"What would you like?" I responded by saying

"Can I have a....",

--But before I could even answer, the lady cut me off by saying,

"Oh my God! You're accent is so cute, where are you from?!? Do you speak any Spanish?"

Usually this question doesn't annoy me, but I just get so tired of answering it. When I answer that, then they ask me what's my ethnic back round, then it starts a whole debate on who I am. Then I have those who doubt who I am because of how I look on the outside. It's very stressful and confusing, but I’ll break it down for you.

I am Mexican, Italian and African American.  My father, who is more Mexican, is where I get my accent from. It was terrible when I was younger, so I had to go to many speech classes and finally, as of now, my accent is maintainable. After awhile though, when it comes out, people start to gush over it. “

Oh my gosh your voice is so beautiful!” 

“Oh my God where are you from?!”

Questions like this that tend to make me mad and upset that I even have one. Often times though, people seem to think I’m faking it, which I’m not. I have no reason to want to fake something as silly as a pointless accent. Also just because I am part Hispanic does not mean I have to know any Spanish. I get many mixed reactions to it; I have honestly never heard any hate towards it though.

If I could change having an accent, would I do it?

Probably not.

But if I could change something about the situation of having one, I would make it so that it’s not something that people gush over. I also would stop the judgments made about my race before being asked.  

I remember when I was 11 and we were on our first family reunion trip. We were in a cheap but nice hotel. The beds were stiff and cold feeling as if no one had slept in them for year. Virginia is a weird place with weird people but the scenery was nice. I was in a rush to go swimming since the pool was the only nice thing there. My mom was nagging as usual saying, “ don’t go to deep” and “pay attention in the pool”. Of course I wasn’t listening to her but I should have. The pool didn’t look deep from a distance it only went up to 5ft I was somewhat cocky thinking that I could stand up in the water since I had just hit 5 ft. I stepped in to the pool room it was a warm rectangular room 

That was about twenty-five feet long. I stepped into the pool and a shiver went up my spine. I stepped in and tried to stop shivering, after seeing I wasn’t warming up I dunked myself in. I felt my body get comfortable with the water and came out feeling revived. 

When I’m in the water I can stay for hours until I prune up like a raisin. After two hours I decided to go into five ft think there were enough people around to help me if I drowned. 

“Branden, when are you getting out of the pool!!” my mom yelled. 

“In like five minutes” I shouted back even though five meant thirty. My stomach made the same feeling it does when something bad is about to happen. I should have listened to my gut but the cooling water kept calling to me making me go further and further, staying longer and longer. My body couldn’t get out of water I couldn’t get out of the water and I dint want to. I went into five feet hopping from toe to toe in the water trying to keep my head up out of the water. Nothing happened until I got knocked over by a wave into the water. I wasn’t ready for the water to hit and when it did I was gasping for air down in the pool. I saw black dots and my survival instincts started to kick in I had never swam in my life but all of a sudden I had this burst of energy to pop out of the water and swim to the ledge. 

After that day I’ve tried to listen to my mom more but we butt heads a lot so that makes it difficult to always to appreciate what she’s trying to do for me. I think she try’s too hard to keep me safe which can get annoying but I understand that she’s trying in her own creepy way to parent. Nothing is done without question nothing is done without an answer my mom is constantly paranoid the she’ll be left alone in this world to raise fat cats. She needs to know that I’m not going to leave her by herself. The point of life is to live and do what ever you want because you only get one life. I learned that life is to short to just sit around hoping that something will happen and that is what my mom has to learn. I learned this around 6 months ago coming home from school. 

The air was cold, the sky was gray and I was tired. It was April and I was ready to get out of school. The bus came around the corner slowly and I see the numbers 33 I knew this was my bus because it had been my bus for the past year. When the bus came I walled into it and looked around it was full as usual but I found a seat in the front. The bus ride was slow and the bus driver looked as if he were slowly dying. I felt like dozing off but I didn’t want to miss my stop. I told my self I could stay up 25 minutes because that’s how long it takes the bus to get to my stop. I saw my stop and a thought hit me realizing if I could make to my house I could take a nap. 

