As a child, my parents always tried to keep me occupied and entertained by engaging me in activities that were productive and beneficial to my academic future. My parents would often take me to different libraries to use the computers and search for books. Growing up in a family of immigrants, my first interaction with literature was in Spanish, as both my parents thought it was of extreme importance to be bilingual. I still remember my parents asking me a lot of questions about the books that I was reading to ensure that I was comprehending the material I was being exposed to. I actually began reading before entering kindergarten, this decision was extremely beneficial to further my education because it allowed me to develop the skills required to fulfill the common core requirements. My mother suggested I was able to become fluent in both languages English and Spanish, and it helped me increase and expand my vocabulary and my confidence. As a child, I was often lonely and bored which motivated me to find ways to keep myself entertained. I was only ten years old when I realized that writing was a way of substituting the absence of friends who I could talk to.

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. Sandra Cisneros became one of the most influential writers I have ever encountered. Not only she is a fantastic writer, but she is also someone I could relate to. For the first time, I was able to personally connect to an author’s name and face, and make the connection that she was someone who in many ways resembled me and my upbringing. This was probably the first time I realized that it was not impossible to become a spokesperson for many minority groups. I realized that I could use my love for reading and fuse it with my love for writing to talk about topics that many people were too afraid to tackle. As a young prospective writer, I think it is my duty to serve as a voice to those people who are voiceless. I was also able to understand that I could use all the challenges that belonging to my cultural background puts me through, and use it to motivate those people who may be going through the same things as I am.