What I Learned, My Goals, My Future….

Manifesto

     Out of the 17 years I have been alive, about 14 of them I have spent at school. The rest of my time I used it either for sports, reading, music lessons, or spending time with my family. I consider that through all those years I have learned a lot from my friends, teachers and family. Without them I wouldn’t be the person I think I am today. I see myself as an independent, passionate, respectful young woman who isn’t afraid to be herself and who will pursue her dreams.

     Students spend most of their conscious time at school. As a student in school I learned from my first words to complicated calculus problems. Most of the things I know now are attributed to the years I have studied in this great school. I also grew up as a person and set my values during the time I spent at school interacting with my classmates and listening to my teacher’s life lessons.

     In the past years I have learned a lot about accepting yourself and others and about friends. For example when I was a little girl, in pre school the other kids bothered me because I watched boy TV shows. I was supposed to watch girly shows with fairies or ballerinas. Or when I was in sixth grade, when some kids bothered me because had good grades, they called me a “pepe” or nerd. Little things like that made me want to change myself into another person. I was afraid of people making fun of me so I kept music (singing and playing one or two instruments) a secret. I also started hiding the things that weren’t accepted, like having good grades, reading books for fun, or things that didn’t look “cool”. But all those problems don’t matter now, they all helped me grow up as a person. Even though there were mean kids, I have always had friends who help me and accept me. With time I realized that being you is better than living behind a lie. I showed little by little who I was and in fact, my friends didn’t stop liking me. I know now that all those struggles are a normal part of growing up, and wanting to be accepted.

     I also had a lot of problems regarding my academic life. I had lots of issues with teachers in eight and ninth grade. I always thought that they hated me, but I realized that it was all in my head. I learned a lot of what happens in the world today thanks to social studies. Thanks to the books we read in Spanish I learned about Colombian reality, in the Llanos Orientales. I really liked a lesson in eleventh grade about stereotypes. After my teachers showed in class videos about the stereotypes in the Disney movies. Or after they showed how little kids differentiate the black dolls from the white ones . Being the black ones bad and the white ones good. I saw in real life how the media shapes people’s thoughts. How people are taught to think in certain ways since they are born. I started listening to stereotypes in my daily conversations, such as “ all the costeños are lazy,” etc. Lessons like that were the ones that helped me understand a little bit better the world I live in today. A world that is full of inequality, a world where things are not strictly black or white, a world where is difficult to differentiate the good from the bad.

     I have been a student at Colegio Panamericano for about 14 years. Now I am on the last days of my senior year and I can say that my experience in this school has had great positive outcomes. Since I was four years old I began to form part of this great family at school, formed by my classmates, teachers and counselors. I can affirm that growing up with my friends and my teachers was an excellent experience. It’s sad that in a few months we will all be growing apart, each one of us going to different cities to universities, or staying here in Bucaramanga. Most people are marked for their whole life by the experiences they have in their childhood. I am proud to say that thanks to the school, friends and family, growing up was a great experience, even in the bad times I have always felt supported and loved.

     At the beginning of my senior year I had one goal, to seize the most I could of the year. I said to my self I didn’t want to have any regrets, I wanted to be a smart girl who had time to be involved with music, and also spend time with her friends and family. Now that I am finishing high school I can say that I have no regrets, everything was perfect, and thanks to that, I am who I am today. I am proud of who I am, my friends and my family.

     I have no idea what the future has for me. I only have one main goal, I want to be happy. I want to be happy with my self, my choices, the people around me. I want to choose a profession that I am passionate about, even though many disapprove it. I want to be a complete person, like the following quote from a book I like, "I want to be brave, and selfless, and smart, and kind, and honest," (Divergent, Veronica Roth)

     My main inspiration is my family, the people in it are always unconditional and love me no matter what. I am also inspired by my books, which make me travel to different worlds and make me forget the reality. My friends, who make me want to become a better person also inspire me. I want to keep learning, and in a metaphorical sense plant a seed in every people I know. As Mahatma Gandhi said, “ be the change you wish to see in the world.” I will try to be the best of me with everyone I know, that’s how I can make the world different. I am no one to say I can change the world, but I believe that it is a work in progress and that step by step it can be better.

Works Cited

Roth, Veronica. Divergent. New York : HarperCollins,

 2011. Print.