I am privileged. I am blessed. I am at an advantage. I have grown up living in a mostly middle to upper class suburban town. I am also oppressed, disadvantaged, and in many ways, unrepresented. I have grown up as a minority living in a mostly middle to upper class suburban town. However, realizing and acknowledging the fact that I am an amalgam of both adversity and entitlement is only the beginning. It does me no good to know who I am if I do not act upon who I am and who I will become as a result of not only this fusion but how I choose to approach the circumstances that surround me.
Growing up in Edmond, Oklahoma, I have experienced first hand the two immensely different ends of the opportunity spectrum. My first fourteen years of life were spent living in a mobile home park in the lower class, and far less flashy, part of town. I attended the elementary school that was walking distance from my house and trudged home everyday after school no matter how hot or cold it was. Later, during middle school, I rode the bus (full of mostly Hispanic and African American kids) everyday. While I was in the …show more content…
This woman didn’t realize that I was actually there to act as a translator for a woman whose grasp on English wasn't the best. It is unfair that on my first day of riding the bus in the sixth grade, a girl sitting a couple of rows behind me came up asked to see my “green card” and then proceeded to threaten to call the police on me when I informed her I didn’t have one. She didn't know that the reason I didn’t have one was because I was born in the United States. I didn’t even know what a visa was at the time, and I for the rest of the day I was paralyzed by the possibility that this girl would have me
Growing up in Edmond, Oklahoma, I have experienced first hand the two immensely different ends of the opportunity spectrum. My first fourteen years of life were spent living in a mobile home park in the lower class, and far less flashy, part of town. I attended the elementary school that was walking distance from my house and trudged home everyday after school no matter how hot or cold it was. Later, during middle school, I rode the bus (full of mostly Hispanic and African American kids) everyday. While I was in the …show more content…
This woman didn’t realize that I was actually there to act as a translator for a woman whose grasp on English wasn't the best. It is unfair that on my first day of riding the bus in the sixth grade, a girl sitting a couple of rows behind me came up asked to see my “green card” and then proceeded to threaten to call the police on me when I informed her I didn’t have one. She didn't know that the reason I didn’t have one was because I was born in the United States. I didn’t even know what a visa was at the time, and I for the rest of the day I was paralyzed by the possibility that this girl would have me