For my fys 100 class i had to write a short autobiography on how i got to college and why.



My Journey to a New Life

By Eddie Aguilar



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FYS 100-02

8/28/2009



 
My journey to CSUMB started a few years ago when I first got into high school. My parents were always tough on me and kept me on a close leash to make sure I was always doing the right thing to not end up on the wrong path. My father and mother always stressed that education was important and to put it over everything else. I guess they always wanted me to come out better than how they did in life, and through me their long journey and struggle for a better life would be over through the achievement of an education.
I was always told that I was the example to my sibling and cousins younger than me and that if could get an education it would open the doors for others. The weight and pressure of me making it through is a sort of unwanted responsibility that comes with being the first in this country. It is like the fine print on the bottom of a contract, you don’t know it’s there until it’s time for that print to kick in. To me I had to get into college, not getting into college and making it through would be a major let down, not only to myself but also for others. I was always pressured through high school to get good grades, but I was the kind of person who if they get pressured to much they would just snap from it. I hated the thought of doing well for someone else and someone else expecting me to do well. I would sometimes snap and give up but always had the thought in the back of my head that I must push forward.
In high school I tried to do my best to get my work done on time. I was, and still am a perfectionist. I believe that a person’s work is a reflection of that person, so if I did a great job then that job would reflect the kind of person I am. I am a person who pays a lot of attention to detail and so in all the work I turn in I put lots of time and effort into it no matter how small of a project it is. During my senior year, my last year, I went through I breakdown. At that point I had to know what I wanted to do with my life and decide. Family issues were interfering with my education and getting to me without me really noticing it. I wanted to get out of my house as fast as I could and college was not only my way to and education and a better life, but also an escape to my problems. I realized that college was a way to live on my own and start fresh, become the person I always wanted to be.
Many of my friends were going to great colleges and were really excited. I was one of the few to realize that I might not have enough money to pay for college and had to find out a way. Most of my friends decided to stay in Southern California; I was one of the brave 10 who ventured for a life away from home and figure out a way to survive and live life on our own. I chose to stay in my native home of California but decided to move from my smog and traffic congested Los Angeles to the more clear skied and fresh Northern California area. I needed a change of scenery, a change of people and a change of life. This was my chance to start again and do it right the way I wanted to and leave behind my problems. Living in Southern California since birth just made me want to leave. I guess the big city was like a small town for me and usually it’s the people who live in small towns all their lives and want to get out to explore the big city.
I have always been great with people and I have always wanted to be in the business field. I would imagine one day that I would be the owner of a huge company, making huge sums of money and traveling the world meeting new people and doing new things. My mother was the person to inspire me in pursuing a business career. In 2000, she developed thyroid cancer and it devastated her and the entire family. We tried our best to help her and she fought cancer, being so close to the blade of Deaths scythe she survived. She then put her own business and practice cosmetology. She established a hair salon, a business of her own, and became my example person. I would feel so happy that my mother ran her own operations and that she was accomplishing her dream despite the fact that everyone else was against her. To this day she still runs the business and sometimes I help her out chipping in my part to make it grow. My father on the other hand was not like my mother who would take a risk and self employ himself. Instead he was the type of person that preferred to have a boss and a steady job. I don’t blame him as it has worked for the past 20 years and he has never failed to provide food on the table. My father was also a business man but in his own field. He worked for the largest American grocer company and managed the meat department. He started at 18 in this country as a butcher and worked his way to management and now he not only cuts meat but also manages expenses and workers in one of the biggest store in the Southern California region. Both my mother and father were immigrants from Mexico and unlike popular belief that immigrants come to destroy the current society they have pitched into the American system and bettered themselves and the country. My father came as an illegal in about 1989, at the age of 18 also leaving his small town to explore the big city and make a new life for himself. He then became legalized and brought my mother over to legalize her. All my parents’ efforts, struggles and achievements became my inspirations to become something more.
It was now time to overcome my own struggles and earn my own achievements. I had to make my parents long journey from leaving their native home to a new life worth it. If I made it through what my father would say “the rest of people” then their long journey would have been worth it. They always compared me to a friend or someone else that had a success story making me feel bad, this time I must make my own success story so that others could not compare me to others but to make me an example person.
In the beginning of this year I began to work on my own and earning money from small projects. I started out from my bedroom using a laptop and borrowing a friend’s camera to shoot a short film for a competition. Although I never got to finish it the film earned top ten out of an open global competition. I then decided to move forward and put my skills to earn money for college. I got together with a friend of mine and started an extremely small film business. It was just me and him working together and earning what we could. We shot commercials for small business in the San Fernando Valley, my home, and made some money that way. I have always been the technical creative person and good at business. I would be the fisher to lure business into the line and catch them to make a deal with them. My friend mostly directed and we both collaborated on the story. I was mostly the editor of the films and made sure everything was going well in the final production. Our work was noticed by others and we got more calls about us working for other businesses but it began to interfere with school. After a few paychecks I knew what I wanted to do with my life for sure. I wanted to pursue a business career and launch myself into the film world to eventually put my own film company.
I looked around for business schools but my searches became narrow. If I wanted to go to business school it had to be away from home but still in California and I would have to be able to pay for it. Most business schools were too expensive and most were close to home. I sent my application to colleges and CSUMB was one of the ones that responded with a positive outcome. I looked deeper into their business school and liked how it worked. CSUMB was a great choice and it fit my criteria well, so I accepted their offer. In addition 2 of my friends from my high school were also coming to CSUMB and we hung out all the time and got along great. A few other friends were also coming up to Berkley, East Bay, and Davis so I was not alone on my journey. I would undoubtedly choose business administration as my major at CSUMB and I was glad that I could go after what I wanted it.
I heard that college changes a person; hopefully it changes me in a positive way. I had to change my habits and turn myself around if I wanted to get through college. It has been working so far. Staying on top of things all the time and getting my things done quickly and dealing with them in real-time instead of lag time is what I have been doing since day one. My father always told me that I was the architect of my own future. I told myself that I must construct my tower to reach the sky and grab what I wanted. I must put the bricks one at a time correctly in my new life and lay them with concrete so that my world would not shake under me and topple.
Being away from home has helped me as I somehow escaped problems that affect me in a negative way. I feel like things are a bit more clear for me but I have new struggles. At the moment I must get my financial aid to pay for my college and get money to buy books. My family is not rich at all; they are hard workers that clock in at least 40 hours a week to earn just a bit of comfort. My father has a stressful job and has debts to clear off and my mother is currently enslaved with her business and trying to make it work. I sometimes think to myself how do people in that situation keep going instead of just pulling the trigger and going insane, breaking down and shriveling up because of all the pressure. I depend from my parents and hopefully they can provide for me here at school. At the moment they have been really supportive and I must respond with great appreciation and good grades. I am an American born from immigrant Mexican parents, who work for days without brakes, who belongs to the middle class and is in the mixture of cultural battles and evils trying to make it through life. Hopefully I set the example for my family and give the rest hope to make it through and make a life of their own and achieve their own dreams.