As a first generation student It was hard for me to go off to college on my own, but what would life be if we didn’t have to make difficult decisions for our own good. As of right now I have accomplished most of what I wanted to do in high school. As a Spanish Major on the goal of becoming a Spanish teacher, Cal State Monterey Bay has been very welcoming and very helpful to my studies. I chose to be a Spanish major because I already wanted to be a teacher but I was not to sure if I wanted to teach elementary school or a single subject course. As a Spanish major I would be able to focus on the language grammar, history and culture. I chose CSUMB as a school itself because it was surrounded by a community (Salinas, Marina, and Seaside) where there is a high percent of Spanish speaking individuals. CSUMB was also my first choice because of the class size, compared to Fresno State or other CSU’s. In high school I did not have the best experience of help from my Spanish teachers. The two teachers I had never really helped me and I gave in to think that they did not help me as much because they thought I already knew Spanish from being Mexican American. I felt they helped the Non- Spanish speakers more than they helped me and I think we should all be treated fairly no matter if we knew or didn't know the language. That is one reason I want to become a Spanish teacher with my degree. I want to be a Spanish teacher that does not look at your background but your level of understanding. Having those students that are a higher level of a language to help out or work with those that do not understand the language. I also want my students to be able to work in a team for their future jobs. That is my goal and to achieve that career goal I can say I am almost there. I feel I have achieved a lot so far for my career and I have never stopped learning. At CSUMB I have learned many important facts about my major. Spanish has a lot of history background as other cultures. The classes that have inspired me and motivated me the most are the Service learning learning courses I took in lower division and upper division. I have really liked those courses because for the class we have to service our surrounding community and volunteer for 30 hours. The first time I did my volunteering I completed it by going to the Cesar Chavez Public Library in Salinas and I would be at the after school homework center. Two days a week, 3 to 5 pm I enjoyed helping those kids because they were elementary kids and most of them only knew Spanish because they come from Hispanic non speaking English families who cannot help them with their homework. It was a great impact for me because I would see these kids coming in for help and then the next week they would understand it better and would show me their test scores, I felt proud. In some of my other classes we learned about the history of Spain their literature, Chicano novels and history, the Hispanic- American Literature. One of the classes I remember very well was the History and politics of Mexico where we had a routine every Monday and Wednesday where we took 10 to 15 minutes at the beginning of class where we shared some issues that were happening in Mexico whether it was breaking news, climate, local or positive news about Mexico. We also would read about the Aztecs, the Mayans and the Olmec’s which are always forgotten about in the history of Mexico. For one of our midterm quizzes we had to learn and memorize all 31 states of Mexico, which was fun but also intimidating. I can keep on naming some of the history I know but it would take me awhile. To think that none of my class learning has gone to waste. In order for me to make the best of my teaching career I have to concentrate on my focus which is Spanish. Without Spanish my career pathway would go through a different road. I think its important that most of us learn Spanish because its always useful and you just might never know when you might need it. I hope to continue and finish my Spanish learning by earning my masters in either Education or Spanish as well as completing my Teachers credential before that.