Palo Alto Teenager

As I grew older, it was impossible to notice that my world was imperfect. In elementary school, all my parent’s problems here hidden; I didn’t understand my family’s economic status. As I grew older and began to ask my parents question about our lifestyle and compared it to the other people around us. This conversation would always end in the same place; because we can't afford it. My high school is composed of economically unstable families, and economically stable families. Seeing that other families were better off than mine, I grew up with the idea that a comfortable life, is a luxurious life. I know that others around

My parents Immigrated from Poland to the United States in search for better opportunity for the children that they planned to have. When my parents finally made the move, they started with nothing and no one to turn to; they did not even know how to speak English. All my parents knew for sure was that they were going to raise three children in America and do all they could possibly do to motivate and make them passionate for school. My parents have always wanted their children to achieve the careers of their dreams and be able to support their own family as well as be happy with their lives. My parents have struggled with money their entire lives, which is another reason why they did all they could to get to America and motivate their children for schooling. They did not want their children to struggle with money the way that they did. But this led another issue, affording college. My parents did not have enough money for their children to attend college. Because of this, I have done my best in school to earn outstanding grades and do my best to earn scholarships.

A majority of my family’s extreme financial hardships ended before I entered middle school. I often thought that I’d matured and learned a lot since then, that I no longer had that chip on my shoulder. Before reading Laurel Johnson Black’s chapter, “Stupid Rich Bastards”, I figured I would remember slurs and taunts thrown at me as a child, or the glares of those who thought they were better than me. However, as I read her words, I found myself remembering more of what being poor meant to me, not to other people. Not only did I relate to her memories, but also her feelings toward college, and where she belonged.

The Democratic National Convention hosted in 2012 were like the conventions in the past in which key Democrats would conjoin and give speeches to have their candidate elected for president. The goal of the Democratic National Convention in 2012 was aimed to have President Barack Obama reelected. One of the

During the summer after I turned thirteen, I went on a vacation that changed my entire perspective on life. “Americans are so spoiled.” I remember hearing my mother proclaim this numerous times growing up. I would shake my head or roll my eyes every time, since I never quite understood what it meant. Of course, I had nothing to compare it to. I grew up in the suburbs in a middle class family. I never wanted for anything. I heard the stories of my mother and her siblings growing up; they lived in filth, they occasionally skipped meals, all seven kids slept huddled together on concrete floors. I heard those stories as if she was saying, “…I walked a mile to school, uphill both ways…” I never could have imagined the reality of what the stories truly meant until I visited my birthplace, the Philippines, for the first time.

Over the previous years, I grew bored with routine. I didn’t involve myself with school activities and stayed home for most of my days. My parents rarely planned any activities for me and my sisters. I had stopped expecting them to involved themselves with my school life. I didn’t even mind when they wouldn’t come for my band concerts. It’s hard being a child of immigrant parents. There are situations they would never be able to understand. The sole advice they can give me is about hard work. They want to push me and my sisters to our limits so we could have the better life that they never had. From them, I learned life lessons of self-sacrifice and determination of making things work, despite the roadblocks and challenges.

Can you imagine yourself as an adult who just graduated from college, and has to move back home and live with your parents? Imagine waking up everyday and knowing that you have two hundred thousand dollars in student loans that has to be paid? There are many reasons that cause these problems, but today, large amounts of student debt and an increase in unemployment are the major problems that college graduates are facing. With the lack of jobs and no money, people are turning to their parents for food and shelter. In Rosie Evan’s essay “Boomerang Kids: What are the Cause of Generation Y’s Growing Pains,” she explains the causes of the delayed adulthood, and she also gives the messages to people and the government to offer better support to this generation. The causes of Generation Y’ growing pains are the amount of college’s debt, lack of employment and people becoming too dependent on technology.

I completely agree with what Anna Quindlen wrote in this article. As I grew up my family spoiled me,

The tendency to work hard and be committed to a task should not be diminished by an individual's financial state. As a kid, my family had really close friends that we considered family. A close friend of my mother’s was a single mom who worked at a fast food restaurant. It was hard for her to take care of her child because of financial circumstances, so my mother helped out when she could. She worked hard everyday to provide for her child and herself, but her weekly income could not help in areas she needed. She thought about going to college, but it was too expensive for her to take that chance. As her child got older the same cycle began. Her child began working at a low paying job to help out her mother because she knew college was too expensive

Over this glorious summer, many children and teens have lost their minds in video games and parties. However, I have done none of that; I have read news articles online. When I was searching for information about NYU, I have found an article from The Atlantic called “The Expensive Romance of NYU”. It talks about how thousands of NYU students are debt just because they want to live in NYC for college. The author uses statistics to prove his view that you cannot justify the cost of the $60,000 a year tuition. He also uses quotes from ex students to validate the fact that it is not worth it. The ex student uses intense words like “romanticized” and “dramatic” to prove that an 18 year old cannot make financial decisions made for adults. I have

Life Adventure in North Dakota In the 19th century someone quoted that, “Money doesn’t grow on trees.” Whoever this person was; He or she was very wise. In 2013, I was going to college for culinary, but decided that it was not for me. Finishing my second quarter, my dad asks me if I wanted to go work with him in North Dakota. Without second guessing it, I told him “Yes.” I had not lived with my dad in six years. Do not get me wrong, he came around once in a while whenever he could, but I didn’t know my dad very well. Moving to North Dakota changed the way I looked at life and has helped guide me to learn my true worth.

I am a 17 year old teenager born and brought up in India up to the age of 6, who never imagined that his destiny will bring him to the United States. If it wasn’t for my father, I’ll still be going to school in India without ever knowing that this other half of the world even existed. Luckily, my dad decided to take the initiative to come to the United States so that my family and I all could have a brighter future ahead of us which wouldn’t have been possible in India due to tough circumstances that were facing. For example, from having to pay tuition every month, for having electricity on about 2 or 3 hours straight was the struggle that my family and I faced on a daily basis. This is why I am blessed that I came into a new world that is filled with the love, kindness, and opportunity. In a way, the world is the same for everyone but it’s our own individual choices what separates us from one another. The opportunity for a better life led my dad to come to California which gave the affect to make my life what it is now and I wouldn’t give that up for anything else.

Arsalan Baig Dr. Natalia Noland English 1301 12 February 2013 My First Day at Work When I was a kid, I couldn’t wait until I was old enough to get a job. Sure, it would be a good way to make friends and learn how to prepare myself for the real world, but for me, it was mostly about making my own money. Having to ask my parents for cash every time I needed some annoyed me, mostly because they’d always say no. Every time they did, I would always whine and complain about how different things would be when I had money of my own, how I would never ask them for anything, and so on. This wasn’t entirely true, but at the time it seemed like a smart thing to say. I must’ve applied to dozens of jobs, and when I finally got the email telling

Most adults in my family agreed that it was necessary to remind the younger generations how privileged their life was and to always appreciate what they had. So naturally, money was rarely a concern for me and had absolutely no value on my self worth. Though

While economic inequality isn’t something we necessarily discriminate against here it is so in Mexico. Visiting my family in Mexico made me very aware of my family 's financial status and how well off we were compared to how my parents had been growing up. My parents were always very money conscious and it is probably because of how they had grown up. They lived on small ranches with big families and because of they they weren’t able to afford much growing up. Because their families had ranches my parents had to help out from a young age. I know they don 't want my brother and I to ever worry about money but it 's hard not to. I never liked the idea of being able to afford something my friends couldn’t.