The Latest Election and It’s Impact on My Family Relations I am a first generation college student, which in my family is my way of rebelling against them. It may seem hard to believe that, in 2017, I was discouraged to attend college because it is not my destiny because of my gender, and is against the religion that I was born into. Growing up, I was always different from my family. Being different in a Southern Baptist household means I was doing wrong. My family takes a lot of pride in their name and reputation in the community. Which is why my family was very upset to hear that I did not take much pride in the fact that I came from a corrupted family, who used slavery and white privilege to get where they are today. They had never …show more content…
But, once I realized what was happening, it was like being set free from self hate. I always thought that I was the problem, I was the weirdo but as I got older, I saw that I was the one who was actually normal in society, that my curiosities had answers and that others shared my opinions. Which also led to my current political opinions, and life philosophies.
I kept quiet all through high school, I attended church service three times a week, I never argued over politics, I never even brought friends, that I knew would speak out against my family, over. Now, what sticks out in my mind is election day 2016. I was a freshman in college, happy about who I was in the world, and glad to not be a part of a household that was moving backwards instead of forward. On election day, I was the happiest girl in the world, because I knew it would be the day that Hillary Clinton became the president of the United States. My friends, all in agreement that Donald Trump had no chance in hell of winning, threw a party. But when the results came in, we all flipped. It felt as though hate had won
Donald Trump becoming president, in my mind, was the equivalent to my family winning in my life. It made me think about how they always say that I am going to come running back to them needing help and wanting salvation, and that how if they won, then the hate in my life would win. So, as any Democrat in a house full
Three years later, I was a Junior. I was looking forward to another great year, but it didn’t meet my expectations. It was the year of the election, and candidates Clinton and Trump were dominating the national discussion. In class, my english teacher showed us the debate between the two candidates: Trump bluntly stated that he wanted to set an immigration ban and build a wall to keep out Latinos. That debate was somewhat a relief for me, for I was confident that Trump wouldn’t be elected. In the back of my mind, I was terrified to see someone opposing a specific race so strongly but it really didn’t concern
Due to my environment, as an adolescent I longed for acceptance in a society where I didn’t feel free. I used my mental capacity to place me in
My parents always wanted to give their children the life they never had. I am Mexican-American, both of my parents immigrated from Mexico to the U.S. before I was born. I have numerous relatives, including my older sister, who do not have the same opportunities I have to achieve success because they are undocumented. For them, college was only a dream that could never be attained. Being the first U.S. citizen out of my entire family affected the way I thought about life. It was expected that I would attend college because I was the only one who had access to all the resources granted to American citizens. Although, I agreed with my family, the pressure to succeed and be a role model to my younger siblings was overwhelming.
On Friday, January 20th everything my parents’ came here for is being destroyed by one person. They came here for us to be safe and grow up with opportunities, the ones he wants to take away from us . In Mr. Trump’s eyes every female is just a piece of meat, in my parents eyes, I’m a strong Xicana (Mexican American) and Paisa woman. I’m a woman that has ignored the hate, the racism, the discrimination all for one sole purpose, to make my parents proud. To many Americans I am nothing, to my Hispanic/Latino community I am everything. I am the future, I’m their hope, I am the one who will make them proud. I’m a junior in high school that will graduate in the year of 2018 and attend college and pursue something in the medical field and maybe get
So when they moved to North Bethesda, they knew I would have a better head start in life than most other people, African American or Caucasian. I’ve maintained over a 4.0 GPA, with a mix of A’s and B’s . I was raised as a catholic, going to church most every sunday with my father, most people in his country are christians but when he moved to america he converted to catholic. This instilled values into me, to believe in jesus christ and believe that there’s a reason for everything because he set it up that way. I’m the older sister to one (half) brother, who is only six years old with my parents working often it leaves me to be in charge of my brother, which has made me become very domesticated at an early age, and pretty talented in being able to communicate and understand with those at a much younger age than me. I can cook any dish that I have the recipe too, and can make a meal in under 45 minutes. My parents become divorced when I was 4, which instilled values in me to wait till I was mature enough, and also in a long term stable relationship before I get married because to wake up one day and realize I know longer love the person I married is the scariest thing to
Growing up I was pegged as the fag, the one who from the age of nine was “destined” to be an outcast. I was teased, ridiculed, and harassed on a regular basis to the point where I didn't want to be here anymore. I had no motivation to go to school, All I could do was cry because I knew they didn't want me.
