Becoming Who I am: Experiences and Challenges

Who am I? Before, I didn’t know how to answer this question. Thanks to certain events I learned there is so much more to me than meets the eye. I believe I am who I am because of my personal experiences and challenges. Without them I wouldn’t be the person I am today because these events helped me grow and learn about myself.

My name is Daisy. I was born in Los Angeles California on May 5, 1989 at exactly 6:47 a.m. As a toddler I was kind of chubby with really short hair and bangs that covered my eyes. I learned to walk when I was only ten months young and my mom says I looked like a walking toy doll. She says this because I was so small; I could barely walk and used to wear puffy dresses. My mom also tells me I was the type of child who liked to explore new things. I used to do things I wasn’t supposed to, like playing with the wall plugs or jumping from the bed to the couch. I still remember the time I fell off the bed when I wasn’t able to make it to the couch. I jumped but my foot slipped and fell face first on the old, brown couch. My lip began to bleed and I had one of my first long lectures. As a child, I was definitely an adventurer which was fine but I had to know my limits. Falling on my face helped me realize that it was OK to do certain things but I had to learn my limits for my own good.

As I entered school I realized I was two different people. At home I was always happy. I felt comfortable to do anything I wanted. I wasn’t afraid to talk and speak my mind. At school, I was different. At school I was someone else. I was shy and had few friends. I was an average student. I wasn’t the best but I wasn’t the worse either. I feel like I was two Daisy’s. One was the spontaneous Daisy I was at home and the other, was the quiet Daisy I was at school. In later years I learned to combine the two Daisy’s into one. I think one of the reason’s I was able to do this was my friend Yessenia. Some people thought we were sisters. I think we might resemble each other because we were about the same size and height. We also had small dark eyes and long dark hair. I feel like she helped me see my true colors. I learned that I was friendly, funny and smart in my own way. Most important I learned to combine both Daisy’s into one. I turned from being a shy girl to being a friendly girl who talked to anyone and everyone at school.

I’m also a person who learns from challenges rather than be defeated by them. One of my toughest challenges occurred in my senior year. Everything seemed fine; I was busy with school and work and I spent a lot of time with my friends. For some reason not everything was fine with me. I couldn’t sleep at night, I wasn’t hungry most of the time and I was always crying for practically no reason. There were days when I just wanted to disappear, to vanish and to just forget about everything and everyone. I later learned I was suffering from depression. It was a scary situation for me. I felt empty inside. I had no feelings. I just wanted to be alone but even that would scare me at times. Luckily, I had the right people by my side. I had my family, friends and boyfriend who helped me through it all. I was able to recover from this melancholy feeling thanks to their support and their ability to show me how much I’m worth. They taught me that life is worth living even when things don’t go the right way whatever that may be. Up until today, I still don’t know what triggered my depression and quite frankly I don’t care. What I do know and is that I’m glad this happened. Why? You may ask yourself, because it helped me see things differently. I learned to appreciate what I have and helped me see how much the people around me really do care about me.

At this point of my life, I play many roles and enjoy many things. In the mornings, I am a freshmen student at Mount St. Mary’s College. In the afternoons I’m a Staff member at Leo Politi Elementary were I love working. I love my students even though they give me head aches almost every day. At home, I’m an older sister trying to set a good example for her younger brother Luis. I’m a daughter, who gives her parents gray hairs but loves them to death. Today, I’m not afraid to be who I am. I enjoy making people happy. I’m obsessed with unicorns. I love listening to music and sing my little heart out when no one is listening. I enjoy long conversations in the middle of the night. I’m still an adventurer. I love the outdoors during the summer. I love spending time with my loved ones, my family, friends and my boyfriend.

Who am I? I am Daisy, a sister, a daughter, a student, a tutor. I am a person that learns from experience. I am short, witty, smart, messy haired, lazy, bubbly unicorn lover. I’m not afraid to be who I am where ever I am. I’m also anxious, anxious to experience more events that will teach me more about myself.

