I’ve seen people get shot up, robbed, beaten up, and worst of all waste their potential. Coming from Oakland, academics were never in my community. All my friends before coming to UCLA are either high school dropouts, or people who went to community college for a year and is now working a 9 to 5. I look at the decisions the people in my community make, and it helps me want to do more, and one of the ways I can do that is to get out of Oakland and go to college. I avoid all the bad activities; I don’t rob people, or steal things that are of high value. I know people who have been to jail from reasons such as murder, to petty car theft. I use those examples to remind myself not to give into influence. This has shaped my morals, and make me value my family for raising me into a good person.My mother is Vietnamese; she came to the states during the 1980s amidst the violence of the Vietnam war. She came here with nothing, and now we are doing alright. This has made me value being in America a little more, because I’ve been to Vietnam and its hella poor out there. Also my mother is nearing 60, and still working while a lot of people should be nearing retirement. This has made me value education more so I can try to get a good job in the future so my mom can retire. Basically what I am trying to say is that I value academics because it is a way to avoid the pressures around my neighborhood, and can hopefully put me in a better position in life so all my mom’s hard work would be worth it. That’s why I do what I do.
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