I first came to America in 2002 from Mexico when I was one year old. My family came with high hopes and dreams of having a better life knowing it would be difficult to adapt to a new country with a different culture and language. We settled in Gonzales with some relatives and my father found a job picking lettuce where he worked very hard in order to provide for his family. Money was always very scarce since my father earned very little. We moved homes various times trying to find a home where we could live in better conditions. After moving out from our relatives home we found a house but had to live with others in order to afford our rent. We traveled to Mexico due to my father’s work, he was a seasonal worker which forced us to move through the months of December through January. We traveled to Mexico since life was inexpensive and once work began we came back. Often times we missed a couple weeks of school and had to catch up. My father later became a truck driver and mother decided to start working in order to be able to help cover the necessities of her children. While working she also wanted to provide more for us by making tamales to sell. After a long day of work she came home and while she could have complied, she decided to keep working. My siblings often helped when they could but most of the time it was very difficult since my brother had to find a job at a young age to help cover costs. He had to go to school then work and did this through his entire career until finally graduating. Currently my mother has continued making tamales for over 9 years with all our help and support since she has stopped working. One of the hardest things through out my life as a migrant student was to see how my mother and father worked so hard to give us what we needed. Being a migrant student has been a challenging obstacle i have overcome by making the best of it and remembering to never give up and keep going.
Overcoming obstacles is an integral part of life that everyone will face sooner or later; the way each obstacle is handed will impact you for the rest of your life. A person will either conquer the obstacle or be conquered by the obstacle. Throughout my life I have had high and lows in school. That challenged me as a person and have transformed me into my better self. One of the greatest challenges I’ve faced was learning English after taking spanish as my first language. Although this is overcome by going to school it is very challenging for a person whos language isn’t English to have the same abilities as a person who was born into the language. I was able to overcome this as I grew older and now feel more confident. Growing up doing my homework was tough since my parents couldn’t help me. They knew no English therefore I found different ways to find help, and was be able to subdue this disadvantage. My final major obstacle was being so shy. Since a very young age I’ve had trouble communicating with others. During class i was always the most quiet although we were required to speak, it was never because i didn’t know an answer but because i was afraid to say what i thought. I have struggled with this for a long time, but have learned to control it and as time goes by I gain more confidence to share my opinions. This is an obstacle that I have not completely overcome but will continue to find ways to succeed on my long journey to feel completely self assured. Obstacles are things we must take in positive ways and know that as long as you don’t give up you will never fail.
Being selected to attend the Stanford High School summer sessions program would bring great opportunities for my future that would enhance my knowledge in every way. This program would give me the opportunity to challenge myself with an obstacle i will make sure to overcome. Consequently I will have become a better student and will have the experience of going to such a prestigious university. It would also be preparing me for the future since i will have experienced what life is like after graduating high rschool. If I was selected I would also show my parents that all their sacrifices were not in vain, although they are very proud of me. I know this would give them more satisfaction than anything i’ve done.
My educational aspirations are to attend a private institution or the University of California after high school to begin my path into becoming a nurse practitioner. In the future my vision is to be able to provide health care to those in need not only in the United States but other parts of the world. I know that by going on to college to complete my education I will be able to achieve my goals. I decided to become a nurse since I’ve always been interested in helping others and by following this career I would be able to help my community become a more healthy place by covering their medical needs. My creativity and my will, will help me succeed in my career goal since I know I give find up until I have reached my objective.
