Personal Narrative Assignment

Raymond R. Quesada III

College of Integrative Sciences and Arts, Arizona State University

OGL 482- Module 2

March 23, 2021

 “I’m learning to trust the journey even when I do not understand it” and this is how I

have learned to be living my life. The more I experience the more I have seen that life is more

about the journey and it’s not all to be understood. We are shaped by our journey and the life that

surrounds us. Whether this is the way we grew up, the family and friends in our life, the

romances we have experienced, the professional lives we have lived, or even the places we have

seen they all leave an impact on us just as we leave an impact on the world. We must learn to

live day by day and make the most of what we have. The approach that I have had to live has

changed a lot over the last few years and especially after the 2020 Covid-19 amendment as much

of my time was spent contemplating what I was doing with my life and figuring out what was

next for me.

To begin one of the major aspects of my journey has to be how I was raised as I was

raised in America but by my mother who was from Mexico and my father who was third-

generation Mexican American and this impacted my life in many ways. I grew to have to speak

English and Spanish and was caught between two different cultures. On one side I was trying to

fit in with my American culture and family as my cousins and aunts and such were very

Americanized but all at the same time trying to connect to my roots and meet my family from

Mexico. I had struggled to learn English in my first few years of schooling since I was constantly

surrounded by Spanish since my mother had barely been learning English. My mother left her

life, careers and family behind in Mexico to start a new life with her new love in America and it

was not easy for anyone. The cultural differences and the ways of life were always quite the

polar opposite and this I was has worked together to create me.

My life is at the intersection of being first-generation and fourth-generation Mexican

American and I wouldn't have it any other way. I have been able to learn so much about two very
different cultures and connect to my roots and my families. As much as it was a struggle for me

to balance both languages and cultures growing up I am grateful for everything that I went

through. One of the biggest struggles that I fought through and hated growing up was the English

Language Development programs that I had to go through and how much I hated being pulled

out of my classes to participate in this program. I think that at the time it really made me feel

different and not as intelligent as the rest of my classmates. Meanwhile, these programs had the

right intention. I don't think they succeeded in their vision. Well, I did know English and why did

I need support in English I think that pulling me from my grade-level English courses impacted

my level of English however, I am grateful for the experience and for the person that it made me

today. Me and these courses and seeing other children having to leave their home countries for a

better life in America were very humbling in a very eye-opening experience. I came across

students from all parts of the world who had to leave their countries to start at a whole new

school in a whole different country with no English knowledge whatsoever. Well, I didn't like

being there. I was very humbled by the experience and I think that has shaped me into the

respectful person I am.

Growing up as a first-generation student in America changed me a lot too and made me

so much more Resource One responsible in my opinion. Without having many people to ask

questions or having siblings or parents to come with educational questions it was very stressful

growing up. While my mother tried to help me in any way that she could there were just certain

things about the system here that she couldn't help me with. And while my father did end up

going to school and graduating here he started working at a very young age so education was

never his priority. However, I think that growing up with these challenges has made me more

empathetic to people's struggles and has made me a more helpful person. I tend to not want to
have people go through the same struggles that I went to and I understand what it is to go

through the struggles. I tend to connect better with my peers and people around me because I am

more empathetic to their causes. I was shaped in every way and informed going up the way I did.

I think that it has sent me up to be more helpful to people around me such as my brother or just

being more understanding.

In addition to my childhood, the fact that my family always wanted to make sure that it

was connected to my roots and family had a huge influence on me. Over my summer break

holidays, I would be sent to Mexico to spend time with my Grandparents on their Ranch and it

was some of the best times I ever had. I appreciate that my parents did this to me because I was

able to learn so much more about my culture and be able to spend some amazing time with my

grandparents. I also was able to just experience living in the countryside and being able to tend to

all the animals that we had there and be able to learn about agriculture. My grandparents had a

huge Ranch and it was really fun to go and feed all the animals and learn how to ride horses and

make sure that the cows are fed. I think it's some of the best memories that I cherish and I think

that I was very thankful to have spent time with my grandparents like that since I'm the only

grandson that has done that. I think it also influenced me to learn to have a better connection

with the Mexican side of my family. Overall he improved my Spanish skills in my conversation

abilities. And I definitely would like my children to spend time in Mexico or even possibly have

a vacation home in Mexico because I think it is very important to remain connected to your roots

and remember where you came from.

