Your Heritage Does Not Determine Your Future by Catalina

Your Heritage Does Not Determine Your Future by Catalina - July 2016 Scholarship Essay

As I look back on my high school years, it all just seems like a blur. However, I do remember a particular teacher. His name was Mr. Kondo. Mr. Kondo was my teacher for all four years that I was in high school. Mr. Kondo had a poster hung up on his wall. Now I can’t exactly remember it word for word, it was a pretty long quote. One day he pointed it out to us in class. It said something about our heritage not determining what our futures will be. That seems to be the only thing that I can remember at the moment. We had an assignment in class that day. This wasn’t necessarily a lecture but what followed the assignment was. That day, we were assigned partners and we had a worksheet that had questions about where our parents came from.
Once they were all filled out, we turned them into Mr. Kondo. He then pointed out the poster on his wall. He told us that our heritage doesn’t determine where we will end up in our lives. He told us that we could accomplish anything if we truly want it. Coming from a Hispanic family, this spoke to me on a different level. Not just because I’m Hispanic, but because the majority of Hispanics in my community do field work to make a living. (My family included.) Many Hispanic people also don’t further their own education because they make less money than other families. They simply just can’t afford it.
I believe this is the most important lecture that I have been given while I was in high school. It is also very true. The only way to get out of the situation that you’re in is to actually do something about it. You have to take action, make a plan. An individual isn’t going to be able to better themselves if they just dread on the past because of their heritage. If anything, they should use that as motivation. Motivation to change their future into something they would like it to be.