Karla Cruz
English 21
Professor Davinder-Sangha
March 2013
Shaping My Choices
Life was tough growing up in a family of seven. My family consisted of my mother, my oldest and younger sister as well as the two men in the family, my father and twin brother. Being supported by my father, all the pressure fell upon him, but I knew that when I grew older, I wanted to help out. As I was the brightest and the one with most perseverance in the family, my mother saw me as a role model and often encouraged me to stay in school to offer myself and my future family a brighter future. However my father would insist me to marry a wealthy man, and I viewed this as way of seeing no interest in my education. These expectations motivated me to pursue my career and obtain my credentials to become someone in life.
Growing up was not easy for me. I grew into a working class family, where my father was the only one in the family that put a roof over my head and food on my plate. At the age of 12, I began to take my education serious. Being aware that my father could only offer what his paycheck would cover, I began to get involved in programs that would better my future and help me become someone in life. I knew that I wanted to help out my father economically by dedicating myself to my studies and taking some stress off his back. Being an educated student with the perseverance to strive in my studies, my dedication was always underestimated by my father. My father would see my brother as the man and pushed him towards success, but me, I was always neglected. However, as I started to tell my father more about my idea in succeeding, I felt as I was being neglected by him. As Sandra Cisneros said, “I could feel myself being erased.” I would be seen as an object and told, “mija, major buscate un guero con mucho dinero, I casate con el.” I felt as if my father had one option for me, and that wasn’t for me to succeed but to depend on the prosperities of another person.
My mother however, saw me in a different perspective and wanted me to go against the odds. My mother and my family would encourage me to stay in school, they said school was the way out of misery and they only way that I could better my future generations. My mother would wake up early and make sure that I would be awake with the energy to learn. She taught me that in life one must go for what they want and never give up, because quitters never win, and winners never quit. My mother plays a huge role for the reason why I have made education my