Lyna Vu
English 12
2012 August 25
Independence
The “What do you want to be when you’re older?” question is a question that I’ve always been asked about when I was younger. That question honestly stresses me out and makes me so worried about my future. I grew up in a world where following exactly what your parent’s say will always be the best way to go. I come from a huge family with many disagreements and opinions. My mom’s side of the family believes in the easy way out to just make enough to get by in life and have a little bit of fun. My dad’s side of the family wants me to step outside of my box, and try my best to go above and beyond. As I am getting older I still don’t know what I want when someone is telling me to do one thing and other is telling me another.
Most of my dad’s side of the family lives in Austin, Texas and whenever I come to visit there is always a conversation about college and what I want to do as a career. Most of them are very successful in life, and do not struggle. They peer pressure me and make me feel stupid at times because they all of them expect me to know. I get so overwhelmed and frustrated, and I hate it. Some of them even put me down at times when I give them some choices I have, and it makes me feel very insecure. Sometimes it just made me want to give it all up because everything I’ve done so far was a waste of time and was never good enough for them.
My mom’s side of the family all lives here, in Sacramento, CA and it is where I was born and raised. None of my mom’s side has graduated from college and became successful. I have never been talked to about college by any of my mom’s side of the family. The only time I get to talk to them about it is when I bring up where I want to go after high school. I tell them I want to go outside of town for college and they tell me “It’s a waste of money, just stay here with family. You’ll give up on it. ” When they say those things to me it makes me feel like they do not believe in me when I want to do something completely different and have hope in me to do better things out there on my own.
Throughout my years of high school I cannot honestly say I did my best. In my head my mindset was to always do great and never slack off but it was not that simple. Being a high school student is not easy and it is more than just learning in classes, joining a club or sport, and doing homework in my opinion. It is survival of the fittest out there on a high school campus. Students are not doing what they are not suppose