“THIS IS MY STOP!!” I said not wanting to walk back a block more than I had to. He pulled up to my stop were my corner store is. There’s always a group hanging around on the corner when I get off waiting to see some action. I get off and see the light says green, I figured that since the bus had stopped nobody would go past it. I was wrong. I stepped into the street and tried to speed walk home that’s when I heard a horn, a few quick curses and I saw the car in front of me. BANG!!!!!!!!!!! I had been hit and in that quick instant fear and adrenaline took over my body without even knowing it I rolled with the hit jumping back as soon as it hit me. I fell and my left lag hurt. The driver pulled of zigzagging as if there were other people in the streets. In the end the crowd had gotten a show that day, the bus dirver had gotten a show that day and I got yelled at by my mom for not listening to her as a kid about looking both ways. 

In conclusion me and my mother will always butt heads because of our differences. She wants me to stay safe with her but I want to explore the world. I have realized that yes I have to listen to my mom but I also have to explore the world by myself. If I don’t live my own life then I wont be living at all.  

Yo nací en fila, donde las calles son de oro

Todo el mundo es agradable y abro

Tiendas en cade esquina

Al oeste de fila allí para aina

Mi familia es de una tierra

donde la hierba es verde

de este lado y de otro lado

yo vengo de un lugar de amor

el aire es limpio y las calles tamien

yo vengo de un lugar 

Yo nací en fila, donde las calles son de oro

Todo el mundo es agradable y abro

Tiendas en cade esquina

Al oeste de fila allí para aina

Soy una chica baja

con sueños tan alto como el cielo

Un día voy a ser una persona famosa

Me veran en la pantalla del televisor

Un día pronto

Yo nací en fila, donde las calles son de oro

Todo el mundo es agradable y abro

Tiendas en cade esquina

Al oeste de fila allí para aina

Nunca me deja

Me encanta este lugar

Amo a mis padres

me da la empresa

Te diré todo lo que

mi vida está aquí

mi familia está aquí

Yo no creo que pueda salir

las cosas que escucho

las cosas que digo

todo viene de mi corazón

Yo crecí en Filadelfia

mi vida está aquí

mi familia está aquí

Yo no creo que pueda salir

mi vida está aquí

mi familia está aquí

Yo no creo que pueda salir

   I am a person that thinks that everyone should make goals for themselves. I always had some goals I wanted to achieve. My past goal was to enter into Puerto Rico's most advanced high school called Centro Residencal de Oportunidades Educativas de Mayagüez (C.R.O.E.M). This school is specialized in mathematics and sciences. It is a residential school; a school where you actually sleep in.

   Since I heard of it, I fell in love with the idea of being there, even though I knew I was not good at mathematics. After thinking about it, I decided to ask my parents. At first they were surprised at, but then they supported me, so I decided to go ahead and submit my request. A couple of weeks after, they told me that I was accepted! That was the greatest thing that ever happened to me. I was so happy, I could die.

   Finally that day came, my first day of school. I went to the school, unpacked my things and got to the main school office. The building and the area were very beautiful; everything was so clean and put together. People were studying at every corner. Everything seemed so perfect! It was like a dream come true. I met a lot of people, some of those ones who right now I consider my siblings. The teachers were so nice to my roommates and me too. I felt very welcomed.

  Through the year sometimes I felt like it was too hard for me, but suddenly, I said to myself, ”If I got the opportunity to be here, I can not waste it”. So I decided to go ahead, study and put a lot more effort to what I was supposed to do and I did it, hoping for the best. At the end of the year I graduated with one of the highest grades and with honors! That raised my confidence so much.

   This situation taught me a couple of lessons that now I consider them as fundamental for a better life. It taught me that if you have a goal, you have to go for it, and that when an opportunity arrives, you should not waste it. It also taught me that if you have confidence in yourself, you could go through any tough situation. You have to go ahead, follow your dreams, and beat the obstacles. If did it, I am sure you can.

Vengo de Venezuela y yo vengo de Pensilvana ahora estamos junta cantando de Roxborough en donde vivimos.

De día y de noche celebramos y cantamos se vaya.

Ya..ya lo sabes todo en Roxborough todos son locos.

Pero ahí tiempos que todos se cambian..silenció..oscuro..las calles vacías.

Pero esto es Roxborough en donde vivimos.

