Instead of completing High School, I opted to start working at an early age.  I was always interested in construction and working with my hands.  When I was twelve years old I started working doing concrete work.  I helped with the digging, forming, pouring, and tearing up of foundations.  By the time I was fifteen and a half I was working in a restaurant as a busboy and I had gained a lot of experience doing concrete work and had progressed to doing custom jobs.  By the time I turned eighteen I moved onto doing carpenter work and was making good money stacking roofs (roof framing).  Over the next 12 years I worked in construction (building houses from the ground up) and the moving business as a mover.  I did both construction and moving because during the winter construction usually slowed down quite a bit and I used moving to supplement my income.  After working in construction for so many years, I became interested in remodeling homes.  I spent five years remodeling homes and realized that I needed an education if I wanted to earn higher wages and get into management positions.  At the age of 36 and a single father of a bright six year old boy named Joshua, I returned to college to get my GED and pursue my dream of working exclusively in kitchen and bath design.

   Most of the time I did O.K. in life, getting by without an education, but it seemed my options were limited to less paying jobs and there was always a limit in my upward mobility, being stuck in the jobs with no advancement.  Without an education, life is much harder than is should be.  I have felt a big void in my life for many years.  I tried over the years to return to school, but I was always distracted and did not finish anything I started.  I really had the desire to get my GED and an education, but just couldn’t seem to make it a priority in my life.  I am focused now my dream of getting my education isn’t just a dream anymore, it is now a reality.  Getting my GED has boosted my self-esteem and confidence helping me to realize that I can accomplish my dreams and goals if I just set my mind to it.  It has given me a new outlook on life and it has positively affected the people around me.  My son looks up to me and wants to be just like me when he grows up.  I am proud that I can be an example to him, not by just telling him that getting an education is important, but by being able to show him.

   Getting my GED has opened doors for me that I never realized I could achieve.  I am now going to college fulltime and I have a real set of goals that I now know that I can achieve.  Some day I am going to be a kitchen and bath designer.  I have started my architect technician certificate and should finish sometime in 2007.  I started working for Somona Kitchen and Bath March 2007, this is the company that I planned on working for when I finished my certification.  I know now that there is nothing that is going to stop me from achieving my goal of becoming a designer.  Getting my GED was the stepping stone to my future success along with the support that I have from my family, friends, GED, SonomaWORKS, EOPS, Santa Rosa Charter School, and now Sonoma Kitchen & Bath.