Jan Biasbas Word Count:

Moments with family are one of the best moments to remember. One moment that

I remember involves my dad giving me a real life talk about what his expectation is going to be

when he sees me in the future.

“Follow your dreams”, my dad said to me when talking about a college and completing it.

“That’s a very corny statement, dad. But, I do still see meaning behind that phrase and I think I

will. It’s going to be a hard dream to achieve and certainly the gateway to my adulthood” I

answered back.

“Also don’t worry about adulthood, all you have to worry about is taxes, kids, if you are having

some, taking care of your family, buying a house, and working”, he stated.

“So… basically adulthood in general, right?”

“Yeah basically”, he chuckled.

“But taxes and money are a really scary force to reckon with because it can control you,'' he said

concerningly

“I just learned about being financially empowered so I think I’m fine when it comes to

controlling money,'' I responded.

“Are you sure about that?”

“Yeah I am.

“Well don’t assure me with words, assure me with action”

“Ok I will”
And that is just one of the many conversations, me and my dad had throughout the years of my

existence. I usually struggle mentally because I think things in a negative tone rather thinking it

as a positive, but my dad was always there to teach me lessons the easy way, and sometimes the

hard way, of life and controlling myself.

Describing or picturing a perfect life is difficult. Some people might have different

perspectives and versions of what their perfect life could be and some don’t even have the

chance to have that perspective or dream of that perfect life. I was one of those people for a

while. I was born in the Philippines but moved to the United States at the age of four, and I have

lived here ever since. I was kind of an oddball back in middle school. I didn’t really fit with any

niche and usually found it hard to even talk to people near me, a result of having no

self-confidence at the time. This was due in part to physical bullying I experienced in sixth

grade, possibly because of my race or my weirdness. Fights were common in middle school, but

I knew better than to side with the usual offenders and tried to find positive people. I eventually

did find them, who I could talk to and even consider as friends, which also meant a lot of people

will notice my presence even more. Although I wasn’t popular back in middle school by any

means, I would begin to have a lot of friends to talk to in class. Life started to get better, or so it

seemed. In short, people started to bully me. A middle school bully wasn’t necessarily a new

experience, but it certainly affected me in a myriad of ways.

Physical and mental bullying started in middle school. I didn’t really fit with the other

students because I was born in a place where no one knew about, so it was inevitable that I

would get picked on by students who weren’t aware about my race and culture. I first had

problems talking in English because having a Filipino tongue is very different from any others in
my opinion. I picked up the accent a little bit, but to sum it up: I had problems physically talking

to people in English because at the time I didn’t know how to prevent me from messing up some

pronunciations, resulting in me getting bullied with that. Since I’m of Asian descent, many

classmates I encountered would almost always automatically assume that I was Chinese. My

middle school bully and his friends liked to make fun of facial features that I had that resembled

a ‘Chinese person’ and often used racial slurs to add insult to injury. This was a very rough time

period that had a profound impact on me, since I still, to this day, am afraid of being insulted for

who I look like. My grades consequently suffered from the bullying since I wasn’t able to focus

on my work while I was being called racially charged stereotypes from table to table in my

classroom. I avoided talking about these issues to a friend or adult because I feared that they’d

make fun of me like the bullies who started the problem in the first place or merely dismiss it.

My attitude towards speaking up changed in high school because I felt certain that the staff and

teachers were able to understand what the student is going through. High school would prove to

be the turning point of my life since it was not only a way for me to gain new friends, but to start

a new life. In retrospect, the middle school bullies play a huge role in shaping me to what I am

today since now I am more aware of the type of people who do bully on an average basis and am

aware of who to hang out with. I struggled greatly in school, in both my belief in myself and

through the course work. Although there are still bullies that come my way occasionally in High

School, I always keep a smile and be positive about it. The lesson I learned from my encounters

with bullies was a very useful one, that is “Don’t care of what people might say about you.

You’re you.” Everyone is different, so I would understand if someone is curious about another

person’s culture or race. I only care about what my mom thinks because she’s one of the only
people I could ever deeply trust. She wants me to live a great, stress-free life where I am

comfortable. In order to fulfill her wishes, I would need to shut out any negative energy targeted

towards me that only blinds my vision towards my future. She can be at peace knowing that I’m

not letting anything stop me from living the best life I can.