Why I Want To Be A Self Advocate

My parents instructed me that being fearful and timid should not be how I lived my yet. In every way possible my parents put me in situations that was uncomfortable to overcome adversity.

As a child, I never realized the obstacles my family went through and why they wanted me to be the best student at the school. My parents tried their best in sheltering me from the truth but I always knew we were struggling financially. Growing up, I witnessed my parents struggle to find jobs and a stable house

Having a big family, divorced parents and a mother that works as a fly attendant (stepfather as a pilot) made me in an early age capable of dealing with changes in my life and turned me into an open minded, practical and curios person. But also, that experience and my parents work, gave me later a

Throughout life I’ve experienced a rather unpleasant childhood with the absence of my guiding figures: my parents. Seeing them rush in and out of the house to go to the hospital with my younger brother shaped me in a way nothing else could have. It made me who I am today, as well as aspired me towards what I want to be one day.

I never felt as if one completely had a choice over their life and behaviors as a whole, because outside sources and events sometimes shape people to act a certain way or at least come off as so. For example, in elementary school there was always this one kid who would act out and completely disobey and disrespect all of the teachers at the school. He would curse and belittle them, as well as any student who was unfortunate enough as to cross paths with him. I never understood why, until his parents showed up at the school and acted the same exact way towards the teacher, completely disrupting class and shouting profanities. The same exact word choice as their son, which led me to believe that the way he was acting had been something he was taught and exposed to. Rather than being respectful and kind, he chose to act the same way his parents had towards that teacher, which makes me think that maybe that is all they taught him which led to him thinking it was okay and normal when in reality, it was the exact

Most often in people we find a mindset that people will turn out how they were taught as a child meaning how and where they were raised. In the beginning of your life you will act how you were taught to act but there comes a point when you choose.You'll choose if you want to acft how you were raised or the opposite. Your nature is not dependent on how you were raised but dependent on who you choose to be. It is what is in your heart that reflects the choices you make.

Despite the love and support of my family, I did succumb to making poor choices. I started hanging with the wrong group of friends, caring less about school, doing things the Lizmery now wouldn’t do. My perspective changed when I entered high school. I noticed how much of a rebel I had been with my family. I understood then, all the things that my mother had done and sacrificed to give my sister and me the world. I saw my sister earn her master's degree and buy a house. As the youngest, I had great role models in front of me. I knew that what I did in the next four years had to be drastic. I had to step outside of my comfort zone, leave the negative friends behind, and take my education

People all grow up in different places, around different people, under different circumstance and, all of these cause different effects on their lives. People are who they are today because of the experiences that they faced. Until I was a teenager, it was always just my mom and I. I never met my “dad”, not even from day one. I never was able to get to know him, or see him, but I did have a mom. I faced the odds of becoming the stereotypical kid with a single parent that went down the wrong path, but I never did. Life caused me to have a single mother that has made me the strong person that I am today.

From the first breath I took as a infant I had already started to be forced to learn what was wrong and what was right. I was forced to believe that I was not supposed to be created and that I am flawed, this told to me by my own family because of my illness. I am Schizophrenic, and I had to learn what was real and what was not real. This led to a lot of bad moments in my life, but this has changed me for the better.

My parents influence a large portion of what I define myself as. They provide constant guidance and advice whenever I am around them, as well as when I am away. By taking what I have observed from them and what they say, I can create a lifestyle for myself based upon that knowledge.

experiences had their pros and cons, pros being, in my opinion, being taught good morals and a great education from a young age, putting me in a place where I made tons of friends, some of which became more like

In the introduction of this passage there is a statement: “we are each born into a set of social identities […which] predisposes us to unequal roles in the dynamic system of oppression.” In my previous Social Justice class, we talked through the whole cycle, what each step does for us and the formation of our identity. The first step in the cycle of socialization is known as “The Beginning.” This step occurs in the womb where we do not know which religion, gender, or ability status we are yet. Talking about me personally pertaining to ableism, I did not know what I would be able to do physically or mentally when I was born. I was unsure of whether or not I was going to be able to walk or to think as clear as others. After going through “The Beginning” stage, we then go through the “First Socialization” stage where parents or adult figures contribute their own self ideas, rules and concepts to your own developing beliefs. When I was going through this step, if I ever saw someone who was either in a wheelchair or had arm crutches, I would ask my parents why they were like that. I was a curious child so I liked to learn about pretty much anything. Plus, I was very caring and noticed those who were not as abled as me. My parents would tell me that they either were hurt or were born like that. My parents had nothing against those who were disabled at all, but my interpersonal thoughts when my parents told me about those people consisted of stereotypes since I was unsure of their story. I figured they were not as strong or necessarily as smart as us since they were disabled. Now that I understand the actuality of ableism, I feel disappointed in how I thought when I was younger. When I eventually grew up a little bit and went to school, I witnessed what other students thought and what other students have obtained as their beliefs from their own

I was raised in a military home from birth to the age of six. I spent the first three years of my life in Hawaii on a base that had several different people from different cultural backgrounds. At the age of four my family moved to Germany, where again there were numerous different types of people. Since I was able to live in areas that had such diversity I learned that there is not just one type of person in the world. Through my life I have also learned that by talking about problems that arising in your life, you develop an improved understanding on how to deal with the issues. I was raised in a household that I was at times unstable due to the fact that my parents did not deal with their issues. I came to understand that this was not an

Since I was merely six years old other people have controlled my life. It started with a visit to the doctors where my parents were told that I would never have a normal life, were I would never be able to socialize, were I would never feel and that I had autism.

From the moment you are born, everyone usually gives you advice and tells you how you should live your life. I always love listening to others’ advice, however, it does mean that I always follow them. In fact, the best advice I ever received was the advice from my parents, "Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay then it's not the end". In fact, That advice was it taught in Arabic language. My parents’ advice was so right and appropriate. This advice was given to me in everything I did, from sports to school to my real goals. In addition, it gave me confidence that when bad things happened to me or things do not turn out the way I want them because of my parents’ advice I understood it