Marvin De La Cruz
Thoughtful Choices
9/27/21
Personal Narrative
1st grade, 2011, I was 6 years old. I had no friends because I was very shy and introverted, I don’t ever remember talking. In fact, I can’t remember much of anything other than what you’re about to hear now. If you can recall when we were in elementary school we would be tested to see what reading level we were in. I was never tested, one feeling I can recall was waiting for the teacher to call my name so I could be tested. It never happened, I was never called. I went half the year without ever changing my reading level. For those who don’t know, by December you should be reading level F in 1st grade, I was reading books at level A, B, C. This is the level of a beginning Kindergartener. I always felt like these books were too easy but I was assigned and labeled as reading level A, B, C so I never went any higher than these reading levels. Out of respect for the system and what I was told my reading level was according to my past reading test I remained on level A,B, and C books.
Now we jump to when my teacher finally noticed my reading level, this was out of sheer coincidence. Already half the school year has gone by and I never took any placement test. When it was time to read our books she noticed that my book level was A. She came up to me and asked why I was reading these books. I told her I was supposed to because of the reading level I was assigned, she was shocked and soon realized I was right. The next thing I know my mom was told, my teacher told her that at this rate I wouldn’t pass 1st grade. My mother was not too happy (I have Hispanic parents and for those who know what that’s like it wasn’t too pretty). Still She did not give me this test, all she did was tell my parents I wasn’t going to be passing first grade if my reading level stays the same. This wasn’t the biggest shocker to my parents believe it or not, every last one of our family members went to this school, my sister, cousins, uncles, and aunts, we all attended this school but none of us ever graduated from there. We all ended up transferring out cause we were all told we would fail and so we tried our luck in other schools. My mom just accepted this and ended up transferring me to another school called PS-164. Here she thought I would have a better chance at passing and not being left back.
Well, within a month my new teacher had something to tell my parents. She told them I wasn’t going to pass (reading wasn’t the only problem anymore, I was underperforming in all subjects). When I got home my mom told me to sit in the corner of the kitchen and wait until my father got home. He arrived, the only thing I can remember was then fighting and arguing about this. The only line I remember my father saying was, “Te dije que el problema no era la escuela, es el!”. Which translates to, “I told you the school wasn’t the problem, he is!” He said this right in front of me, acting like I couldn’t comprehend or understand what he just said. Did he really think that little of me I thought? Did he not think I was smart enough or aware enough to understand… He did. Right in that moment, in that second, I had a change in my mentality. I had been enlightened, I came to the realization that my father didn’t expect much of anything from me. I was already categorized as another failure in the family.
My father was not the best, to put it simply I don’t have any good memories of my childhood that include him. The only good childhood memories I’ve seen are ones without him that were recorded and shown to me, I have no recollection of any happy times, only bad ones. My older sister had it worse than me, she had gone through many things I never had to go through. The bad memories I have as a child are ones my father is responsible for, I personally never blamed him for being this way, because I knew he grew up in a worse environment and this was the only parenting he knew and understood. It wasn’t right, but I could never blame him for it. I always knew my parents wanted me to live a better life than they did, they wanted me to have a good career and to be able to take care of myself. However their method of ensuring this was not what I would ever want to put my kid through. Their methods were of old generations, and they weren’t so nice.
After hearing my father say that I had drive, determination, and motivation in school. To prove my father wrong and to show him that I was better than he had ever expected or could ever imagine. My first reading test was coming up since joining the school, I read for what felt like hours. Every book had a test after to see how well you can analyze and interpret what it said and I kept passing these tests until I got to level F, this is where I was told my reading level was. I was told I was exactly where I needed to be in my reading level. I was also improving in my math, science, writing, etc. I was slowly becoming better and better. I passed 1st grade, but my father said nothing. Even so, I didn’t stop there, in second grade I would show him how amazing I could be. I was assigned to go after school and eventually my homeroom teacher told me, “Marvin, you don’t have to come here. You don’t need help.” She then explained to my mom that after school was meant for children who needed help in their homework and who needed to improve their grade. I was doing so well she told my mom there was no need for me to be in after school. By the end of 2nd grade I was told I could skip 3rd grade, I was so advanced that they would let me skip 3rd grade and go straight to 4th. But it doesn’t stop there, at the end of elementary school I was given the math award for being the most advanced student in math. But it doesn’t stop there either, this past year I was told I could graduate early if I take and pass these specific classes, and I did. I proved my father wrong over and over again, and not only in academics. My dad didn’t believe I would last a month in the gym and so he told me to apply for the classic membership which allows you to cancel anytime (is more expensive than a year plan in the long run) But I proved him wrong time and time again. My greatest motivation came from my father, the drive to prove him wrong and show him I am greater than he could ever imagine. I just entered college and I’m still only 17 years old. I still need to graduate from college and then vet school. I shall continue to push forward until my time runs out. This is the life-changing event that changed me forever, and I don’t believe I would be where I am if it didn’t happen.
