Being an African and Mexican American woman in America has caused me to face many different forms of adversity. Causing me to believe that the reason I was being treated this way was because I was different. At the end of Sophomore year, I tried out for the Varsity volleyball team. I was worried about the try outs, but everything that I went through fueled me to work harder than ever. I made the Varsity team, but my Coach would not let me play. I was one of the best players on the team, because of the hard work I put in during the off-season with club volleyball. His reasoning for not allowing me to play was I was too skinny, and he preferred to have tall, thicker girls playing. No matter how hard I worked in practice, I would still not play in the game. I was forced to work harder than the girls on my team so I could play. After working hard and advocating myself, my Coach told me that I would be the Varsity Team Captain. I felt like my hard work had finally paid off and that he saw my potential, but I was wrong. My Coach was treating me and the other three African American players on my team differently. He would have us sit on the bench if we did not agree with him, run laps at practice if we messed up, or talk down to us if we spoke up about what he was doing wrong. He did not treat the other girls who were not African American this way. He told me and another player that we should quit the team if we did not like the way things were being run. I did not let him get to me and we went to the Vice Principal to complain. I did not do this for myself. I did this for my teammates who I knew were afraid to speak up. I did this for the Freshman and Junior Varsity teams to see that you cannot let people treat you this way. I felt I had this responsibility as the captain to lead all the teams and that did not apply to just the games. I did not care if I was kicked off the team, I just knew that I had to do something instead of staying silent and letting the Coach walk all over us. The Vice Principal did not listen to us which forced the parents to get involved and go to the principal. The school district opened an investigation into the Coach’s behavior, and he was ultimately fired. Adversity plays a big role in my life. I have accomplished so much because of adversity, and I would not change my experiences, but I do know that adversity will continue. I will continue to turn my experiences with adversity into success.

Being an African and Mexican American woman in America has caused me to face many different forms of adversity. Adversity has been in my life for as long as I can remember. Causing me to believe that the reason I was being treated this way was because I was different. My mother (Lilly) had custody of me for five years before she gave full custody to my father, but that did not stop Lilly’s family from treating me disrespectfully.

Being an African and Mexican American woman in America has caused me to face many different forms of adversity. Adversity has been in my life for as long as I can remember. Causing me to believe that the reason I was being treated this way was because I was different. My mother (Lilly) had custody of me for five years before she gave full custody to my father, but that did not stop Lilly’s family from treating me disrespectfully. From my birth to fourteen years old, most of the adversity I faced came from Lilly’s side of the family. They made racist remarks about me, my father, and paternal grandparents. Lilly’s family would tease me about my appearance because it was the opposite of theirs. I had curly, poufy hair, darker skin, and was skinny. Since I was young, I was too afraid to confront them, and Lilly encouraged it instead of confronting it. After years of being treated this way by my “family”, I decided that I had to do something. At fourteen years old, I decided that I did not want anything to do with Lilly or her family any longer due to the constant pain I went through. This decision was very difficult to make because I would miss people in Lilly’s family, but it prepared me for the adversity that I would later face. After this decision, I was faced with adversity again. I played volleyball, the least diverse sport. I told my parents my freshman year of high school that I wanted to start playing volleyball. I tried out for the Freshman volleyball team for my high school. I knew all the basics, but I did not know how to physically play the game. I did not make the volleyball team Freshman year, but my parents saw that I wanted to play, so they signed me up for city league. My time playing volleyball was filled with constant adversity. Some of my teammates would ignore me and not allow me to have the ball, the coach did not help me get better or say anything to my teammates who were bullying me, and I had to work harder to be seen the same as my teammates. My parents had enough of me being treated this way, so they took me out of city league and put me in club volleyball hoping that I would be treated fairly and have a better experience. My experience with club volleyball was much worse. I was once again bullied by teammates because I did not have as much experience. My coach let the other girls make multiple mistakes before pulling them out of the game or correcting them, but if I messed up once, I was pulled out of the game. When I asked what I could improve on, I was told that I had done nothing wrong. When high school tryouts came around again, I was determined to show everyone who did not believe in me that they could not stop me. I made the Junior Varsity team my sophomore year and I was relieved. I was treated equally on my Junior Varsity team, but that did not last. At the end of Sophomore year, I tried out for the Varsity volleyball team. I was worried about the try outs, but everything that I went through fueled me to work harder than ever. I made the Varsity team, but my Coach would not let me play. I was one of the best players on the team, because of the hard work I put in during the off-season with club volleyball. His reasoning for not allowing me to play was I was too skinny, and he preferred to have tall, thicker girls playing. No matter how hard I worked in practice, I would still not play in the game. I was forced to work harder than the girls on my team so I could play. After working hard and advocating myself, my Coach told me that I would be the Varsity Team Captain. I felt like my hard work had finally paid off and that he saw my potential, but I was wrong. My Coach was treating me and the other three African American players on my team differently. He would have us sit on the bench if we did not agree with him, run laps at practice if we messed up, or talk down to us if we spoke up about what he was doing wrong. He did not treat the other girls who were not African American this way. He told me and another player that we should quit the team if we did not like the way things were being run. I did not let him get to me and we went to the Vice Principal to complain. I did not do this for myself. I did this for my teammates who I knew were afraid to speak up. I did this for the Freshman and Junior Varsity teams to see that you cannot let people treat you this way. I felt I had this responsibility as the captain to lead all the teams and that did not apply to just the games. I did not care if I was kicked off the team, I just knew that I had to do something instead of staying silent and letting the Coach walk all over us. The Vice Principal did not listen to us which forced the parents to get involved and go to the principal. The school district opened an investigation into the Coach’s behavior, and he was ultimately fired. Adversity plays a big role in my life. I did not let these experiences stop me from doing what I wanted to do. I have accomplished so much because of adversity, and I would not change my experiences, but I do know that adversity will continue. I will continue to turn my experiences with adversity into success.

