Personal Narrative: Treating Stereotypes

Living in North Carolina exposed me to Native Americans of the Cherokee tribe. I had always found their culture to be interesting and I enjoyed learning about their history. The area I lived in, Asheville, was highly diverse and was composed of several cultural groups such as Native American, African American, Hispanic, and European students. Being half Dutch, I didn’t

I left everything behind and refused to go back. I left the one thing I wanted the most, but found the one thing I needed, freedom. My dark cloud of regret was behind me as I entered my salvation, Amsterdam. I entered the gates of Amsterdam and saw a multitude of smiling faces and entered the light. I had no recollection of how I got there, but I knew he wasn’t here I could feel it. I was finally free and I walked through the golden gates knowing I could start over.

I started drawing when I was 16. I was cursing 10th grade, or how is called in my country, Dominican Republic “Segundo de Bachillerato”. It was recess. I was alone in my classroom that day, besides two or three people who were just killing time there, and I didn’t had much to do with my time. I was at the last book of a series of books which names I can’t remember and If I recall correctly the last book was very boring for some reason so I didn’t wanted to read it anymore. So, looking for something to do, I stood from my seat and walked boringly down the aisle of chairs and that was, not my first interaction with art, but the first time I remember i liked art or paid attention to it. Yerkis, a guy of my class: short, chubby and well mannered

Growing up with a father in the military, you move around a lot more than you would like to. I was born just east of St. Louis in a city called Shiloh in Illinois. When I was two years old my dad got the assignment to move to Hawaii. We spent seven great years in Hawaii, we had one of the greatest churches I have ever been to name New Hope. New Hope was a lot like Olivet's atmosphere, the people were always friendly and there always something to keep someone busy. I used to dance at church, I did hip-hop and interpretive dance, but you could never tell that from the way I look now.

I would say I am not very different then most of the students that sit before you everyday. I have hobbies I enjoy and favorite places to eat, but unlike them I have some traits that make me standout from the rest. Allow me to elaborate, I was born in Sebastian, Florida where I was exposed to a lot of different cultures and people. Going through elementary school I got to learn quite a bit about the wildlife in our area, and that is where I gained my love for animals. However, as I grew up I began to take interest in many different subjects like video games or soccer. These activities made me the person I am today, but also take up a majority of my free time. During high school I was a straight “A” student who joined several clubs and committed to several volunteer opportunities. I graduated top ten percent of my class, and applied at several colleges, but laid eyes on F.I.T the most due to my major of Computer Science. In all this short summary of my life may help you better understand the reason behind why I chose the following proposal.

I was born and raised in the small but growing city of Perris, CA. This isn’t the best city out there but it tends to grow on you, and you begin to truly love it for what it is. The people, however, not so much. The community can vary from which part of the city you’re in. That’s because there’s diversity here in Perris. I’m a product of this diversity, being half Mexican and half African American. My parents fell in love after high school and later on began a family. I am the youngest of five. I have two older brothers, an older sister, and an older cousin who lives with us. The order is boy, girl, boy, boy, girl with my cousin being included in there too. We all live in the same house with my parents and are quite close with each other. They all seem to have raised me growing up due to the fact that my parents were busy trying to provide for us. This was a challenge by itself, resulting in lots of house moving and my father being unemployed for six years after losing his job. I never complained about moving because I knew that my parents were doing their absolute best and were working with all that they had and then some. This unquestionably made me adaptable to new environments and gave me a

I have this fear of being demoted because the way I look. I’m in a constant battle with the questions, am I white or am I mexican? I have an identity crisis on my hands, and growing up those questions weren’t any of my concerns. During the duration of my experiences involving race I have been placed into stereotypes that deceive who I really am. I would look too “mexican” to wear that outfit or I would sound too “white” to learn Spanish. Racial categories are both confusing and senseless, yet is a significant part in our society.

