Personal Narrative-Intellectual Analysis

Nearly every child has a desire to live on a tropical island due to a series of adventitious circumstances. Fortunately, at the age of eight, my father’s occupation required my family to move to Puerto Rico. Little did I know that this move would be the catalyst needed to transform myself into who I am today. Upon arrival, my family was met with bombast lectures about the effects of culture shock, and what life would be like on a U.S. territory. However, I was still unprepared for the dramatic change my academic and social life was about to face. After my first day of school, I realized that the school I was going to attend was the antithesis of my former school. I did not derive this conclusion solely because of the level of academics, but also in

This was the beginning of my deviation from seeking acceptance from everyone to accepting who I was. Consequently, this conclusion summoned a gumption inside of me to examine the world around me in a different perspective. Because deep within my soul, I understood that the racism I was encountering was not endemic, but everywhere in the inhabited world. Thus came my last epiphany, that the world would be better off if we were all “color blind”. This sentiment was not ephemeral, and is one that I elicit from daily. The racism I experienced led to self-loathing and animosity towards my family background because I desperately longed for acceptance. Moreover, those sharp memories of rejection are one of many reasons why I choose to live “color-blind” because no one should feel even a pang of chagrin for their culture, race, or ethnicity. Because those factors are what make people who they are and more than robots. The pigment of our skin protects humans from damaging sun rays, however, it is each individual’s personal responsibility to look beyond one’s melanin count and examine their