"It's Only the Beginning."
The world and our surroundings, where we’re from, who we know, and even who and what we don’t quite know can inspire and shape who we are and who we will become. The dreams that we have or will have all depend on who we are. With the dreams that an individual has comes goals and aspirations in achieving the goals and dreams that one has had. “You learn something new every day,” is something we all heard, that is pretty much true, just as you learn new things, some things might change you that you experience or learn, even in the simplest ways. My family, friends, and basically every day things have all inspired who I am and what I haven’t experienced will shape who I will later be in life. My name is Janet Vega, I am from a small city called Lindsay, located in California. I grew up with five older siblings whose ages range from 19-32. I am the youngest of both my parents six children. Growing up with them gave me something to learn from each one of them as in their: mistakes, advice, or just their problems which are skulking very loudly. I believe that they, along with my parents shaped who I was turning into in life because I grew up with a problematic family that in my mind I just thought that everything was wrong. Fortunately I have learned from everything that I have experienced that I wanted a better future, not only for myself but for my parents who I wish to make proud one day and not follow in my siblings footsteps.
Being the youngest of six older siblings I understand that you would get spoiled, that’s what you hear regularly; but growing up with five older siblings you often feel like you aren’t there, on the contrary, you feel rather inadequate. To everyone often it was as if I didn’t even exist, my two older brothers practically got handed everything to them, life just seemed so much easier for them. Growing up in that type of situation I feel like I grew up alone, I was never dependant on anyone, the help I needed I received from my eldest sister who was the only one who was mature out of the six siblings. As a child you can already notice everything that happens in your surroundings, sometimes you remain ignorant, other times you know everything that is right or wrong, for me I often chose the wrong side, since I never cared about anything including: school, morals, and life in general. Nothing mattered though, problems would be disregarded and the days just went on as if nothing was wrong, so that’s what I grew up thinking.
My biggest mistake was comparing myself to them, even when they did nothing with their life I would compare myself to them just because they always got my parents support while I did not. All the small mistakes were also my fault because they only harmed me. My 11th grade English teacher had started to talk about after graduation, what his past students were doing, and how other schools were. With the talk about the future I began wondering what my future had for me. Then I realized that I had no future after high school, at least not a good one if I did nothing to get me to have one. After all the talking towards the middle of my junior year I began caring about school. Even my friends started talking about after high school and started planning out the steps that they needed to take to get them where they wanted to be. I set one goal for myself at the time, which was completing all the classes I needed to finish. I feel like I just needed to separate myself from my family a bit to get to know myself, which is what I did. In that year of school I had completed seven out of the seven classes which I needed to in order to finish my junior year.
Now I continue to do work in all classes, now I should more than ever since it’s my final year to complete everything. I’m working on completing everything from this year and my past years in which I had only passed few classes. My teacher had helped me realize that there was a future and I had one and also helped me realize in time, not later when it could’ve been too late to try and fix my mistakes. The only reason I look at the past is to realize why I’m motivated to get ahead and complete the goals I set for myself. For now and for always I will put the less important things aside and work every day to complete everything that I need to get through to get somewhere in life. I’ve done some thinking of what career I would like to pursue some day, and I don’t have anything in mind right now even if there are some things I’m interested in, not one in particular that I would like to pursue. Some things that have caught my attention is the military, but I’m not sure on which branch I would like to sign up for. I’m glad and proud of myself that I’ve been able to avoid all the troublesome things that are around in my community, including where I grew up because if I had given in to anything then I wouldn’t have realized my potential to now and in the future achieve something I can be even more proud of.
We all have lessons to learn, whether it be from a book, movie, or just something that you come across for even a brief moment. We should learn from each experience, especially the ones that cross our paths. If anyone has made a mistake then everyone should learn from it, including the mistakes that one makes. I tried to be a better person for myself and to not only be proud of myself, but to be proud of what I have accomplished. One should give plenty and enough time to find themselves by getting to know oneself to allow them to reach their potential and make them want to reach something, which is what I did for myself.
“The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential. These are keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.” -Confucius.
Life Map
Public Service Announcement "Smoking Kills."
Is dying not scary enough as it is? When smoking one dies slowly from the inside. All around there are smokers, but people everywhere are not aware of what smoking does to the human body. According to the health site, studies show that not only can smoking cause cancer, but can also disrupt other bodily functions including damaging your lungs, facial features, teeth, bones, and even eyesight. According to the Center of Disease Control smokers are two to four times more likely to suffer from strokes and artery diseases with an increase of 25% chance of getting lung cancer. Smoking causes long term damage and can in a lot of instances, kill you. Smoking is a preventable death, and one can avoid it. The addiction kills one from the inside out. Stop smoking to save lives.