Literacy Autobiography

To be honest, I remember a good chunk of my school education.  It's not that I have a great memory, but I encountered several unique circumstances.  Early on, I remember waking up around 5 a.m. with my parents to get ready for school.  The reason is because I lived in Mexico during those years and my family was what we call "low income."  We would wake up early to make the walk down the mountain just so that I would be on-time for school at 7 a.m.  After that, we moved in with my grandmother and she lived 15 minutes away from my school so waking up at 5 a.m. no longer existed.  I did ok in my studies mainly because of my parents pushing me to have a better future.  You see, my mom dropped out of school in 7th grade and my dad dropped out when he was in 3rd grade.  In Mexico, you have to pay for all your uniforms, books and school supplies so if you can’t afford all these things, you don't go to school.  Thus, my parents would work 2 to 3 jobs just so that my sisters and I would have an education and not suffer the way they did.  Since my parents pushed me hard and sacrificed so much, from  K through most of 6th grade, I was a B student.

The next unique circumstance was moving to the U.S. or as we would say "gringolandia” which translates to "white people land."  I left Mexico two months shy of finishing 6th grade and that's when thing changed for me when it came to my education.  Other students began to pick on me and I didn't understand why.  I become very angry and little by little stopped caring about my education.  Since my parents barely knew English, reading was really not enforced and so I began to hate reading mainly because I didn't understand the language.  Slowly, I picked up the language and began to understand why students would pick on me.  I did what was best for me at the time.  I joined a gang.  Not only did they protect me, but I felt like I was part of a family that understood what I was going through.  Through some of middle-school and high-school I did ok with my education.  I was still in the gang and did the bare minimum to pass my classes.  I had one teacher that cared a lot about me.  He explained how important education was and pushed me to do better.  The last two years of high school I was able to get better grades and was able to graduate.

            College had another unique twist.  I always thought that I would never graduate because I wasn’t good enough.  I got married to my wife, Sarah, who pushed me to graduate.  In her family, having an education was important so the first thing she did when we got married was made me to quit my job and finish college.  I must admit that having her support was what got me through school.  Through her support, I not only managed to be on the dean's list but I became the first one in my entire family to graduate college.  I become the stepping stone for my family and that is something that I am most proud of.                

            For me, it is easy to remember the history of my education given that I had unique circumstances.  I will admit that, it was hard remembering the difficulties in my early childhood.  Those things are very dear to my heart and I get emotional because I saw how much my parents struggled to provide a better life than the one they had.  I was confused on how to start so I read a few written autobiographies that were posted to guide me through it.  Once I saw how other people did it, then I was able to start writing my own.