Yes I’ve been ridiculed by my best friend and boyfriend at the time; for taking my first vacation out of the states to Bermuda by myself. It was for my birthday, and all I know was I wanted to take a trip by myself just get away from everybody and everything. But what they will never know is that I really did enjoy myself on that trip by myself at first. I didn’t have enough funds to be out there for a whole five days a lot of the activities and different things to do included two people. I stayed in a Airbnb that was so far from everything that I had to take $40 to $60 cabs back and forth. I had to cook on vacation who cooks on vacation only me. Once my birthday had came and gone by the third day I was so ready to go, but i made the best of it. I even was able to meet some new friends at this very popular Beach. That’s when the party began, started hanging out having fun we are drinking while in the ocean. It was just  the most beautiful  and  fulfilling experience ever The waves was so strong and heavy. I was in the ocean and the waves were just pushing me over and throwing me like a rag doll. My knees were hurting; I even had a slight limp when I left the beach not thinking nothing of it. The next morning when I woke up my knee was so swollen I couldn’t move but you know me I’m on vacation determine not to spend no time in the house. I was limping all up and down Bermuda. The last day of my vacation I had to sit in the house in someone else’s house at that. When I finally returned home to see the doctor. It ended up being a torn ligament in my knee. That vacation put me out of work and on bed rest for 3 months. Whatever caitian that was definitely one for the memory books. But you know what I would do it all over again of course minus the torn ligament.

1. I couldn’t discuss only one person that gives me strength and hope for my future, so the five people in my life that give me that are my grandfather, grandma, mother, brother and boyfriend. They are so encouraging and truthful, even though my grandma isn’t here with me today she was still these things. Since day one my family has been so supportive of every achievement as well as every decision I have ever made. They always tell me to live for myself and be great at whatever I want to be or do in life. They inspire me so much because of what they have been through. My grandfather was born and raised in Puerto Rico until he was sixteen then he moved to New York. His family barely had any money and still he was able to become a successful man with a loving wife and three outstanding children. My mother who was an patient care techian, ended loosing her job, never gave up and still was positive and managed to find another job within a week. My brother who has been in an accident that has changed his life forever, still manages to be positive and continues to push himself to get better. And my boyfriend who is such a intelligent, inspiring, creative guy who always has a positive attitude. Without these people in my life I could not be the person I am today.

Headed down a road of apocalyptic destruction. My life has made a turn for the worst. Working at a low paying, dead end job. Partying and drinking took all of my time and lots of my money. I knew if something didn’t change soon I would end up on the street or in jail. It all began to change, the first time he grabbed my finger and wouldn’t let go.

My son has motivated and inspired me more than anyone I can remember. I strive to be the best that I can be so he has a positive roll-model to look up to. He mimics my every move. From the words that I use, to the actions that I make. I want to provide him with the best opportunity so he can have a successful life. I never thought anyone would be able to give me more strength and hope than he was. That is until his sister joined the club. The two joys of my life, that changed me for the better; never had a clue what they were doing.

A person that gives me strength and hope for my future is my older cousin. He also wants to become a nurse; but he is a couple steps above me. He gose to Hunter college and just finished his first year in the nursing program. I’ve seen him study all night just for a single test. I can already tell that nursing will be very hard anf challenging; but since I seen him do it, i kniw o can as well. I can also go to him and ask what classes would be good for me to take; since hes been through that process already. Another con is that if i ever need help studying or struggling with something , I’ll always have him to help me out.

There was a person at a point in time in my life that wanted me to fail, the person that wanted me to fail was one of my close friends she would always try to drag me out the when I would tell her I have stuff to do for my classes and she wouldn’t listen. She knows that I hate telling people no she would still come to my house and get me just cause she knew I wasn’t going to say no. The way that I reacted toward her is by telling her that she have to stop doing that or we can’t be friends anymore because she doesn’t want me to better myself she just want to party and have fun. She desided that she didn’t want to be my friend anymore cause I didn’t want to go to every party with her anymore. I let her go because if I didn’t I wouldn’t have been in college I probably would have still been in high school trying to get my diploma while all my classmates were graduating I would have had no one to blame but myself if I was to end up in that predicament because I desided to stay in her life knowing what she wanted to do and what she wanted for herself as well as for me.

2) There was and faintly is a time where someone expected me to fail ; that someone is myself. In my high school years I was lazy and put no effort when needed to in my school work. What made it worse is the people that I hanged out with, there energy made it even worse to get back up and challenge my self into doing better. I lacked confidence when it came to math or calling out answers, I felt like I had a fixed mindset rather than a growth mindset; I felt like I had a limited memory and intelligence. My friends were the same as me; two negative attitudes turning it into a total shutdown to our mental abilities. Once I got to senior year, I set aside my friends and started hanging out with the ones who are really into their school work. I saw some progress on my grades, even if my laziness wanted to kick in I did extra credit work, finished assignments on time; while I saw my friends struggling or accepting failure as a normal defeat, especially in my confidence boosted a bit; but I’m still learning to take control of it.

A person who gives me strength and hope for my future has to be my sister. She gives me strength and hope for my future because although she struggled being a teen mom .She’s turned out to be the most successful in my family and of all my siblings.  I look back at her journey throughout high school and college, how hard she studied to get her bachelors of science in human services and all she has achieved and it gives me strength and hope. I constantly think to myself if my sister who was a teen mom was able to be an amazing mom to my nephew and keep her grades up there. At the same time doing her internship and working, multitasking it all I have hope for myself and I know I can do it as well without a problem. When I am overwhelmed or I feel like giving up I think of my sister and how she was able to do it and it gives me strength and motivation to carry on with my studies. Having my sister giving me strength and hope will help me later on in the future because I won’t give up easily when life throws an obstacle my way.

Simple. Write a short piece addressing ONE of the Writing Assignments one p. 415 of Grassroots. OR write an op-ed opinion piece (like you would see in The N.Y. Times or on Huffington Post) about one of the issues we talked about today in class.

Be sure to check the Alexie and Me category box before you hit Publish.