Vengo de Venezuela y yo vengo de Pensilvana ahora estamos junta cantando de Roxborough en donde vivimos.

De día y de noche celebramos y cantamos se vaya.

Ya..ya lo sabes todo en Roxborough todos son locos.

Pero ahí tiempos que todos se cambian..silenció..oscuro..las calles vacías.

Pero esto es Roxborough en donde vivimos.

Vengo de Venezuela y yo vengo de Pensilvana ahora estamos junta cantando de Roxborough en donde vivimos.

De día y de noche celebramos y cantamos se vaya.

Ya..ya lo sabes todo en Roxborough todos son locos.

Pero ahí tiempos que todos se cambian..silenció..oscuro..las calles vacías.

Pero esto es Roxborough en donde vivimos.

Personal Essay Draft

I trekked through the forest, my heart racing. It had been raining for about three days straight, but now the sun was out, the trees were webbed with dew, creating a green and yellow canopy against the sky above. Little puddles of mud, and grooves of Nike shoes had made their territory in the trail, I avoided them and layed down my own little bootmarks. The creek was glimmering yet hiding below the steep hill that held out the ridge Poncho and I were treading. Across the river the same miniscule selection of Cobbs Creek park conservation along the polluted river vein.

I hear a little voice, a faint weight, my father's words, in my heart: do not go through this trail ever. But as usual, I never listen. Either my own arrogance, I'm a brat, or I just don't give a crap. The path is long, but not too long. Extensive enough to not be able to see the end halfway through. So you never know what's waiting for you there.

Referring to Poncho as subject, not ownership as always, a fairly sized, lean ivory blonde German Shepherd. Dead on arrival usually by every idiot who ever had a wolf hybrid or dog fear. Peacefully paws on in front of me. At this time in my life, I was pretty clueless has to how much of my love enveloped him. We always had this gentle, innocent, brother sister orb of trust and cooperation between us, that people never understood. Ignorant folk will think that he his a savage wolf that will eat their babies and tear their legs apart. Not that wolves are savage creatures at all, it’s just the mere look in their eyes when they see Poncho and I walking by on the parkway, you can definetly tell what they are thinking. German Shepherds are territorial, yet friendly and have a family guardian mentality. In the case of Poncho Buddy Jones, he has a weird fascination for tiny children, and basically anything who’s height is at eye level or smaller than him. I can’t count all the times I was absolutely embarassed and frightened when he would go darting after another dog, or even a little child. I notice he would never ever hurt them, he’d dart and then sniff and treat them gently. It took me a long time to learn to just let him socialize with other dogs, and mammals, because I know I cannot control him. But in this episode, luckily, we weren’t on the parkway, we were in the trails, partly a reason I chose to go this way. Luckily?

We had reached the turning point of the trails, the turning point being the halfway. The halfway, where you can’t look and see all the way forward, and you can’t look and see all the way back. It’s kinda steamy, I look across the other side of the creek, and my heart jolts. I hear a creak, and crepid disturbance in the branches.

SNAP!!

Poncho is unaware sniffing at some mud imprints. I am on full alert. If this was a cartoon my hair would probably be standing up in the air. If I had a tail it would be erect on my back. If I was a cat my claws would be engaging in the soil for dear life, and my back arched and frisked in some middle eastern pose to calibrate the flexibility.

And between the leaves hidden, behind the bushes, almost painted, a white tail cocked on grey hind legs and hips. I flashback. I remember another time where this must have happened before. I know what it is. But I am not sure. I am still scared. My heart is still pulsing,and my shaken instincts telling me to go back, as if to leave the building at the peak of a terremoto.

A few more appear, unfortunately I can only see their backs. The grey hind legs and the white whisping standing tails. I turn around with, yanking gentled yet briskly on poncho’s leash, and we rush back out of the trails and into the park.

I sit here now, and muse over a previous time when this happened. It was about midday, it was past snow, and I was going through the trails from the community center. It was my first time doing this. But I remember seeing the same running hind legs, and I remember running for my life. Petrified, thinking they were wolves.

But they were dear, and merely that. Not wolves, and not dangerous. Harmonious creatures I’d say. And at that day, going back home through the park, I realized I had merely nothing but a shadow of fear created in me, to be fearful of.