Experimenting who we are

In the essay “A Clack of Tiny Sparks: Remembrances of a Gay Boyhood” by Bernard Cooper, the author narrates the story of how he tried to change his sexuality because he thought his was wrong. To do this he came up with an experiment to help him like girls instead of boys. He tested he experiment and the results weren’t surprising. His results proved to me that we have to accept ourselves for who we are.

After having a conversation with his mom, the narrator believed he longing for boys was wrong. Weeks after, the narrator plotted a plan that would help him change his longing for boys and turn it into a longing for girls. The opportunity came when he was invited to a “make-out” party. He experimented with different girls but all he could think of was Grady, the boy he had a crush on. I think the important message in this story is we should not try to change the way we are just because it’s wrong in other people’s eyes. We have to be honest with ourselves and accept the way we are. As long as we are comfortable in our own skin, it doesn’t matter what other people think.

In this essay, Bernard Cooper tells us the story of how he tried to change his sexuality. Later, he confesses he regrets denying his sexuality when asked if he was a fag. The message in this story is that we need to learn to be confident in our own skin. We shouldn’t hide who we are but instead be proud of whom we really are.

Pleasure and Challenges

As I read the excerpt “Learning to read and write” I found a couple of things that pleased me. Two things that pleased me from this excerpt was the way Frederick Douglass learned to read and write. Frederick was witty enough to take advantage of every opportunity he had to make it a learning experience.

When Frederick Douglass was sent to run errands, he always brought a book with him. I was very pleased in reading this because it shows how important it was for him to learn to read. He knew how important it was to read that he took advantage of all the time he had to teach himself to read. I was also pleased because he was only a slave but it didn’t stop him from trying. He tried to become someone better and his slave condition didn’t tie him down.  I also liked how he used little white boys as teachers because it shows how witty he really is. Even though learning to read was an accomplishment for Frederick it also became a curse. He learned many things that really pained him about slavery. I liked how he was able to surpass the negative and focus on all the positive knowledge he gained from reading. I was also pleased to learn how he also learned to write.

Another thing that pleased me was the technique he used to learn to write. I liked how he tricked other boys to teach him new letters. He would write the only letters he knew and asked other boys to top what Frederick had just written. Then, the other little boys would write other letters and all Frederick had to do was watch and learn. I also like how he proves that dictionaries can be used for other purposes instead of just for definitions.

While reading this excerpt “Learning to read and write” I learned many things that pleased me. I learned that Frederick Douglass used his free time and turned it into a lesson. This pleased me because he taught me that there is always a positive side even in the worse scenarios. Another thing that pleased me was his ability to turn other little boys into teachers.

Beautiful Uniqueness

In the story “Plaits” from The Mee Street Chronicles by Frankie Lennon the narrators writes about images of beauty and obsession with hair back in her day. She explains this through a personal experience she had as a young girls.

As a young girl, the only thins the narrator wanted was to have hair like Shirley Temple. Instead of having Shirley Temple curls, she felt she had hair that made her look like Topsy. She was fascinated by Shirley Temple because she was what all the other little girls wanted to be. Everybody thought Shirley Temple had the entire “package.” She was cute, polite, famous and had the most shiny and silky curls. She was just perfect.

Females now-a-days seem to compare themselves to celebrities because they seem to have the perfect image. It seems that American women are programmed to believe that the people they see in magazines is the way everyone should look like. American woman seem to compare themselves to Lindsey Lohan Or Angelina Jolie who are pretty, have talent, and have awesome hair. In reality this is not true because even these celebrities don’t look that way.

Women seen to always worry about what they look like. They always look up to movie start and wish they had their image. In her day, the narrator aspired to have hair like Shirley Temple because she was a cute and “perfect” movie star. The truth is that nobody is perfect. Nobody should try to look like anybody else because our personal appearance is what makes us unique and we should be proud of that.