Sample Essays

The following are essays written by students from the UNM-Valencia Campus Adult Education Program.  They appear here as written, without editing.  Essays were chosen as examples of good writing for the GED and may contain some insignificant errors.

Los Lunas High School

by Adam Baker

          Looking back at my year and a half at Los Lunas High, I miss some of the people, teachers, and some of the atmosphere or environment.  I miss hanging out with my friends at school and talking with the teacher when I walk down the halls, but towards the last couple of months there I started to realize how immature and ridiculous the people there were.

          For instance, I would be walking down the hall going to a class and all you would hear is profanity.  Now I know everyone at some time in there life has used profanity, but using profanity as your main vocabulary is showing ignorance.  It didn’t bother me in the beginning I just blocked it out but then it started to get to me when I would be in class or going to lunch and you would see the so called “popular” people standing there wanting to start fights, cussing, and walking around with this ego. 

          Another reason why I decided to drop out and start with my GED classes is I didn’t really think that I was learning anything at Los Lunas.  In history, my teacher had us in this one chapter for almost 3 weeks, while the other classes were moving on.  I figured that I could learn more if I just read ahead in the book or just read the book instead of listening to the teacher repeat herself constantly.  I felt like I was being held back somewhat.

          My last couple of months at Los Lunas, I felt I was being surrounded by people who didn’t want to get their education.  All it seemed like they wanted to do was talk about who had the faster car, who had the prettier girlfriend, and who had more money.  I just wanted to get my education and get out.  I hated high school. 

          This is how my last year of high school went. Having to be around ignorant and materialistic people, and teachers who couldn’t move on.  Well, now I am moving on, not only with my education but also with my life.  This is why I am here at the VC taking my GED classes, to move on with my life and start my college career as soon as I can.  

MY LIFE GOING THROUGH ADOPTION

This is my life. I am a 23 year-old student going for my GED. I recently found out I was pregnant with my second kid. I am raising my 2 year-old son all by myself.  His dad was never around when I needed him. I learned to take care of my son as a single parent. With this second pregnancy, I knew it was going to be harder.  I would have to do it all over again and alone. With this pregnancy, the dad didn’t know about it, and I knew he wouldn’t help me because he has two girls that he doesn’t  see or support.

Adoption was the best thing I could think of. I knew it would be the hardest decision ever in my life. I wanted the baby to go with a family that couldn’t have kids. I knew I couldn’t care for the baby like I wanted to. I was unemployed and I just started going to school for my GED.

I knew there would be a family out there that could give the baby the world, I knew I could of but it is better when there are two parents there for support.

 When I went to my first doctor’s appointment, I asked my doctor if I was a bad person for wanting to give the baby up for adoption.  She said no. But I really needed to think about my decision and get the support from my family. My doctor gave me some phone numbers to adoption agencies.  She also said to take some time ask any questions I need to ask and pick the right place.

 I told my mom when I got back from the doctor.   It was really hard to tell her because I told her I was only going to have one kid. When I did, we cried together, and then I told her what I wanted to do with the baby and she supported me 100%. She knows what a hard time I had with my son and she did not want to see me go through that all over again.

 It took me a while to call the numbers, but when I did I was really scared and nervous. I asked all the questions I needed to and I was happy with the Adoption Assistance Agency. They were really friendly and made me fell comfortable. I made an appointment to meet with them. My mom went with me to all of my meetings, and finally it was time to pick a family.  I went through at least 15 to 20 photo albums and I picked three families.   I really couldn’t make a decision right there so I got to take the photo albums home and go through them. The next day I decided on my family, a couple from Albuquerque. They are a really out-going couple they like to travel and most of all they love Disneyland.  They went 7 times and they don’t even have kids! I got to keep the photo album of my chosen family. The next week I got to meet the family I was going to give the baby too. I really enjoyed meeting them it was a really good feeling they were going to take the baby.

When I was in my 9^th month, we decided to meet with the adoptive parents again. That was on a Friday. On Saturday morning at about 2:30 am, I was getting these weird feelings and by the time I knew it, it was 5:00 in the morning. I started to feel contractions so I told my mom; I told her we weren’t going until I was in tears.  My reason for saying that was because we had 3 false alarms before that. At 12:00 pm, I couldn’t take the pain so I called my doctor and she didn’t call me back until 12:30 pm.  I told her my contractions were every 5 minutes and she then said to come in.

We rushed to the hospital and got there a little after 2:00 pm. I had to change and get on the monitors.  By the time I knew it I was ready for my labor room.  I went there and I felt like I had to push.  They said that was not possible, but they checked me and sure enough I was ready.  They rushed me to the delivery room. I had to stay on the same bed, the baby was coming so fast everybody was confused, my mom had to change into scrubs and she missed the birth, the baby just came out. The adoptive parents missed it and so did my counselor. But it was all worth it to see the looks on everybody faces.

 On May 17^th at 2:48pm I had a girl.  Her adoptive parents named her Abigail Rose. It was a different feeling because I didn’t know I was having a girl. It felt so good to see how happy the new parents were.  Just knowing that I could change two people’s lives forever made me feel really good. We have an open adoption so we talk all the time and I have only seen her once after I had her, but I get a lot of pictures to see how she is growing.

I have no regrets just happiness.  

Other examples can be seen on the Student Writings page.