A Fresh Start

How has your Hispanic heritage influenced my academic and personal goals?
What have I done for my community?
Describe a recent academic challenge and how I overcame it?

Have you ever reached the point in life where some things don’t seem to matter anymore, when all of your parent’s advice seems to go in one ear and out the other? Sadly, this happened to me. It was my sophomore year to be exact.
It was the beginning of the year and my expectations were high. I wanted to get good grades like the previous year. Although, I started out bright I somehow changed along the way. I changed in particular. I was not the same and I knew it. My good behavior and motivation were gone. Everything I had worked hard for was vanishing before my eyes. My F’s rose while my GPA declined.
For some reason, everything academically related didn’t seem to matter to me anymore.

Everything seemed to be pointless in doing. However, I did not realize that it was this serious until the start of my junior year when I had a meeting with our advisor. “You failed two classes,” she said. I could not even respond to this. How was I going to tell my parents if I had lied to them about always saying I was going to improve my grades?
I still decided I should do it. This was the opportunity for a fresh start. To do things right this time. I remember exactly when I told them. My mom and dad were in the living room watching TV. The news was on. The news explained what Americans were saying about Hispanics at the time. “They are not good for anything,” my TV shouted, “they should just leave!” At that exact moment I reflected on what my parents had told me when something related to this was brought up. “Miras , por eso tienes que estudiar mucho para ensenarles a ellos que si podemos y asi callarlos.” (“Look, this is why you have to study a lot and do well in school so we could show them that we too can be successful and that will shut them up.”) Bad moment to tell them this, I thought to myself. However, I built up the courage and told them. Their faces expressed many emotions. They were mad because I did not improve my grades when I told them I would, but they were mostly disappointed. How could I have let this happen? I should have listened to my parents and kept my grades up from the beginning. I should not have let my friends guide me into doing what was not right. I was full of regrets and although I tried to blame my friends I came to the conclusion that there was no one to blame but me. I chose the wrong path and this is where it lead me. Knowing I had messed up and acknowledging my mistakes, I was willing to fix them. I didn’t want to turn on the TV in the future and realize that what the people had said about Hispanics was true. I wanted to hear the opposite of this. I realized I wanted to be one of the Hispanics that will change the views of others. One that will make people who doubted us think once again of what we are capable of.

You learn from your mistakes is what I always heard. This was my mistake that I have worked extremely hard to correct. I can honestly say that I did learn from it. Now, I realize that messing around with friends and being a clown comes along with a high price. Whenever I start slacking I get myself back on track because if I would have stayed the same then I would not have seen myself going to college in the future. I remember my parent’s advice and work hard in order to have a brighter future and become someone important in life. The satisfaction of making my parents and myself proud is greater than the one I got from making my friends laugh for a while. Now that I am on the right path, I am going to stay there.