My life has been filled with many traumatic experiences, but there is one that stands out compared to the others. It happened when I was twelve years old, and it was between my mother and me. That event changed the way I viewed myself and how I view other people. My father and mother separated before I was born, and they did not like each other. My father had custody of me, and he was always the one to try and coparent with my mother, but she would always refuse to help take care of me. She never acted her age and was always dependent on other people. Growing up I wanted my mother’s attention, but she never gave it to me. She always put her friends and relationships above me. I took care of her because she did not want to take care of herself. When I was around it felt like we would reverse roles, she was would become the child and I was would become the adult. I always knew my mother did not love me as much as I loved her, but I overlooked that in hopes that she would put me first and treat me like her child instead of one of her friends. It was not until that night, that I decided that I needed to start living in the reality that my mother will never care for me as much as I care for her. A weekend in October, I was with my mother. I was sitting at the table talking to my cousin when she said that she had been raped. My mother overheard our conversation and my mother started crying and telling my cousin how much of a failure she felt because she was not there to protect to her. I felt unloved and furious with my mother for caring for my cousin more than she cares for me. My mother told my cousin that she should not tell anyone and just go to church. I immediately disagreed with my mother and said that church is not going to send the man to jail. My mother told me to stop being difficult because my cousin needed help. I left the room so I would not cause anymore “drama”. My mother came into the room and told me that I was extremely selfish for not listening to cousin and putting my feelings first. I lost all my self-control and told my mother that she had no right to tell me that I was being selfish when she has been selfish since the day I was born. My mother and I kept arguing with each other and she said I would never be anything or mean anything to anyone because I “simply unlovable”. Then my mother told me that I she should have had an abortion instead of giving birth to me because then she would not have to worry about having a child that fit her standards. Once she said that, I walked to the front yard and called my dad to pick me up. Ever since that day I have been closed off to everyone and do not talking about my feelings. I am extremely self-conscious of my appearance, and I do not like to get to people because I feel like the will leave once, they get tired of me. Recently I have been changing my way of thinking to be more positive, so I am not giving my mother the satisfaction of knowing that her words affected me.

Being an African and Mexican American woman in America has caused me to face many different forms of adversity. Adversity has been in my life for as long as I can remember. Causing me to believe that the reason I was being treated this way was because I was different. My mother (Lilly) had custody of me for five years before she gave full custody to my father, but that did not stop Lilly’s family from treating me disrespectfully. Adversity plays a big role in my life. I did not let these experiences stop me from doing what I wanted to do. I have accomplished so much because of adversity, and I would not change my experiences, but I do know that adversity will continue. I will continue to turn my experiences with adversity into success.

Texting while driving causes the major cause of driving and this is increasing each other. These accidents can vary from a minor rear end to a death of someone in one or all the vehicles. Either way, texting and driving is unsafe and selfish. It is selfish to the other people on the road because you are putting your phone before the lives of people on the road. I believe that in order to stop people from driving while be distracted, a death will need to be the effect or a serious injury to someone else. I understand that death may seem like a huge assumption of being the end of distracted driving to people, but trauma usually cause the end of a certain behavior. Accidentally killing someone because you were texting, and driving will more than likely effect the person who caused it and they will feel guilty. The guilt will hopefully keep them more aware of the dangers that texting, and driving must not only themselves, but to every person that is driving on the road. There is also the probability that some people will still text and drive, in that insistence something that could affect that person if the person that died was in the same car as them. Unfortunately, cases like this happen all the time, where some was distracted while they were driving and killing the person that was in the car with them. Death would more than likely be a possibility for to stop driving while they are distracted. One or more serious injuries could also stop people from driving while being distracted, especially if the person that got injured was in the same car as them. The difference with this situation and the one of the deaths, is that the person that caused the crash would have to be reminded everyday that because they were texting and driving, the person that was in the car as well with forever be seriously injured. Some injuries include but do not limit, loss of limb, becoming paralyzed, brain damage, severe scarring or burns, etc. I believe that injuries could serve as a reminder that you should not driving while being distracted. It is unfortunate that we must think about what ways can we stop car accidents based and distracted driving because do not any self-control when it comes to their phones.

I live in Billings, Montana, which happens to be one of the least diverse cities in America. It can be very difficult at times because I feel alone being the only African-American and Mexican woman in this city. Being a minority here, I am always having to speak up whenever a co-worker will say something racist. I have talked to my manger about having a meeting with the entire staff and educating them a little bit about the history of African-Americans and Mexicans. I to inform them about the actually history of America, but I do not want to come across as trying to persuade them because racism is a sensitive topic to talk about.