Another huge factor that has influenced my life is my appreciation and love for coffee.

In my opinion, coffee has been around in every memory lingering in the background growing up

and with such a crucial part 2 morning routines and evening routines and some of the best
memories that I've had. To me, coffee was always there in the morning, and even though I didn't

drink it was always what brought the family together in the evening after everyone would come

home from work it did the same thing again as they brought everyone together after dinner with

conversation. To Me, I've always been fascinated by coffee even before I worked in the coffee

industry. My fascination with coffee and everything that goes into Coffee Culture inspired me to

get my job at Starbucks. I got my job at Starbucks Troy College job fair when I was going to my

other university and I'm just about to reach my fifth year at Starbucks and I have loved every

moment of my journey. I started as a barista and to me, it was just so fascinating to be able to

learn everything that Starbucks had to offer and learn everything about making drinks. I was

fascinated by the connections that we would build with our customers. It made me happy to be

able to affect people in their daily routines and make their lives just a little bit better. Like I

mentioned before, coffee is an equal chair and it comes with much more than just a beverage. I

think that coffee has the power to change lives and has the power to make someone’s day. My

fascination with coffee did not end at my job at Starbucks. I always wanted to learn more and

was fascinated by the entire process which led me to express extreme interest in the coffee

master program before it was discontinued. I ended up going through the program and was able

to be certified as a coffee master. It meant so much to me. To me the coffee master program let

me connect even deeper with the coffee and understand everything from how it was grown to

How It Ends in our stores. To me having that extra knowledge was allowing me to connect better

with my customers and bring coffee knowledge to more people's lives. I love that I was able to

expand on my knowledge and bring more awareness to coffee and its culture to my store. To me

personally, even though I've worked on so many things with the company the coffee master

program was one of my greatest achievements in my opinion.

 What Starbucks I also have moved on to becoming a supervisor and I'm currently

working on my development to store manager. I have moved up the ranks in the store because I

love to be able to make a difference in our Baristas limes and I think that as a leader in the store I

can bring much more influence and positivity into the store. I've been on a long leadership

Journey with Starbucks and I do not see it anytime soon and that is one of the most fascinating

aspects. I love that I have been able to grow with the company and not just professionally. I

started at Starbucks at a young age and I feel like I have matured a lot of the company and have

grown together with my co-workers. I think that I have matured a lot through everything I

experienced in life and especially at Starbucks. I think that Starbucks has shown me so much

more about you and your walks of life and so much about how to handle tricky situations. I will

forever be grateful for my experience at Starbucks and everything that I have learned. I have

come across so many different people and not just customers so many different co-workers that

all have a story to tell. I have learned to work with all kinds of people and be able to unite all

kinds of team members to work together to finalize our goals. I learned what works and what

doesn't work with my leadership approaches and I have learned to have those uncomfortable

conversations with people At times. I'm excited about what is to come next in my developmental

Journey but for right now I am thankful for the experience and the people I've come across.

A huge influence on my leadership Journey has been my presidency for the M.E.Ch.A.

organization at my other university. This club was a Mexican American organization that

focused on spreading culture and education into our communities. It was opened up to all kinds

of Latinos or anyone who wanted to be involved and it took on a lot of issues in the community.

We had to work on everything from workers’ rights to Bringing cultural awareness and

addressing some of the struggles that we all deal with. Growing up in the upper-middle-class I do
not think that I have been affected by many of the issues I had come across when I was president

of MEChA and I think that it was a very eye-opening experience. I had to learn About workers’

rights in learning about how they were not gaining finger treatment at our University. I had to

learn how to protest with them and get the unions involved. I also came across so many different

inspirational leaders in the community and had to hear their stories and spread them across our

club. I was very inspired by the Woks of life that these people have led in their Journeys. We

also worry about bringing cultural shows and events to our University. As being a cultural club

for the University we were required to host cultural events throughout the year and how to

fundraise for these events and learn how to budget for these events. And also, it is from the club

that I have met some of my greatest friends that I hope to be lifelong friends as we are still very

close.

More Important than what we were doing as an organization. At the University of the

Pacific, my position as president of the club kick-started my leadership Journey. It was the first

time that I was given power like that especially to be in charge of a club of over 200 members. I

was nominated by so many people and ended up winning the presidency and it was something

that I never would have thought about myself; however, I felt like I needed to step up to the plate

since I was inspired by so many people wanting me to be their leader. I didn't have much

experience with leadership and also was very scared of speaking in front of large groups of

people and this was a learning experience. I had to become very comfortable with speaking in

front of large groups of people and also learning how to lead a group of people like this. I have

people come with all kinds of issues and ideas and learn how to direct them in the best way.

