Shenanigans

I was born in New Jersey, a first generation American, and immediately moved to Colombia in South America with my family after a few months. I lived and planted my first building blocks of my life in Colombia. Spanish became my first language and the my parents way of living and cultural upbringing played a role in my life. My family and I came back to America when I was around four years old. Coming back was a huge cultural shock, seeing that I began pre-school right away and was surrounded by kids who spoke a different language that I didn’t understand made me an outcast. Things were pretty rough for the first few years of being back in the states. When Elementary school started I was seen as dumb since I was just learning English and did not fully understand everything we did. But that did not stop me, I continued to work hard and soon enough English became my dominant language, while speaking Spanish/ Spanglish at home with my parents.
I grew up also much differently than most children I surrounded myself with. Seeing that our families had different cultures and different upbringing strategies. Most kids around me were suffocated with parental guiding allowing little space for them to be themselves, but for me it was the opposite. My parents gave me a lot of space which allowed me to gain self responsibility and freedom that I earned for not being a spoiled rude child. The way I was raised really came in handy during High School. High School for most other students is the time when you grow up and change and blah blah blah. My problem was I was already grown up,I matured faster then most students, and this really caused tension issues. I was ready for the real world my freshmen year in High School and I was sick of every single kid in my school, I viewed them all as dumb and annoying.
I guess all of this lead to some issues that arose my junior and senior year of High School, but the issues I encountered I overcame on my own, I did not seek outside help, I myself fixed the issues which made me a stronger person. I found my answer to my problems through art and reading. Junior year I came to the realization that I was a odd ball to the education system, I did not believe the education system that was and is in play is stupid. Just cause one can take a test or memorize something does not mean shit. I realized that I was more of a hands on and do something with your knowledge guy. I also realized that art would be involved in my future career.
I made the mistake of coming to Baruch, it was my escape out of the box I called my hometown, but I soon learned I was just placed in another box, a slightly bigger one though. Baruch was and is not the school for me, the people here are not my kind of people. The only good outcome of Baruch are the few friends I made, but also Baruch showed me what I want to study and do with my life. I learned that I want to study Cultural Anthropology and Social Issues and combine it with documentary photography and film. Baruch also taught me that we make mistakes and learn from them, and in bad situations you have to be the bigger man and learn to deal with it and make the best of it. My life is still up in the air but I like it that way, it leaves room for excitement and change. Baruch is just another building block in my life and that I don’t regret.
Life is exciting, and filled with many things. I’m enjoying the ride even when there are downfalls, but that is all part of this roller coaster. I appreciate everything that has happened, and I have learned from my mistakes. All I know what now and the only things I care about our:
-Family
-Jack Kerouac and the Beat generation
-Film Photography
-Cultural Anthropology
-Music
-Reading
-Traveling
-Friends
-And my best friends, My Dogs
So this has been an exciting reading of my life and random pieces i cared to share with yall.