Personal Narrative: Palm Desert

My parents are from Guerrero and I am Chicano, born in the city of Rancho Mirage. Rancho Mirage is where I started my life and have remained locally in the valley. Although, for my parents this is where they decided to settle after giving up cherished belongings such as: their petite taco restaurant, a taxi, and their families. For the first few years my family, which consisted of: my mom, dad, two sisters, brother and me, shared a 2 bedroom apartment in Palm Desert among 2 other families. Shortly after first enrolling in school my family moved to a house in Cathedral City but my parents refused to give my siblings and me anything other than the best within their reach, Palm Desert’s reputation with their academics. This was accomplished with

Most of my summer days consisted of being under the scorching sun from 6am to 5pm. Occasionally my summer days consisted of temperatures over 115°F; few times even over 120°F but my body adapted. One day, my boss and I needed help setting up a new landscape, so he contracted two other men for the day who simply were not adapted to the workload nor the heat. Humidity filled the air as repeating heat waves slowly passed our faces, leaving a burning trail behind. As 1pm hit the clock, everyone soaked in their own sweat. The day began to seem endless, but I still strived to push through, giving my all to fight the heat and humidity. Unfortunately the heat pushed the two new men on their knees, stuck as if their backs were broken, no longer able to move an inch. After not being able to locate hope in the men’s faces, I clenched my shovel and dashed my way to the closest victim. I told him that he needed to rest, overtook the job he could not accomplish, and asked which tasks he had left. I constantly thought about him depending on me and doubled my pace to not fall behind. We simply could not fall behind; we still had much more to do. After resting, the first worker regained the energy to come back, so I wandered over to the second man leaning over his shovel with his head down. I demanded him to get in the shade, rest, and to drink water. Shortly after, everyone was working again. While passing

I have secured a Varsity spot on the long distance team since my Freshman year. Being an upperclassman now might be intimidating when the rest of the Varsity distance squad involves 3 Freshman only a couple seconds behind. One day, long distance started our daily practice, always involving a couple miles, running to a park. Arriving at the park we went around the perimeter, running hills, only to be encountered by the challenging distance to arrive back to school. After a tedious workout many couldn’t find the mentality to continue running. As I was trying to face my own mentality I noticed myself getting far ahead of the group. I noticed that they had been drained and knew immediately I had to try and motivate the rest of the team attempting to arrive back to school. Approaching a main crosswalk, I waited for the top 3 runners who I knew had more left in them. They glanced at me as the light signaled green to cross, waiting for me to take off as they paced. I questioned them why they weren’t running yet, I stated, “We are all tired, but running isn’t easy and neither is winning. When you are the most tired is when all of you should be pushing yourself extra because that is how you grow.” This was the start of motivating the young athletes, as we rushed back we all began to sprint but badly we all wanted to stop. Knowing they wouldn’t stop as long as I continued also, I pushed myself to my limits in