Personal Responsibility
Monica Solano
Gen 200
Dr. Douglas Miller

Personal Responsibility
As I have been growing up I have learned the importance of personal responsibility. I have a personal responsibility to my family, health, and school. I have responsibility to my family especially my son by being a committed person and hard worker to provide for him. I have a responsibility to maintain a healthy lifestyle to be able to provide for my son so that I do not get sick often and not jeopardizing my academic and personal life. I also have a personal responsibility to my school because school will be able to open doors or opportunities I never thought existed.
One of my most important personal responsibilities is to my family, especially my four-year-old son, Drew. I, as his mother, have the greatest responsibility to provide for him. One way I am able to provide for him is by my hard work and commitment. Advice I was often told by my parents, while I was growing up, was to always finish what I start and work hard. In order for Drew to have basic needs, such as food, shelter and clothing I need to work to provide these for him, therefore I need to work. Through my years of working, I always commit myself, at work, to do the best I can and work hard at every company I have been employed. Looking back at all the different companies I have been employed, my commitment and hard work have paid off. Every time I have looked for employment and have asked previous supervisors and co-workers for references I end up being hired at their company. I am often told, that I have a lot to offer a company and so they talk to their employers and in three or four companies they have created a position for me. At the company I am with, I have been told from one of the partners that he does not understand why I was laid off by the neighbors if I am hard working and committed to my job. I showed them my commitment and hard work when I was given the responsibility to process bills and mail to the clients. The person before me would process the bills in three days, because the company includes a cover letter explaining what they owe, their previous balance and additional retainer, if any. My first month, I processed the bills in two and a half days and I found two mistakes in which the clients’ balance was deducted from their accounts as payments but when looking at the bills closely their amounts on the their trust accounts were not deducted. The bills looked as if a payment was made when there was no payment, this had been happening for the past three months. My employer saw how hard I work on the bills and how committed I am when working on projects that I was given an office and a raised after being employed for only three months. Now the managing partner transfers funds and pays the other partners and him only after I have checked their numbers. The senior assistance tells me how the partners are happy with me and value my hard work, commitment and integrity.
Second important personal responsibilities, I not only have to myself but everyone around me, is maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle prevents me from getting ill frequently. I walk for about fifteen to thirty minutes three to four days a week, I limit my fast food intake and cook my food, this way I am able to control the intake of certain ingredients such as sodium or sugar. I like my food to have different colors so I always have different vegetables on my plate and salads. One of my favorite dishes, I often have is steam vegetables with chicken and cactus salad. I always change the vegetables and my salad contains cucumber, radish, parsley, green onions and cactus without adding dressing only a little bit of salt with juice from half of a lime. “Physical health is important to us all.” (Crone, 2005, pg. 20). Maintaining a healthy lifestyle not only helps me in my personal life but my academic life as well.
The third important personal responsibility is school because to me enrolling in school is a start of new journey that will open doors and possibilities I never imagined. A journey in which, at the end I will obtain my Bachelor’s. The moment I enrolled in school I made a commitment to myself to discipline myself to get the work done and seek guidance or help when I need. So far, I have learned from being a student and a parent that I need to find a balance between my family and career goals in order for me not to jeopardized one or the other. While attending college right out of high school, I learned how to motivate myself by having a positive mental attitude and having a strong will to succeed. There are times when I have needed some words of encouragement that lets me know I can do it, but nobody was there at the moment I needed words of encouragement. What I have done in those situations is picked up a self- improvement book and I have been able to find several motivators that I can tell myself so that I do not give up. Thomas Jefferson is a good example of how perseverance can lead to success. “His successes were the result of talent, intelligence, determination, and a lot of hard work.” (Gale, 2002, pg. 239). Having read a this article, strengths my will to succeed in school because Thomas Edison overcame many hurdles beginning when he was a child. His teacher thought there was something wrong with him because he was curious and had many questions the teacher was not able to answer. His mother home schooled him and became the inventor he is known now because his mother encouraged him and was positive. I have learned from being in school, that positive mental attitude, finding a balance and the power of knowledge are important not only in school but in my personal life as well.
In conclusion, my personal responsibilities are to my family, health and school. While growing up with my parents they showed me the importance of commitment, hard work and finishing what I start which they taught me is part of their personal responsibility. In school, the most important values of personal responsibilities I have learned are having a strong will, positive attitude will get me far and will open different opportunities I never thought existed.

References
Edison, Thomas. (2002). In S. Dow & J. E. Noce (Eds.), Business Leader Profiles for Students (Vol. 1, pp. 239-242). Detroit: Gale. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CCX3427100076&v=2.1&u=uphoenix&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w&asid=2e99dbc9ef9b045014bf081e4d91e9ea
Crone, D. (2005). Healthy lifestyles, healthy lives. A Life in the Day, 9(4), 20-23. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/211184704?accountid=458