Junior year, a year that decisions should be made! While all my peers celebrated junior year being over and were ready to take on senior year, I was unsure. While I was debating on what I wanted to pursue for the rest of my life, I felt as if my time was running out. One of the most important decisions of my life wasn’t made yet. Even though I had two more years to figure it out, my stress was growing because of my indecision. I go to Food and Finance High School where different majors are limited to those relating to culinary arts. Nothing that I have done in my life has convinced me one hundred percent that I want to keep on doing it; a solution is required before summer is up!
The beginning of my summer I kept on with my job. I work for the Police Athletic League as an administrative assistant. The money I make from my job I save for college, since that is one of the biggest obstacles in my way. After working my whole vacation I had two weeks free of obligations, so my family and I decided to take a short vacation to the Dominican Republic. Dominican Republic is a nation with poor conditions on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean. It’s famous for its platanos and beaches. My family history originates from there and I’ve taken various trips there before but none like the one in the summer of 2009.
My parents started building our house in the Dominican Republic in 2007. When we went this year there were construction workers giving the house some final touches. There were a few Dominican workers but most were Haitian. These workers were poor and hardly had money to eat. In the United States, I am considered a minority and also need financial assistance. In the Dominican Republic I am looked upon as a princess, everyone thought I was rich.
Watching these men work so hard to just earn 350 pesos a day, this comes out to about 10 American dollars, made appreciate all that I had. Since that day I work harder in school and try the best I can to be successful because I have an opportunity to become something greater, and I should try to take advantage of it.
Everyone should take advantage of what they have. We should all be grasping our moment of opportunity no matter what. The trip helped me realize that neither race nor sex matters, you could be a peasant in one place and in the other a king or queen. I’ve noticed that one of the world’s biggest problems to people is money. Thanks to that trip, I am now sure of how hard I have to work to pursue my dreams and to have enough money to make a living for myself. My trip to Dominican Republic in 2009 was definitely a life changing experience that has helped me actually see me doing something I want to do for the good of humanity.
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