Growing up on the inner-city streets of Long Beach, CA, my life was almost destined to end up like those around me- lives filled of crime, drug abuse, alcoholism, and gang activity. Fortunately, my life took a quick turn for the better. During the second grade, I was given the choice to change schools. Not because I was expelled for disobeying conduct rules, but because I had passed an exam that was meant only for “gifted” students. I chose to switch to a school in a nicer part of town, which offered an accelerated learning program. I was given an opportunity to forego the troubled life that my peers would eventually be drawn into. Although I was still a little too young to understand the scope of how this would impact my life, I am completely grateful for what happened looking back. It was almost as if I was born again. Had I not been given that opportunity, where would I be now? What would I be doing? I can certainly say that I would not be an engineering student here at UCLA, not to mention the fact that I probably would have ended up as a high-school dropout with a pregnant girlfriend or something like that. I’m not trying to ridicule these people; I actually know several whose lives unfortunately took the turn for the worse Later on in life I was fortunate once again to have been accepted into a high school magnet program, which eventually was what led to my acceptance into UCLA. Actually, the opportunities that life has given me are the reasons why I am what I am, the reasons why I do what I do. I’m an engineering student, I have a beautiful girlfriend, I’m happy in life because I was given the opportunities to do so. These little opportunistic moments life brings upon us often go unappreciated, or even unnoticed. Why do I do what I do? Because I did not pass up the opportunities that life presented in front of me. Never will I ever let an opportunity slip past from me.
Comments