Essay 1 I was raised by my single mother and grandparents. My mother had me at a younger age and brought me and my brother into this world to know of family and traditions. Yes, I do have a large immediate family, consisting of 36 first cousins alone, plenty of aunts and uncles and great loving grandparents. They all taught me the meaning of family and to be there for one another. One thing I can honestly say is that if someone is in need of help, my family is always there. Surprisingly, with so many of us, we all get along really well. You sometimes hear of family fighting with one another, and while I do understand it happens, it never happens to us. We truly all love each other. Our family “get togethers” consist of family, lots of great food, music and dancing. My Hispanic heritage really helped shape me into the person that I am today. I can say that I’ve seen my mother, my grandparents and my uncles and aunts work really hard. I’ve always known them to be honest and have a very steady work ethic. Even as I write this, my grandfather who is 64 is still working. He’s not working at a “behind the desk” kind of job in the air conditioning, he works at a car wash, physically cleaning cars in the cold winter and hot Texas summers. I’ve known from seeing my mom and grandparents work so hard, that I want to them to see me succeed in school, something they didn’t get to do for themselves. In speaking with my grandmother, being Hispanic was not easy when she was younger.