1. As I begin my path toward finishing my college degree, I find myself hoping for many things. I want to succeed, to complete this program and finally obtain my bachelor's degree. I want to move in this next chapter towards where God wants me to be. I feel personally that so often what I want and what God wants are at odds, and I hope that throughout this course and what follows I can move in a direction that is better aligned with God's plan for me.

I think the goal of aligning myself with God's will and discerning where He wants me to go will take a lot of work. That coupled with the demand on my time from family and work will also mean that time management is so important. Strategically carving out time for time in the word and meditation I think will help me achieve this goal.

I also have to be intentional about when I am going to make time for classwork. As of right now, I am on hiatus from work until the beginning of July, so I have lots of time to dedicate to classwork. But when work does start up, I will be working 12 hour days and come home with just enough time to eat and put the kids to bed and my school work time will take place from 9 pm till midnight.

This limited time in my day to work will require me to be very strategic and intentional with my time. I believe this is all doable, and I am very blessed to have a great support team around me, but it will require a significant amount of drive on my part and strength from God. I cannot say I am not nervous, but I take solace in the words God said to Israel in Isaiah 41:10 "So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."

2. Starting off this path, I hope to work through everything that gets in my way to finishing. I put myself on the back burner so that I could take care of my kids and once my children were all in school, I would go back to work. Now, that time is coming, and I need to remind my self when I feel like giving up or forgetting about it, that I WILL finish this. I have a big picture goal for my life and this is just one of the small steps to get to that big picture, so I am willing to do what it takes to finish.

Growth Mindset Inventory

3. On my mindset test I received a "mostly growth mindset". I agreed with 1 fixed mindset and 8 growth mindset answers. I would agree with my result from the test. I try my best to see the bright side of everything in life. I love learning new things as well. I think the things I have been through in my childhood and teenage years has helped me establish a growth mindset. Having so many bad/sad moments growing up has made me always try to find the positive in anything that I endure. I have failed at life, adulthood, school, and even myself before. Mentally I'm aware that things don't always go as planned or as we want. Sometimes I beat myself up over it for a while which is where that one fixed mindset comes into play. The little voice on your shoulder telling you to fail. We all have one of those but I try my best to not listen to it so that I can continue to grow everyday.

4. My Mindset I wake up 80% in good mood to go to work. Always in good mood until someone like employee or a supervisor that ruins it because they don't get there way or they don't want to do it. Try to always have a positive attitude because it reflects me, and my life everyday. I'm a good coworker everyday who helps other coworkers, and always feel good doing that because it reflects me and my life. My talents is getting my hands dirty/think/try to help/be a leader those are my strengths. Weekness I need to be more creative and have a good Mindset, and solutions.

Always have ideas but affriad to do it because I have fear of failing, and failing the people around me. I need to challenge myself to bigger better things and mindset. In Mrs. Dweck, quote "In a fixed mindset, people believe their basic qualities, like their intelligence or talent, are simply fixed traits.

The Grit Survey

5. I so, agree with you that experiences change us. I can be working on everything I need to, to reach my goal but sometimes you experience things that make you rethink your decision and wonder if that's really what you need to accomplish that end goal. Or maybe even changing your end goal completely.

6. I received a score of 4.59 out of 5 on grit. This puts me higher than 95% of American adults in their recent study. I would have to agree with the survey. I have overcome a lot of obstacles in my lifetime thus far. I have always gotten myself back up off the ground and finished what I needed to. I dropped out of college once before and yet I am here to finish what I started. As a mother follow through is very important.

My parents never followed through with their words and never turned them into actions. Maybe this is why I am so set on finishing and going the furthest I can in life. Maybe it is who I was born as. I really do not know the answer to this but I am glad I have a significant amount of grit or I might not be where/who I am today.