1. Personal Narrative 1
Kylee Rodriquez
Personal Narrative
Texas Tech University
INTS 2310
Gibbs
01 July 2016

2. Personal Narrative 2
History
My life started on November 2, 1994. I was born in San Angelo, Texas, at
Shannon Medical Center. After my arrival I was raised in Big Spring, Texas. Until, I was
about the age of three my mother and I lived with my grandparents, because my
biological father left as soon as she found out she was pregnant. From the age of three to
fifteen my grandparents raised me, because I did not get along with my step dad. I began
to have a relationship with my real father when I was about the age of four. I would go
visit him in Tularosa, New Mexico at Christmas time and during the summer. I have a
brother and sister from him who I met when I was about seven. After my mom remarried
she had my little sister when I was in first grade. When I was in second grade I met my
best friends, who are still my two best friends to this very day. We went through
elementary, junior high, and high school together. In third grade I joined 4H where I
showed lambs and goats until I was a junior in high school. Fast forward to eighth grade,
this was my first year to be a cheerleader. I absolutely loved it. I continued to cheer until
my junior year as well. In junior high I played basketball as well. All throughout high
school I took honors classes, advanced math classes, and college classes also. I graduated
in the top 10% of my class and was a member of NHS. My junior year was the hardest
year I had. This was the year that my papa passed away from congestive heart failure.
After he passed away there has always been something missing, and I am very selfish
when it comes to him being taken too soon, because I wanted him to see me graduate
high school and college, get married and meet his great grandchildren. When he passed
away is when I knew I had to focus on school and excelling in my classes even more than
before. I applied to Texas Tech at the beginning of my senior year with no other colleges

3. Personal Narrative 3
in mind; I knew this is where I belonged. My senior year I also met the man that I am
going to marry, who is also working on his degree here at Texas Tech. I started here in
August of 2013, and I am graduating this December. I started out Petroleum Engineering
and after two and a half years I hated it, and recently changed my major to University
Studies with concentrations in mathematics, personal financial planning, and human
resource development. I currently work at Charming Charlie as a visual lead. I absolutely
love my job, but I am currently looking for something with a more consistent schedule
and that is full-time. I cannot wait for graduation day, so I can start the next chapter in my
life and start a big girl job.
Life’s Trajectory
I have finally come to the end of a long road and I cannot wait to see what the
future has in store for me after I graduate in December of this year. After graduating I
plan on being a high school math teacher. I want to stay in Lubbock for a few years and
then move to the San Antonio area if the job lets me. I hope with in the next three years I
am married to the man of my dreams, and starting a family. The decisions that I have
made that have lead me up to this future is my major in University Studies. I made this
decision this last spring when I could not pass any of my engineering classes. I thought
going into engineering it was all math, which I loved, but it was all physics, which I hate.
When trying to decide on a new major I was stuck. I did not know what exactly it was
that I wanted to do, but after giving it some long hard thinking, I always wanted to teach.
This is when I decided University Studies was the fastest way to get done with my degree
without starting over. Then I had to pick my concentrations, mathematics was easy to
pick because it was what I have always loved doing, and I was already done with the

4. Personal Narrative 4
classes that the concentration required. The other two where a lot harder to come by, I
chose personal finance, because I felt that is was something that could help me
personally, I have always tried really hard to keep up with my finances but I wanted to
know the correct techniques to do so. Human resource development was recommended
by my advisor, which I am glad she recommended it because it has taught me a lot about
the business world. I plan on tying the three together in the classroom by giving my
students some tips on personal finance while still teaching them the math that they need
to know, and using human resources to manage my classroom in an effective way. I feel
by tying these three together this way it will make for a fun learning experience and not
bore any of the students, especially the ones that hate math. With one of my
concentrations being mathematics, I want to use this teach others the love that I have for
the subject. I also plan on working towards my masters in mathematics sometime in the
near future. With this I hope to continue on with teaching but at the college level.
Another decision that I have made regarding my future plans, is being with the man of
my dreams, currently we live together here in Lubbock, and plan on getting married after
we both graduate with our bachelors. He is pursuing a degree in kinesiology. I hope that
with both of degrees being in such high demand we are able to move and live wherever
we want to start our family.
Connection
The connections that thread my history and life’s trajectory together are my
passions for math and for teaching. I have known my whole life that I wanted to teach at
some point or another, and that is what I have always wanted to do. With having younger
siblings I have always been a teacher to them. My love for math started at a very young,

