Jill Ker Conway’s life story is depicted in her struggles

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Jill Ker Conway's life story is depicted in her struggles of growing up in Australia and moving to America to fulfill her ambitions. As a child she goes through family hardships of all sorts such as emotional distress through the death of her father and brother in the early part of her life. Jill's learns life the hard way and to contribute to this, Jill has to battle the influences her mother makes on her. Jill grows up through her many experiences of schooling, working, and moving to America in order to establish her life and follow through her ambitions. Her struggles are to find a place for herself in life and in school and in society and to do all this through the obstruction of her mom. In good intentions, Jill chooses to follow through her ambitions.

As a major part of everyone's life, I felt that schooling made a big impact and greatly influenced her decisions, especially while attending the University of Sydney. The new experience she dealt with in her college life and having to face her mom day after day made Jill feel a sense of pressure. The fact that she was unable to get along with her classes and college life and her mother questioning her studies made her become more ambiguous. Her mother never completed high school and so the pressure was greater for Jill since she probably felt that she wanted her daughter to have the best opportunity and fulfill her chances through education. Eventually, Jill came to the decision of dropping out of the University. The whole schooling experience pushed her to find a job and be able to work as a receptionist for a doctor in Sydney. During this time, Jill began to learn a lot just through work. I would consider this as an important part of her schooling and education as well. The daily work and routines made Jill become more open and helped her become more social and less shy. Jill recalls it when the office she worked in became more busy she gained more "concentrated education." Jill felt that working in such an environment with ill and distressed patients helped her overcome her fear of death. I guess she wasn't afraid of seeing death as a part of reality and her past fears of dying were relieved. Death would be a hard issue for Jill to overcome since she's had to deal with her immediate family member's deaths. Jill became more acquainted with work and it began to be fun. She began to learn about people more and looked at them with a sense of compassion. But, most people, Jill began to hate the fact that she was working for so long and wanted more meaningful work. This made her start to regret the fact that she dropped out of school and led to her reapplying.

I would say the whole dropping out of school to find herself made Jill's view of attending school become more important. The second time around school was better for Jill since she was able to talk to strangers and become more easily adapted to her college life. Even though Jill didn't ever feel like schooling was a good way for her to accomplish herself, I strongly disagree. In many instances, Jill felt that studying made her feel guilty because it took her away from her family. I looked at this as the opposite way and perceived her schooling as a way in which Jill became more independent as well as being more educated. In another case, instead of viewing school, as a good was to develop leadership skills, she thought that it made her become part of an unnecessary English upper class. Her disagreements in such classes as in the study of history made her feel a sense of frustration since she thought it was too political but I think that it just helped her become more acquainted with herself and her beliefs and views in life. Her long and hard education made Jill earn a good sense of choice. She abandoned love for her motivations and ambitions. The closing sentences of chapter seven stated that merit would help her earn her freedom but I view her freedom was already forming into existence when she started her education at the university. Exposure to the whole college life got Jill to make important decisions, which is a big step into feeling freedom.

I perceive he education important since it is engraved in my mind that schooling in college is the key idea to success and freedom. Jill got a chance to grow as a person when she made the decision to leave school and work but it only made her grow as a person and become more social. All wasn't a waste since her instincts made Jill choose school again and this seemed to be beneficial to her personality.

In my own experiences, I feel that I relate to Jill in many ways although quitting college isn't a choice I would feel to make but attending one seems to be the best benefit I have obtained. Her job working for a doctor was also a similar experience that I had and benefited from. One good benefit was that Jill won lots of approval from the adult world, known to be "brainy" was just a common characteristic that people viewed her to be. The only thing Jill felt negatively about was her life after schooling and what she was going to do after. College prepared her for her future decision-makings and is just a step into her becoming free.