spoke in front of a large number of people. Looking back during this time of struggle, I can trace these challenges back to my childhood. When struggling with both math and public speaking I can recognize a pattern. This pattern was my motivation to achieve a goal in order to help the people around me. My ability to overcome public speaking would afford me the opportunity to help people who were dealing with the same problems I have once dealt with. This passion of helping other people gave me a level of confidence which pushed me to overcome this challenge and not give up. When looking at my personal narrative, this overarching theme of being motivated to overcome challenges by helping people is what kept me going. (McAdams, 2001) I learned that having a ‘why’ is very important to recall in moments where we lose motivation and have a lack of understanding in stressful moments.

Ending

Overall, my passions of joining the military and entering the field of cybersecurity were met with many challenges and obstacles throughout my journey. However, my pattern of being motivated through my overarching passion of helping others helped me in overcoming these challenges. Being able to look at these challenges and how I overcame them will help me in the future. I believe that having an overarching goal to help motivate you in times of struggle will help majorly. I know it helped me stay focused achieving what I wanted to. Having a “why” is what got me through those two challenges to name a few. 

As I look at these experiences throughout my life, I will carry the lessons I learned into my future endeavors. Throughout this personal narrative I highlighted some of my struggles and motivations that helped me succeed in the Cybersecurity Major at Old Dominion University. These weaknesses that I highlighted above helped me become stronger so that in the future I will succeed again. Again I look back to how Smith wrote about “redemption stories” and “contamination stories”. We have the ability to choose which story we want to write. Being motivated in achieving something bigger than yourself can help us fall into the “redemption story”. Smith stated, “People who are driven to contribute to society and to future generations, he found, are more likely to tell redemptive stories about their lives, or stories that transition from bad to good.” (Smith, 2017) Following what Smith said about contributing to society and something bigger than yourself, I can see how this directly helped me overcome my challenges and write my “redemption story”. I have always known that having an overarching goal will help me succeed, but seeing it come together in this way after looking back at my written personal narrative will help me succeed in the future.

Works Cited:

Smith, E. E. (2024, July 25). The two kinds of stories we tell about ourselves. ideas.ted.com. https://ideas.ted.com/the-two-kinds-of-stories-we-tell-about-ourselves/

McAdams, D. P. (2001). The psychology of life stories. Review of General Psychology, 5(2), 100–122. https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.5.2.100