Personal Narrative: My Life In Bolivia

Adapting to a life changing event can be challenging at times, and that's exactly what it was like in my personal experience. I was only two years old when my parents divorced. My mother was awarded primary custody of my two older siblings and myself. We resided with her in Bolivia, which is our country of origin, and had weekly visitations with our father. Life continued as we were adapting, but even more life altering events were just around the corner.

Our soon to be stepfather moved from the United States to join our family, and almost simultaneously, the Bolivian economy began to violently crumble. Because of this, it made it difficult for my parents to provide for us. My mother requested consent from our father to allow us to move to her native country, the

Moving to a completely different country consisted of adapting to an unknown environment, and altering a part of my culture that has made a life changing impact. The dramatic differences between the two environments was a huge eye opener. In

Bolivia, because of the high poverty rate, many made a living by selling their own products in crowded outdoor markets. This particular place was where our in house maid for example, would go shopping for homemade goods, and produce from others gardens. The socioeconomic contrast was extremely drastic. Since the middle class was basically nonexistent, there was simply an upper, and lower class. We lived in an eight bedroom Spaniard style house, which was surrounded by lush tropical landscaping. Outside the city, cardboard shacks lined dirt roads, which was considered “home” to other families. When we arrived to Texas, it seemed as if I stepped into a whole new world feeling alienated in my unfamiliar surroundings. Instead of markets, we were introduced to indoor shopping centers stocked with factory made items, and produce that almost looked fake. Furthermore, instead of dirt roads, there were major