Cristopher HernandezEnglish 100MorrisNovember 5, 2014Ultimatum Throughout my life it has been a tough decision to decide what my major was going to be. My parents always wanted me to be an architect or something in such field, but who knows, as parents sometimes people have unrealistic dreams for their children and my parents were one of those. Something that finally helped me decide why I wanted to go to college was the feeling I got whenever I would help someone in my band classes throughout middle school and high school. Being able to do other things for the people around and watching them get better in the process gave me a feeling of accomplishment that nothing else could give me, and then it hit me I wanted to be a band director. Knowing that I could help kids have the same feeling settled my decision about going to college and although it was a hard decision I know that it was the right one. Telling my parents about my decision of being a music major was a hard one because they had thought about me being some sort of engineer especially because of my dads work. My dad is an industrial welder and he had thought of me as his key to a better future having me major in a field related to his job would allow him to open his own company but my decision harshly affected our relationship. Trying to find acceptance from people was difficult mostly because no one in my family was a musician, but no matter how doubtful my decision was there were people who believed in me from previous band directors to my one and only family member who believes that if you like the work you are doing, youll never have to work a single day in your life. Deciding on where to go to major in this field was a difficult process as well, things came upon myself too quickly and decision were made abruptly. I dont regret the decisions that were made but they were certainly difficult.Disappointing my dad was definitely the hardest thing about my whole decision. I knew that I was part of his plans for the future and letting him down by not doing what he wanted me to do with my life definitely changed things between us. It has never been easy to disappoint a parent, but knowing that your dad expected you to be his key to success and letting all of that go by one decision is definitely hard for both him and I. through this decision he always thought I was joking and I didnt really mean that I was going to become a music major, although I had a mindset and I was not going to change that the constant thought of disappointing my father continued to haunt. Eventually as the time went by and it was time to decide where I was going to college he adapted to the idea of me doing my own thing and giving me moral and financial support for it.The decision was I was going to be a music major but the most important question still lingered. Where am I going to school? Applications were filled out, and sent out. Around November of 2013 I received a letter about a full tuition scholarship available for my top choice university and all the paper work was sent and signed. William Patterson University in New Jersey was the choice and everything was going according to planned but sadly another letter received in late December changed everything. Forms were missing in the application for the scholarship and the due date had passed and there was nothing that could be done, the school gave other choice for financial help but none of those actually helped me paid for it and there was no way I could afford it even with my parents help. Abrupt decisions had to be made and that was going to community college, it all started by looking for priority registration opportunities at nearby colleges and an amazing opportunity came up. The program connect 4 at Mt. SAC was the first great opportunity for priority and I was set on going there because it was close to home and it was affordable and even offered opportunities to get started with my major. As summer went by everything seemed to had started to work out, but the counselors at Mt. SAC messed everything up to the point where I couldnt registered for classes. Eventually a friend told me about a program at Pasadena City College where I would get priority registration and a way to take a further step into my major by allowing me to take a large amount of the classes needed to be a music major. In the end the harsh steps to get myself into college were worth everything that had happened.Finding acceptance for being a music major was possibly the hardest thing, but I never lost hope. I knew that I wanted to do this and I tried my best to accomplish what I wanted. I had no one in my side, everyone kept saying that it was too much time and I was pretty much killing myself by doing this. Along the way to all my decisions there were two people who never doubted me in the process I was going through. My high school band director was the first person who supported me, he gave me as much advice as I needed to get to the route I needed to start off my college education always trying to find alternatives routes even after my main plan went down, and that just kept me going because he was the first person to believe in me. The second person was my private tuba instructor, a band director from a sister school in my district. Although I wasnt always the most dedicated person to ever take lessons from him, he never gave up on always pushing me to the limits and getting me to do the impossible and all the conversations we would have together are what kept me going through my decision, because I knew that if I didnt keep up with the things I needed to do I would never succeed at the level he did. These two individuals are the essential tools I needed to keep me going and never allowed me to give up.I knew that going to college was going to be a new challenge and I really wanted to prove everyone that I could handle it. There were a lot of moments before actually deciding on going to college that made me doubt if I really wanted to go to college, because I was going to be the first one in my family to go to college and I didnt want to let my family down. Deciding to be a music major was the first step in which I let someone down in my family, but I knew wanted to keep going and although there were a lot of school issues there were two individuals who never gave up on me and that is what kept me going. The decisions were hard but in the end iknew I could do my very best and push myself to go to college and start something new.