Overcoming Adversity

Arriving to the United States at the age of 3 and meeting new people was a challenge but it was a blessing. Growing up in the Northeast side of Houston was not always easy but my community and the people around me helped me develop into the person I am today. The community I grew up in was mostly hispanic and the surrounding areas as well. Everybody would be friendly and kind to each other which created this strong bond between different families.
I grew up knowing most of neighborhood and had lots of friends but that slowly started to change when I parted ways to a different school, a college preparatory school. My friends began to make bad choices, such as not going to school and doing drugs. I would hear the different stories from their parents and how lucky I was of not being in the same boat as

It I started talking to them but nothing was the same. They were focused on partying and other nonsense things which were slowly ruining their lives. I felt as if it was me against the world with nobody supporting me. I began to speak to them about their future and how they always had dreams about running cross country, becoming a mechanic, and even working outside of Texas. Sadly, I lost a couple of friends who thought I was just making excuses because of how lame and stupid I was about just caring about school. Some of my friends began to slowly change their views and behavior which made me happy because I knew I was getting my old friends back. Shortly after a couple of years, during their Junior year of highschool one of the them was a track star, another had a job at a dealer shop and their grades were strong and college ready. Even though I was not able to convince my other friends, I was happy I at least made a change because overtime they started doing the same, putting it out there that us hispanics do not want to be part of the