Essay: How adversities made me who I am now Our world has many problems and all of those problems can be solved by having educated people. Completing my Education is something that I always wanted to achieve but it never hasn’t been easy for me. So let me tell you my story and how adversities made me who I am now. I was born in Maracaibo, Venezuela. And as everyone's know living in such a devastated place is a huge barrier especially if you want to have a future. Since I was 12 years old my whole world just turned upside down. The thing that really affected me was the terrible persecution that my family and me were victims of. This persecution started because my dad was a lawyer and sued a federal bank. He was trying to enforce the law and make justice. Just because he was doing his job the government started to harass and persecute him. This persecution raised such extreme levels that one day my dad was at my school to pick me up and suddenly two boys arrived on a motorcycle threatening to kidnap us if he did not abandon the legal case. It is incredible that those kinds of crimes are committed in front of everyone, even in front of a lot of children. When I saw that, it was horrifying, seeing my dad in that situation, in danger, and with people trying to harm us. It just changes everything in me. This persecution continued for quite some time. We were very afraid, just going out was really scary. A 12 year old always wants to be outside, play and be a child but that wasn’t my case. We felt that at any moment the threats would come true. We never knew if someday we wouldn’t come back home. This kind of stress isn’t normal for a 12 year old girl and it's really frustrating that being a lawyer in my country isn’t a matter of pride, instead being a lawyer is a matter of persecution. I just remember thinking “what did we do to deserve such bad things”. Several months ago we made the decision to escape from such a terrible place and we emigrated to the U.S. Starting a new life in a whole different country is really hard. Letting behind the life that you had, your home, your friends and your family. Suffering from the anxiety of not knowing what the future holds for us. My parents went from working as lawyers in Venezuela to working in anything here. Just because they want us to be safe and assure our wellness. All the things that I had gone through just motivated me and made me want to show the world that you are the only one that can turn adversities into opportunities. But trying to accomplish my educational goal I found the economic barrier. As I am pretty new to this country, I don't have enough funds to finance my education. But I am sure that that won't stop me from becoming who I want to be. After I graduate from college I want to help people like me. I want to use my knowledge to help my community and of course my family. As I want to be a lawyer and I belong to a minority culture. I want everyone's voice to be heard, represented and fair defended. I would like to specialize as a immigration lawyer, because being an immigrant isn’t an easy thing and i have gone through that situation. I want to make that process easier for everyone. (1) What does it mean to you to get a college education? Get a college education for me means to have a lot more of opportunities, a lot more of open doors and even have a stronger voice in eyes of society. Get a major education is an advantage to use your knowledge to built bridges in your life and in other people's life. (2) Tell me about a typical day or week in your life outside of school. I am really involved in school activities and clubs. After my classes end I stay a little longer in the school working on my business club project or just finishing some homework. When I arrive back to my home I help my parent with all the chores and I have been looking for a job to help my family with all the bills that we have. (3) Tell me how you feed your curiosity inside and/or outside of school. My curiosity never ends. As I am a really curious person I always do my research on topics that really interest me, like business or politics. Another thing that I like to do is to establish conversations with my teachers or people in general because whenever I talk to people have have different opinions or interest that I have I learn a lot of new things. The last thing that I do is to be an active member on different clubs that my school have, because there I get really involved in different activities that teach me a lot of things. I participate in Future Business Leaders of America (fbla), Spanish Club and Art club. They are really different clubs but they all improve my knowledge in different areas.

In many aspects of our life it is important to be optimistic, to try as much as possible to have a happy and confident life. All my life I have had that thought and I have believed that it is the key to a fulfilling life. But this thought has been tested many times in my life. The strongest challenge of all happened when I was only 9 years old and I was told that my mother had been diagnosed with breast cancer and was going to have to undergo many surgeries and treatments. This was too harsh news for me, seeing how the world fell on my mother was not easy at all. Since I was just a child I really didn’t know how to act. However, at my young age, I decided that the best way to cope with this situation was by keeping a positive attitude and having a lot of faith and hope that everything would be okay. Today my mother is perfectly fine, very strong and happy. We believe that what helped everything to go well was our faith and confidence that nothing bad would happen. We think that that's proof that with a lot of faith, hope and positivism anything is impossible. This experience has taught me that faith and hope move mountains and that as human beings we must value every moment of our life and our loved ones because we will never know when life can turn us 180 degrees.

Valentina Mendoza. 12 September 2021. My Cultural Experience as a Refugee Not more than 3 months ago I emigrated to the United States of America, a nation that for many years has been the diaspora and the refuge of millions of immigrants and refugees from all over the world. This country has given me a space full of opportunities, peace, diversity, new cultural experiences, and most importantly, it has given me freedom; something that, in my country of origin, Venezuela, is not possible. This journey of being a refugee has not been easy; It is a great challenge full of uncertainty and pain, leaving behind the place where I grew up, where my roots, origins, friends, and family are. In addition to the fact of adapting to a different environment, having to look for jobs and school without knowing the language and looking for a way to get ahead. But I consider myself an optimistic person. I saw this challenge as a new opportunity to grow as a person, to know new places, traditions, customs, and cultures. What has impressed me the most, is the ability of people to be free, to have a voice, and to be heard. When we decided to flee the country, it was due to strong political harassment from which my parents suffered, all because of their profession, the laws; just for wanting to do justice and wanting to enforce the laws, they were being harassed and threatened. For this reason, I decided to follow their example and become a lawyer, but with the great difference of practicing this career in a fair and free country where no penalties or punishments are imposed for wanting justice to be done. I feel that the United States is the ideal place to fulfill this dream. I consider myself a very persevering person, who gives everything to accomplish my dreams and never stops until I achieve them. However, on the way to meet my goals I have encountered various barriers, such as the financial one and the fact of being undocumented, but to get ahead with those barriers I decided to apply for scholarships and study very hard in order to attend university and finally fulfill my goal. In conclusion, this very challenging adventure that I have had to go through has been hard, full of barriers and ups and downs, but I have always known that the most important thing is to know how to handle the circumstances and I have decided to adopt the United States as my new home. That will give me many opportunities and a better future.