IF you could just read over it and comment/criticize that would be great:D
topic - How has your family history, culture, or environment influenced who you are?
My family's history is very rich and unique compared to the majority of people that I come to contact with, including my friends and classmates. My Mother, Father and I were all born in Poland. In 1997 my Father won a lottery funded by the Diversity Immigration Visa Program. Through many applications, screenings and tests, my parents and I were headed to America in search of a better life. This proved to be strenuous and extremely difficult. My father only had a few hundred dollars saved up to support the 3 of us in a foreign area where neither of us knew anything or anyone, including the language. He worked in a factory for 10-12 hours a day to be able to put food on the table. We lived in a one bedroom apartment for the first 3 years in downtown Passaic, which is in New Jersey. Roughly at the same time my younger brother was born and we had to find a better place to live so we moved to a bit cleaner neighborhood in a place called Elmwood Park, New Jersey. This is where my brother and I were raised. I was in a public school until 2nd grade. I have always known for my parents to be very financially smart, but they always took my education seriously. I was enrolled in a private school from 3rd to 5th grade in New Jersey, in despite of my parents financial problems at the time. When we moved to Florida, roughly 7 years ago, my mother was pregnant once again to my little sister, Victoria. Victoria was a special baby, the same week she was delivered, she was operated on. An extremely risky open heart surgery was needed to be done to help her survive. She was kept in the hospital in St Petersburg Florida for 3 months before she was allowed to be discharged to our home in Cape Coral, Florida. During her stay there, she had 2 open heart surgeries and was also diagnosed with Down syndrome. To this day my family takes special care and is under special hardships because of Victoria's condition.
Our culture within my family is also much different than the traditional American family. This has been expressed in many ways throughout my life, sometimes beneficial and other times making it hard for myself to "fit in" with the social norm. Some examples of these are when I was a kid, the kids around me would have the newer game boy or newer game console or whatever the case may be, while I was told these aren't needed and was never given any of these things in life. Also, to this day my family never eats out in restaurants, keeping all of our meals homemade and traditional. The language within my house is Polish, which I actually very much enjoy, and take in as beneficial so I can keep my polish roots within my language.
This history and culture within my family has been a very great impact into who I am today as a person. I am a very unique individual compared to the majority of my classmates at school. I enjoy looking out of the box, into different perspectives and qualities of certain things. My history has made me aware of the vast majority of different cultures and backgrounds people may have behind their names. My family, especially my father, has stressed the importance of education to me and how much it will help shape the person I will become in the future because of it. If you take a look at my transcripts, you will see that for the first year of my high school career I jumped right into the International Baccalaureate program in Cape Coral High School. You will also see that I did very poorly in it and in my following sophomore year. This is because I lost the sense of importance that education has. Now, in my senior year I am suffering because of it. I don't have a very competitive GPA and I lack because of it. When you look at my transcripts you will also see that I have redone many courses that I have acquired a D in. This has raised my GPA a significant amount and I plan on doing it 4 more times by the end of this school year. Please take into account that my GPA will rise by then because of those classes I will retake and also because of the schedule I have in place currently. I enjoy challenging myself academically; therefore I am currently enrolled in advanced placement classes including Government, Environmental and Economics next Semester. I have also been playing basketball throughout High School. My junior year I was diagnosed with Patella Tendonitis and it put a hold on me playing. Last summer I played on Varsity and I plan playing my senior year. I have grown a substantial amount throughout my life and I am excited to plan on growing even more in Florida Gulf Coast University.
My family's history is very rich and unique compared to the majority of people that I come in contact with, including my friends and classmates.
...hundred dollars saved up to support the 3 of us in a foreign area where none of us knew anything or anyone, including the language.
I was enrolled in a private school from 3rd to 5th grade in New Jersey, in despite of my parents financial problems at the time.
When we moved to Florida, roughly 7 years ago, my mother was pregnant once again with my little sister, Victoria.
An extremely risky open heart surgery was needed, to help her survive.
The language within my house is Polish, which I actually very much enjoy, and take in as beneficial so I can keep my polish roots within my language.
My family, especially my father, has stressed the importance of education to me and how much it will help shape the person I will become in the future. because of it.
If you take a look at my transcripts, you will see that for the first year of my high school career I jumped right into the International Baccalaureate program in Cape Coral High School.
...and I am excited to plan on growing even more in Florida Gulf Coast University.
Good luck in school and have fun!
:)
