Text/Quotations

Diary 5: On the way home, I get chased

mostly by older fools with bats and
knives

Diary 8: I told my friends I was going to

pledge a sorority because it looked like
fun.

Diary 8: As soon as everyone arrived

they made us lie down on the ground
and sizzle like bacon

Diary 9: I hate my neighborhood. Its

surrounded by gangsters and drug
dealers.

Diary 10: Someone in Ms. Gs class

reminded us that 187 is the police code
for murder. If this proposition passes, it
may murder the opportunities for
immigrants like me to succeed.

Diary 17: Dont judge a peanut by its

shell, judge it by whats inside of it,

Reflections
When I was in elementary and walking
home, the worst I encountered were a
couple of aggressive dogs and some
homeless bums that would ask me to go
buy them cigarettes but never weaponry
along with harmful groups of people.
Whenever I pledged the delta pi chapter
of Mu Phi Epsilon on campus I did this for
the same reason originally but then grew
to hate everyone. I was going to disavow
and then we grew together as a family in
what seemed like one night.
This quote reminded of the 1993 classic
movie Dazed and Confused, where the
girls coming into high school from the
junior high were hazed into lying on the
ground while a senior told them to,
sizzle like bacon.
When I was younger, I lived in a
neighborhood similar to a lot of these
young adults. I lived in a small suburb of
Fort Worth known as Industrial Park,
and I was the minority consisting of a
mainly Hispanic populated community.
Let alone my mothers side is of Hispanic
descent, but we were also raised not
approving of violently physical or verbal
actions to solve problems. Every corner
you turned there was a gunshot here
and a drug deal happening there but,
like I said, I was young and innocent so I
never realized the severity of the events
that were happening around me.
With my grandmother being illegal,
this would always worry me for the fact
that she had not received her
citizenship. However, she has it now but
the nightmarish quality I lived with was
always haunting me with the problem of
losing my grandmother because of this
proposition.
This reminds me of when I attended
middle school and there was always

made perfect sense to me. As long as I

know I am a human being, I dont need
to worry about what other people say. In
the end, we are all the same!

Diary 22: As wonderful as everything

was, when I got home, I realized Im
missing out on a lot not the material
stuff like the fancy chandeliers and the
full-course meals, but bonding with my
dad.

Diary 23: I have learned so much my

freshman year, and one important lesson
Ive learned is that people do change,
because I did.

people ridiculing me based upon the

physical and social downfalls that I had
whenever interacting with my peers and
friends. The teachers never did anything
in order to counteract against those
students and every day I think of all the
young Jacobs out there that are getting
the same negative attention that I
received as a young child and it kills me.
The phrase Dont judge a book by its
cover rings a bell every time I see a
child or even adult being profiled just
because of their outside appearance and
not for who they really are.
My father has never been a proactive
role model in my life. In fact, my father
has never really been in my life, aside
from the fact that he had partial custody
of every other weekend. I do not speak
with my dad in any way shape or form
unless it be necessary. This past
semester my Great Grandmother passed
away and of course I heard it from my
mother, who is my biggest fan, and
when I heard the news my first thought
was, why didnt dad directly speak to
me like the man that he should be and
why didnt he tells his children that their
GG (who was the only connection to
that side of the family) had died after
being in hospice for two whole weeks?
It was the first time I had made any
contact with my father in nearly five
years. This diary personally hit me and it
was the first diary I watered up reading
through. It touched me so much that I
read through it again, and again, and
again, and again to make sure it wasnt
my story told in a different perspective!
My first year of college changed me
forever. Ill never forget the good times
and, even more so, the bad! I really
changed as a person inside and out and
have slowly learning, even four years

later, from my numerous amount of

mistakes.