Past, Present, and Future

Past, Present, and Future

                Hi, my name is Isabel Soto.  I am 35 years old.  I was born and raised in Oxnard.  I am the second to the youngest of five.  But as an added bonus, I am also the only girl.  People always ask if I was spoiled when I was younger, but I feel that they were a little bit stricter with me since I was the only girl.  I am glad they were strict with me because it helped mold me into the person I am today.  I think that I am also somewhat of a tomboy because I was the only girl.  But, at the end I can say I loved my childhood and wouldn’t change it for anything in the world.  I attended Larsen Elementary School, Blackstock Jr. High, and Channel Islands High School.  During my senior year of high school, I started to work at Target in Oxnard and was there for 4 years.  After leaving Target, I went to work at Maple Leaf Bakery, as a Finance Administrator, and have been there for 14 years.

                Besides working full-time, I am also a full-time student at Oxnard College.  I am majoring in Business Management for my associates with plans to get my Bachelors in Accounting.  It was the best decision I could have made for myself.  I also enjoy it very much, which I think is kind of funny since I never liked school when I was younger.  I think I enjoy it now because it was my decision to go back, so mentally I was ready for it.  I am also lucky that my work fully supports me going to school and is willing to work around my class schedule.  This semester was kind of a challenge when picking classes since the required accounting class was only being offered in the afternoon, but they are allowing me to get off work 2 hours early twice a week just to attend that class.  I am so thankful for that.  Besides working and going to school, I’m also working on me.  I’ve been so busy taking care of others and making sure they were happy  my whole life that I finally stopped and started to learn to take care of myself and to make sure I am happy.  The first thing on my list was to work on crossing off items from my bucket list from going to a Giants vs. Dodgers baseball game at AT&T park to overcoming my fear of heights by going parasailing.  This year, I am going on a trip to Cancun with my best friend that I’ve had since childhood, which will allow me to cross off two items on my list, flying and getting a stamp in my passport before my passport expires.  I am also planning to go skydiving this year with my other best friend of 18 years.   This is going to be a great year for me, a year of change, growth and learning. 

                In two years, I hope to have my Associates and to start working on my Bachelors.  I know that it will be challenging and will probably take me longer since I work full time, but hope that I will be able to stick with having it all done within 8 years.  I am currently not married and don’t have any children, so maybe within that time I will possibly meet someone to settle down and have a family with.  And if I don’t meet that person that I can’t see myself living without that will be okay.  I am not one of those girls that fantasized that she was going to get married and have kids, I actually don’t see myself getting married but I do want to have kids, maybe only two.   But as I get older, I do realize that my window for having kids is getting smaller.  If I am not meant to have kids, I will be okay with that, too.  I truly believe things happen for a reason and will accept and adapt to any challenges that happen to come along my way.  Life is about learning, growing and becoming better people.  We can’t fear the future all we can do is learn to embrace and adapt to it.