A comma after "married" in that first sentence would make it clearer.
Due to
certain (find a better adjective to use! :-) circumstances I took one the most important st
eps in life at the age of seventeen: having my child.I don't quite understand what you are trying to say with "When a person has their first child being married and accomplished comes to mind."
I think I understand it. It means having kids makes you want to be married and accomplished -- if you care about marriage and accomplishment. Not everyone believes in marriage, though, so it might improve the credibility of the essay if you write:
When a person with a background like mine has a child, the notions of marriage and accomplishment come to mind.
Before having my son I never thought about going t
o college, but then I realized nothing can be accomplished without a college education.
It also changed my whole outlook on life;
before I ha
d been thinking that everything should be handed to m
e, b ut after...
You seem to have only one real point to make, which is that it is important to you to accomplish good things in order to be a good parent. Now you need to think of a few sub-ideas related to this, and write a body paragraph for each idea.
:-)