BWC: Prompt

    Growing up as a typical Asian American minority, I was raised to never questioned authority and respect my elders. I was taught at an early age that my family had to struggle and had worked for everything we have, opposed to those with money in their name that have things handed to them on a silver platter. It was basic knowledge that mediocre grades would not be tolerated and education comes first. I had a conventional Asian family growing up, and as a result, there are certain characteristics instilled in me that I cannot simply throw away. One thing I’ve learn to appreciate is equal opportunity. Where ever we are from, what we look like, and how our backgrounds differ, everyone has a chance to be successful if they are determined to do so.
     Believing a was just an average person that never particularly excelled in any subject, I never had an internal issue with myself because I was neither perfect nor a failure. Grazing by and staying slightly above average was my thing. I was grateful for all I had and like many, I took many aspects of my life for granted. Early on, I always knew my father worked across the country often away at business trips, but I never exactly knew what he did. Somewhere along the line, the father never physically grew up with decided to casually stroll out of the family and not look back. My mother was devastated and our family slowly rippled apart. To add injury to insult, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer right after he left, leaving us to deal with everyone on our own. I was well aware of what was going on, and in such a pitfall, I dramatically altered my lifestyle to ease the pain. Due to the circumstances, I stopped putting school as my first priority, watching as my grades spiraled into oblivion. As much as I loved my mother, I could not bare to see her in pain after her chemotherapy treatments, therefore I was never home. Needless to say, she was also unable to work and my father didn’t send child support, which accounted for many financial setbacks.
     Instead of seeing the people around me pick themselves up after hitting rock bottom, they simply lingered and I was convinced that it was because of my personal actions. At that point, I came to the conclusion that I am only truly happy when the people around me exert happiness, beginning the process of turning over a new leaf. I decided to be more involved in club activities and became more goal oriented. I was the historian in Leo Club, a non-profit organization that empowers the youth and volunteers around the bay area. I spent a lot of my time organizing and attending events that provided fun ways to help the community while providing kids with community service hours. Through that, I opened many doors and by helping others, improved the quality of my own life. This paved the way to new motivation towards school and having a new start. This helped me reached new corners as an individual and I hope to learn new things as I go on in life.