I am currently attending Santa Monica College and expect to transfer to a four-year university in the next year (currently considering NYU, Columbia, UC-Berkeley and UCLA.) I major in philosophy, of which the most difficult part is dealing with philosophy majors.
I was brought up in a lower middle class community in Miami, Florida,...
more »
I am currently attending Santa Monica College and expect to transfer to a four-year university in the next year (currently considering NYU, Columbia, UC-Berkeley and UCLA.) I major in philosophy, of which the most difficult part is dealing with philosophy majors.
I was brought up in a lower middle class community in Miami, Florida, where I became interested in how misguided or unconcerned policies affected my life and my community. Like so many other young people growing up in the inner city, I was filled with angst but unable to pinpoint the source of my anger. As I grew older, I came to understand that many of my frustrations as a youth in the ghetto were caused or exacerbated by the lack of meaningful discourse and concern within the community and from those positions of corporate and political power that benefited from our ignorance. More than this, I realized that the fundamental confirmation needed by those living in neighborhoods like mine is that they're a part of something that makes them feel significant, because they've been steadily made to believe they don't matter. Once a part of something meaningful, they can willingly become a force for change not only in their communities, but also in their own lives.
My frustrations with the lowered expectations of the American educational system, and especially of its iteration within the inner cities, culminated in my repetition of the ninth grade and ultimate failure out of high school. Once of legal age, I joined the U.S. Marine Corps, partially to escape the patterns of poverty which would potentially bind me, and also to witness the world and derive from such adventures my place in it. As a military journalist, I was fortunate enough to be involved in numerous humanitarian missions and outreach projects in third-world countries. My experiences in Southeast Asia allowed me to draw parallels with those I had growing up. And as I've studied the issues more and reflected on my life, my passion to rally the disaffected for meaningful change has increased exponentially; I am determined now more than ever to ensure that we as Americans never feel we have to settle for the conditions into which we were born.
I ultimately expect to go into law and potentially public office or at least manage some sort of political career wherein I can be myself and at the same time perform some good for my world and this human community at large.
« less
