Growing up, I always lived in a loud household. I’m Hispanic; my mother is from El Salvador, and my dad is from Honduras. I'm the second oldest of three brothers, and I'm the only girl in the house (other than my mother), so you can only imagine what that is like. As in many Hispanic households, our Saturdays consisted of cleaning and family gatherings. I grew up with my mom's family since most of my dad's family is in Honduras. My mother's side of the family is big. She has 13 siblings, and most of them have kids (mostly boys); only three of them are back in El Salvador. As a result, when we have family gatherings the house is always loud and crowded.
Our family gatherings consist of dancing, soccer, and of course…eating. As Salvadoran, one of our favorite foods is pupusas. When you walk in the house you can hear my mom and aunts clapping their hands in order to form a thin round shape of pupusas in their hands. Once that first warm, soft piece of pupusa enters your mouth, you're hooked. If you go to the living room you see my dad and uncles talking and laughing. If you walk outside you see the little kids playing soccer, running back and forth, kicking around and cheering every time their team scores a goal. These are the moments I'll remember and cherish my whole life.
As much as I love my family and culture, I also want to be able to experience other types of slow pace and quiet cultures. One of my main goals in life is to travel the world. I want to see all the beautiful places in the world. If I had a ticket in hand I would want to go to Paris. “Why Paris?”, you may ask. Well, I've always considered myself an old soul. I love meaningful conversations, I love having alone time, and I love helping people. I care a lot for others. I love their culture and the way they live their life. I love the way they prioritize family and love rather than materialistic things. I see pictures of people sitting together at restaurants, smiling and laughing, just having fun and not having a care in the world. It seems so fulfilling, I want that for me. I want to be able to experience that kind of happiness at least once in life.
I would love to be able to see the different historical buildings in Paris and learn the story behind it. For example, one of the most famous monuments in the world, the Eiffel tower: I want to see the way the lights glow at night and the couples in love taking pictures in front of it, marking a beautiful, memorable moment. I would love to see the famous paintings and landmarks. I would love to sit in a quiet coffee shop and read a book. Overall I would just like to be at peace with myself and experience true happiness doing what I love.
My parents came to the US not knowing anything about it. It all started as a dream. The dream to give their future family everything they didn’t have. They’ve worked hard their whole life to accomplish everything they have now. They always told me to dream big, that I can do anything I put my mind to, and I like to believe that. I'm aware there's bumps along the road and not everything in life is easy, but thanks to my parents I know that if I work hard and put my mind into something I can accomplish it. I’ve seen how hard they’ve worked their whole life to provide my brothers and I everything we needed and even more. I know that if i want to be able to see all the beautiful places around the world i'll have to work for it.
The reason for writing this essay was for my college applications. The writing process was stressful because I didn't really know what to write about. I tried to use a lot of imagery in my essay. At the end of the day I used my family as inspiration since they are the people that have most impacted me in my life and shaped me into the person I am today.