5. Personal Narrative 5
when I was in elementary school I was always more advanced and caught on to math
quicker than everyone, this continued all throughout my public school experience.
Coming into college I was so set on being an engineer, in the first few semesters I did
really awesome because majority of my classes were math classes. In my math classes I
always made A’s and excelled in them. As I progressed through the degree I had a lot of
trouble passing classes, these classes were all physics based, and I was not excelling in
them. For me this was a really discouraging point in my life. I did not know what the next
steps were at this point. This is when I had to put the two things I loved together and
incorporate them into one degree. This is where I found university studies. With this
degree program I am able to make a connection between what I want to do. With this I
am going to be able to teach others my love for math, and hopefully help others love it
the way I do.
Continuity
Throughout my life nothing has been constant. I never had a constant father
figure, I was back and forth between living with my mom to living with my grandparents,
and I was either really happy or really sad. Despite the struggles that I had growing up I
have used these as an anchor to be better and make the best possible person out of myself
that I can. I have used these experiences to mold my future and make sure that I do not let
these same occurrences happen over again. In order to make myself better I knew from a
young age that I could not let these things that were happening in my life effect my
schoolwork. I have always strived to be the best student that I can be and not fall short of
who I am. In my future I plan to teach others this great thing that I have done in my life to
ensure the success that I have today. Sure I have fallen a million times, one of them being

6. Personal Narrative 6
quitting the engineering program, but out of that failure I have found something that I
absolutely love and want to do for the rest of my life, and that is teach other, inside and
outside of the classroom. This failure taught me a lot about who I am and how strong of a
woman I have become throughout my life. I had family members telling me I was stupid,
and that I gave up, but I knew in my heart that I was not happy with the major I had
chosen and that I was just simply wasting my time and money. I had the encouragement
of myself to push through this rough time, just like every other rough time I have
experienced. The things that thread my quilt are doing the things that I love with the
people that I love, and showing others not to use things as a crutch. Growing up I could
have used coming from a broken home as a crutch to slack in school like many others do,
but I chose to exceed this stereotype and show others that it could be done, no matter the
circumstances. I wanted to give up millions of times because I did not have the
encouragement and push I needed at home, but I did not and now I find myself as almost
a college graduate. I could not be happier with the way my life panned out, and I am
thrilled to see what this next chapter brings. In doing all these fun life things it is always
important to never lose track of who you really are and who you really want to be. This
continuous self motivation will help me to shape my future career and path by me always
pushing through the obsticles that life throws at me without ever turning back.

7. Personal Narrative 7
Personal Narrative Grading Rubric
Criteria
Points
Possible
Points
Earned
General
Paper adheres to APA formatting (title page, citations,
references page, etc.). This rubric pasted at the end of the
assignment.
10
Writing is clear with appropriate grammar, spelling, and
punctuation. Headings are appropriately labeled
10
History (500 words)
Provides a brief historical summary of life calling attention to
several discontinuities.
10
Utilizes Bateson article 10
Life’s Trajectory (500 words)
Discusses what is happening now in terms of education and
life. Addresses education and trek to University Studies
program. Calls specific attention to discontinuities.
20
Connection (250 words)
Identifies thread(s) that seem to run through personal history
and life’s trajectory.
10
Continuity (500 words)
Discusses continuity within discontinuity and how this
continuity will help shaper career and future plans.
20
Autobiographical Map (1 slide) 10
Total 100