We were finally financially stable. Still, my parents faced much discrimination as immigrants. After the tragic incident of 9/11, my parents were perceived as outsiders since they were Middle Eastern. The community we lived in placed a negative connation on being Egyptian. Upon entering Middle School, I did not know how truly people did not see me as an American because my parents were from Egypt. I spent restless nights thinking about the way the other students in school mocked me, and I pleaded my father to help me transfer. However, my father sat me down and told me “People will come to understand who you are, just smile and everything will be okay”. Little did I know that my father’s advice would impact every part of my transition into
I was born in New York City in Harlem hospital on July 26 1989. My parents Gwen and Donald Ames grew up in Pensacola Florida and Norfolk Virginia. They had two different lives growing up. My mom being from Florida mainly grew up around mostly African Americans and in a more country like town. My mom’s father was a pastor at a Baptist church and my grandmother worked for the state. I remember talking to my mom and she said she grew up when segregation was big. She would march and protest against desegregation. My mom went to Florida State where it was predominantly white. She said she had trouble with the transition from being around mostly African American to a school with mostly Caucasian. She felt that she had to prove something. The drive
At the beginning of my freshman year, I joined the future educators’ club. I wanted to be a teacher, and after hearing about a full-ride scholarship to St. Francis that was being offered to members, I signed up. Although I was the youngest person in the club, and there were only about five of us, I continued attending. A few meetings passed, and I asked about the opportunity. This moment exposed me to the other side of the racial spectrum. Unfortunately, I was told that I was ineligible for the scholarship because I was Caucasian. In order to qualify, I had to be a minority. I suddenly realized that although there is a vast amount of racial injustice, there are also opportunities for minorities that are not offered to whites. Even though I might earn the same grades as someone of a different ethnicity, I was not given the chance to participate. In my mind, that doesn’t
For a short period of time or what would I say my high school years I was interested in law. I wanted to become a lawyer to fight both cases that impacted my life. When I moved to Pennsylvania and went to school where I was one of the few minorities, I realized that it was different. People’s views were very different. I was able to choose the classes I had wished to take. When learned about this I was more interested in school since this was a chance to experience and get taught subjects I found to be most interesting. Law was in fact my favorite subject. Lucky for me there were multiple classes offered for it. Since my freshman year to my senior year I had ended up taking a total of three Law classes. During this time of my life I had started to feel out of place in the school I had attended. Things that I had said or the way I had dressed was just not what they accepted, for example if I was not on the basketball team there should be no reason for me to be wearing certain brands of sneakers. Diversity never seemed to be accepted. I had the need to balance the culture in my life if that could ever make sense to the person that reads this. When trying to integrate my friends together, it never seemed to end well. My friends in white bodies would constantly talk down to my friends in colored bodies. They would always say negative comments about them. What they considered as
Being a first generation college student and the struggles that come from being a first generation student have shaped me as an individual. My parents immigrated from The Dominican Republic with no education, no hope, and just a dream of a better life. When I was born, my parents tried to give me the “American dream” to the best of their ability but growing up was still rough. My older brother and I were being raised in a low-income neighborhood where opportunities didn’t come to people really often, and crime was considered common. Instead of joining my peers in their lives of crime, I wanted to be the exact opposite. I wanted to prove to everyone that just you may come from somewhere where crime is common, and because your parents don’t have an education that you can’t better yourself – but I didn’t really
Leaving home at the age of 18, loving on my own, figuring how to become an adult, and moving out to college, there were many things being thrown at me in which I was not fully prepared for them. Moving out at 18 is normal for any high school graduate in The United States. Being a Mexican American women it was more than just the net step to life , but a huge accomplishment. Being ascribed into a poor family increased the desire to move forward. My parents did not want me to follow their footsteps into the world of low waged labor, they wanted more. Growing up all I heard from teachers and family members was to go to college. For many it’s the normal thing for a high school graduate to do. For me it was more than socialization it was the path
I am not a part of the dominant culture in which I grew up. Girls married at the age of sixteen and did not finished their education. We did not divorce in the family. Girls wore dresses and boys could wear whatever they wanted to wear. We were not allowed to speak unless spoken to or we would receive a lashing. I worked for my education and remarried and have been married for almost thirty years. My family believes I forgot my family culture and am not ask to any family events. I am a southern woman with an education and believe children should not
As consistently illustrated in the literature, family support and education as a family value have been positively related to students’ persistence to graduation (Hrabowski, Maton, & Greif, 1998; Moore, 2000; Taylor, Hinton, & Wilson, 1995). Family members can provide guidance, encouragement, and reassurance about college challenges and the student’s potential for success. Hrabowski and Maton (1995) established that parents and other family members were instrumental in helping African American students adjust to college life at a predominantly White institution.
Being a first generation college student is a heavy load to carry due to the constant reminder of having to be a good role model for my siblings. Children of immigrants are often highly expected to excel in their academics and to be involved in extracurricular activities. His/her parent immigrated to the “Land of The Free” in order to receive a better life and to give their children a place to call home. They work from one to two jobs a week just so that we can dig through the pantry, and raid the refrigerator. We sometimes take our parents for granted unknowingly, and constantly fill our heads with a question that we all seem to ask. “How do I please my parents?”, “What do I have to do to make them happy?”. As students we should all be voicing “College!”. Yes, maybe our folks’s dreams have faded away, however that should be our motivation to aim higher; to achieve our American Dream. Throughout our years of education, our very own relatives and teachers have emphasized on the importance of receiving a higher education. I have come to realize that I should not be asking myself “How do I please my parents?”. Instead, “How do I please myself?”, “What will my lifetime goals be?”, “Will it leave my parents hard work in vain?”. Obtaining a higher education will not impact their lives, but will affect yours drastically. My American Dream has always been to become an immigration lawyer that deals with international relations or to become a professor teaching my true passion for