<p>Describe the world you come from for example, your family, community or school and tell us how your world has shaped your dreams and aspirations.</p>
<pre><code> When I was two years old I nearly drowned to death in a Hawaiian swimming pool. My savior? Mom and Dad. People always talk about how near death experiences change your perception on life forever. However at such a young age, what revelation was I to have? No, in this case it did not cause turbulence in my life, however in my parents’. Growing up, I faced many obscure restrictions. I was never allowed to leave the house without a shawl, might I add we reside in California. Every address I punched into my navigation would be followed up by my fathers’ hand-written back street ‘short cuts’, which in fact are not very short at all. After dinner, as soon as I would tie up the trash bag, my dad would grab it from my hands. “I’ll do it.” That is something I never understood: protecting someone by restricting their independence. I guess to my parents though, every time I tried to be a big girl, they saw me as the baby drowning in the pool desperately reaching out for my mommy and daddy.
When puberty hit, my parents suffered another death- that of my innocence. Unfortunately, depending on how you view it, my parents never laid out a course outline of my four years in high school. I was not lucky enough to be born with a part time parent/ life planner. What often perplexes me is my parents’ emphasis on my personal safety and not on my future security. They seem to never be worried about how I would “do in life”, but it seems they are always worried life will do me wrong in some way. I was enrolled in a series of sports as a child, and got to quit all the ones I didn’t like. I had my experimental makeup phases, my various teenage hormone-driven identities (it would appear I was a process server in my previous life), and my momentary dip into the less prestigious realm of the education system. I was able to get it all out, and not sink into the pitfalls many teenagers get sucked into. I blame my parents for my high self esteem. The unconditional love I have received throughout my life has absorbed throughout my body and is beginning to radiate through compassion.
I was raised to believe that you should value your independence and your personal safety in the world. I learned to value the self rather than the stature of one's self. My dreams are vast and colorful, they could paint rainbows within black holes. However they are not subject to one field. Giving love to a child is like giving sunlight to a plant, you strengthen them and give them poise and confidence. Tender love and care are nutrition and have helped me actualize myself as a teenager. My mind began to expand to broader issues and I begun focusing beyond my personal self as well. I wish to gain all the knowledge I know I am capable of obtaining, and I want to heal people. With words, and with medicine, I want to be involved in changing the world, even if its a minority. You have to be the change to make a change. With knowledge comes power, with the necessity of practice. One day I will possess all the power within the four metaphorical corners of my cranium.
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