The First of Many

“RULE NUMBER ONE: NO PASSIVITY IN THE CLASSROOM”

My name is Samuel Jimenez. I am a proud father of two beautiful baby girls. Well, one baby girl and another girl approaching “toddlerdom.” My oldest will be two in April, and my youngest is six weeks old today. I am happily married and later this year I will celebrate three years in my marriage. At 23 years old, most people are very surprised when they find out that I am both a father and a husband, but if this blog is going to truly “reflect” ME, those facts are what should be mentioned first and foremost.

So, it may be a slightly overwhelming theme on this blog for some, but what I would want my classmates to see while viewing and reading this blog is a man, a father and a husband trying to navigate through this college experience to better myself in every sense. Above all else, my passion is my family and I can’t strive to better our lives as a family without first striving to better myself as a man.

After graduating high school in 2008, family circumstances and a decent job offer led me to the decision to take a break from school and work full time for Comcast cable as a technician. I eventually worked myself into a comfortable position in the workplace and didn’t feel like school would do much for me. Much like you mentioned today, the middle class “American dream” was still alive for me. I was 18-20 years old and working my way past co-workers who were twice my age and had already established comfortable lives for themselves. That’s how it seemed to me, at least.

Then my oldest daughter was born.

If that didn’t light a fire under my ass, I’m not sure anything would have. Shortly after she was born, I sat down with my wife and we both decided to go back to school. Together we decided that she would leave her job and return to school while also being a stay-at-home mom and I would continue doing the 9-5 routine. With her now comfortably in school and getting close to being able to transfer, I decided it was my time to jump back into school.

So now I’m here, in my first semester, with a different type of hunger than I’ve had before. If anything is going to carry me through the heavy workloads, late nights and fear, it’s that hunger. Attacking this task with tenacity. Having the determination and drive to pursue my dream because I can’t, and won’t, allow myself to push my daughters to chase their dreams in the future if I haven’t done so myself.

The reason I emphasize the number one rule in our class is because after taking five years off from school, getting married and having children, I’ve slowly transformed from a loudmouth, slightly obnoxious and reckless teenager into a man who is content with soaking knowledge in by staying quiet and listening attentively. It’s been quite a change with both negative and positive aspects to it but if I’m going to follow this rule, it’s probably time to dig down and see if some of that rebel hot head still exists. So outside of an “A”, meeting new people and opening my mind to new perspectives, I hope to lose some of the passivity I’ve picked up over the last five years in this class. Let me tell you, if anything can soften up a man, it’s a daughter.