The Bronx though wasn’t the ending to my cultural dilemma because my family soon moved to the city of Newark. The people in Newark were different and seemed to embrace their culture in a way that I haven’t seen before. For the first time I met kids that were from different cultures, new cultures that I haven’t been exposed to from the Portuguese to Brazilians. But that wasn’t the end to it though as I was becoming exposed to different us point of views too from Muslims to Hindus and the kids that had grown up with this loved who they were and that inspired me. It was different to see people so rich and so diverse in both an ethnic sense and in a religious point of view as well. It helped me get away from embedded stereotypes and negative connotations that have been constructed in society about a person and helped me understand them in a personal level and helped me be empathetic towards them which helped me get new friends and learn different perspectives on the world.

Although I have very few experiences of New York, what captivates me the most to the Empire State is the memory of my parents challenges in the city. As young newly wedded immigrants without a degree, it was tough settling in the big apple. Nonetheless, my parents worked hard to achieve the American dream. However, their American dream ended in the U.S. after they received their education. They decided to work overseas, and it was a decision that affected my life greatly. I grew up in many urban areas like New York with plenty of diversity to offer, but living as a foreigner enhanced the experience.

The social norm I broke is making too much eye contact, or staring excessively, at my teachers. While sitting in class, I stared at my teachers more than I stared at my paper or looked around the classroom. It is usually normal for students to stare down at their desks and not look at the teacher a lot.

I grew up as one of the hardest things to commit to, black and alternative. My meaning of alternative is being interested in goth fashion and heavy metal music. From what I was told, being black is listening to hip-hop and dressing like everyone else around them or what is the social norm. Clearly, my definition of alterative is contrasting on what it means to be “black.” I say it's hard to commit because coming from a closed black family, I felt pressed to let go of what I felt about myself just to make them happy. Questions like, ‘’Why are you trying so hard to be different?’’ or ‘’Who told you that was okay?’’ Still replay in my head whenever I decide to wear something that I would feel most comfortable in. Not long ago, I got into an arguement

I quickly swallowed my homemade authentic Indian food leftovers and gulped down my chocolate milk. Looking down at my watch that read 11:28am, I knew that I only had two minutes until my most favorite part of the day: recess. This particular day in 5th grade, I had run a lap around the playground before getting the rest of recess to myself. As I started walking for my warmup, another student ran up and said, “My parents said that your people caused 9/11.” Completely caught off guard, I held back the tears in my eyes and tried to shake off his comment. I had never encountered something like this.

I was born in Japan and spent my life there until seventh grade. Even though my environment was very fulfilling, my community had little diversity. Everyone was from the same area, we all have same culture, and same race. Individual could had variety of thought but our basic mind was very similar since we all grow up in the same environment. I can say that I had little more diversity in my life than other people around me since my mother was Korean, I had some Korean people around me. Korea is a country located right next to Japan, but they do have different culture, language, and people. It gave me a little push to become diverse person. However, there was a big change when I moved to America as an international student in seventh grade. For the first time in my life, I was surrounded by people who were not "my people". When I walked into the class, everyone had different race, culture,

I 'm from cape cod and were definitely not know for our diversity so whenever I go into an environment with lots of diversity I instantly notice it. For my graduation present my mom surprised me with a mother-daughter trip to California for a week. It was my first time going and It was more amazing than I could ever imagine. My favorite place we visited was Venice beach. We would go every day and I could never get sick of it. I loved walking up and down the boardwalk and look at all the different people from all around the world just enjoying the simple beauty of the beach and all it has to offer. Every shop had its own personality and the stories behind the life of each owner made it even more interesting. My favorite shop was Egyptian themed and sold beautiful novelties. It

Growing up I always had the opportunity to interact with diverse groups. My father is a retired master sergeant of the United States Army. He is African-American and was born and raised Baptist in Kentucky. He married my mother who is South Korean and Buddhist. I spent the first three years of my life living in South Korea where my father was stationed. We