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Clara V. Ortega
Isaac Yoon
Statistics
August 18th, 2014
Story of Self
The first obstacle I ever faced was the moment I was born, June 3rd 1997 when my
mothers umbilical cord almost choked me to death. Luckily, I survived and here I am healthy
and content with life. It was about 10 years ago when my parents first filed for divorce. I was too
young to understand what was going on and as I grew older I never really asked myself why they
ever got divorced in the first place. Although my family went through a lot when I was younger I
am glad to say I had the best childhood ever. I grew up in Inglewood, California in a small but
comfortable home with my mother and my older sister and once I turned twelve we moved to a
bigger home in Hawthorne.
I attended Buford Elementary School and from there I moved onto Lennox Middle
School. Throughout elementary school I always made sure I achieved good grades by the end of
each semester not only to make my mother proud but also my sister. Once I got to middle school
I continued my streak of achieving Principals Honor Roll and promoted from Lennox Middle
School with a gold rope and pin for my hard work throughout all three years. Then came
freshmen year and the beginning of a high school experience that was going to be unlike no other
not only because I was going to attend DaVinci Design but because the only person I knew was
my cousin Carlos who was two years ahead of me.
When I was younger I was always known as a tomboy because I not only spent my recess
and lunch playing dodge ball, but I was also interested in Star Wars, obsessing over the solar

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system and curious about sharks. As I became older my wardrobe changed completely and I
began getting shy around boys and having crushes on them here and there. I was always
outgoing and friendly unlike the girls I hung out with in the beginning of middle school who
were the total opposite of me. I always felt insecure whenever I was with them so it was that
same year that I decided to go my own way and hangout with people I felt comfortable to be
around. Once I stopped communicating with them and began avoiding them they all ended up
splitting up. Seventh grade came along and that year I was a complete mess, I was having trouble
finding out who I was. Everyone around me was too busy doing drugs to look cool or what not
and I fell in that hole for a quick second. Once I began eighth grade I continued with the persona
of too cool for school but always kept my grades up. Deep down inside I found drugs cool not
only because everyone else was doing it but because I over heard my mother talk to my sister
about how my father did drugs too.
I was a clueless kid who never really had a relationship with my father so I tried being
just like him. I felt as if I were making him proud in a way by following his foot steps. I never
told anyone I did any of these drugs I kept it all to myself and every now and then I mentioned
something about that to my best friend. I had a hard time because there was a time where my
mother and her fiance would brainwash me and tell me my father was a horrible man. To top it
off I lost contact with my father for a while and my mom was soon going to get married with a
man I thought was the greatest thing that could have happened in our lives. As the years passed,
my step-dad became a pest. He was a 5 year old stuck in a 27 year old body. He was very
obnoxious and always managed to get me in trouble for the dumbest things such as changing the
channel or not letting him play with my PlayStation 2 or PSP.

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I was lucky to have my sister by my side whenever I felt lonely and wanted to end my
life because of how depressed I was getting. In the eighth grade my nieces mother died of cancer
and I was very fond of her. Then two months later the tragedies continued with my nephews
father passing away. In addition to that a couple months later my uncle was murdered. A year of
so many deaths had me speechless and made me realize I had to get my life together and quit
being such a weak person because I knew I was capable of achieving great things in life and not
just fall and leave everything Ive worked for behind.
So here I am, a senior who is not so ready for whats coming but is willing to give it her
all to end this year strong and possibly get into a great college/ university. Ive struggled a bit
throughout these past three years of high school but little by little Ive grown and matured. Im
great at turning in my work on time and 100% complete. On the other hand, a huge weakness of
mine is studying for test and asking for help. Other weaknesses Ive struggled with the past three
years is doubting myself too much and giving up at certain points. This year I want to leave that
behind and be confident with my work and not give up as easily. I want to prepare myself to
doing things and feeling confident about my work. Im not so sure what I want to do in the future
but I do have an idea of what I want to pursue in college/ university. Achieving the goals Ive set
out for myself this year arent to make my mother or sister proud but to make myself proud and
show myself that after all this time I finally did it. This year is going to be great and I am
definitely looking forward to it. PS: My relationship with my father and mother now is great and
theyre great as well!