When I first started as president it was customary to run our club by yourself and I noticed that

this was very stressful on previous presidents and I did not want to leave like this. Leading like
this also came with the issue of many people feeling like they were not involved enough in that

their voices were not being heard. To solve this my first motion as president was to create a

board of members and get out positions I could be in charge of all of the tasks that we needed to

do as a club. I came up with secretaries and event coordinators and treasury members, social

media managers and so many more. With this, I was able to get so many more people that

wanted to offer their help involved and I was able to expand our club better than ever before. I

was able to delegate more and more tasks to my club members and we were able to get so much

more done. We were able to expand our presence on campus and definitely within the

community we were able to host larger events and help so many more people in our community.

It was very rewarding to see the amount of impact and influence that we had on campus and

especially how we were starting to be recognized in the community. We were running food

drives and we were leading protests to fight for worker’s rights. We were also hosting events for

the public to bring cultural awareness and let families bring their kids to cultural events that they

might not have witnessed in our area. Overall I think this was one of the biggest and most

stressful steps in my leadership Journey but it is what inspired me to continue that journey in my

professional life. I think that this club showed me so much more about the power leaders have to

influence the lives around them and everything that it takes to be a leader. There were even times

I wanted to abandon the presidency because I was becoming very overwhelmed and stressed but

I learned that leaders are not alone and we can ask for help from our club members for our work

co-workers or our peers. I learned what it takes to inspire people to work for you and be able to

accomplish greater things together. I learned about so many more issues that were affecting our

community in our area that I had no idea about. It became a voice for many of these people. And

well at times this was one of those stressful periods in my life it was also one of the most
rewarding. I have meetings with close friends through this club and have built great connections

in the community and take everything that I learned with me on my leadership journey.

The journey through the presidency of this club is actually what inspired me to progress

in my development at Starbucks. At the time of my presidency, I was still just a barista and

Barista trainer and after I had left my college to transfer to Arizona State University through the

Starbucks College achievement plan I felt the need to want to lead and inspire people in my life

still. So I decided to work on my development to shift supervisor. I developed quite quickly after

mentioning that I wanted to become a shift supervisor and has been changing and affecting the

lives of my baristas every day since then. Remind me to ship at Starbucks. I've had to learn so

much more about coaching people and making sure that we're working to standard. I have also

had to do with very stressful situations such as how to handle angry customers and situations

with unstable people that involve the police. I've also had to learn how to manage my stress level

when I'm running the floor. I have learned that I need to learn to delegate more and not take

everything on at once because as a leader if I am just taking on all the work I cannot leave my

people. It has been a journey through my leadership at Starbucks since I'm always working on

something new and always working on what I can improve. I have learned so much more from

the different managers that I've come across in all the different approaches and ideas that I get

from our district manager. I have learned so much more about myself and everything that I want

to accomplish in life and I appreciate everyone that has come across my Starbucks Journey. I

am to the point now that I feel like I have mastered what it means to be a supervisor and how to

lead my Baristas as a supervisor and I still crave to be able to influence and impact Our Lives

even more. This is why I am currently working on my development to Starbucks store manager

and this comes across roads between my obsession with the coffee industry and my fulfillment to
lead people. I think that as a store manager not only will I learn everything that comes with

running an entire coffee shop but also learn how to influence and impact the lives of employees

at a much deeper level. I have been trying to push for Mine Development for years now and it

can be a little frustrating because I feel like I have all the passion and desire to do the job and I

just haven't been able to move forward. I think that I'm currently in standing water when it comes

to my development. I think that has put a strain on the way the company used to work on these

things and the attention that has come with development. I would love to be a Starbucks store

manager to learn about how to run an entire coffee shop as a stepping stone into a higher

leadership position with the company or another Direction learning how to run an entire business

in case I ever wanted to open my coffee shop or my own business. I think that I could find a

better career once I have my degree and everything that I have done in my journey, however, I'm

passionate about the Starbucks Coffee Company. I love everything that we do and the people that

we come across then I would love to stay with the company as much as I can shortly. Well, I

don't see myself being a Starbucks store manager forever. It would be a great stepping stone. So I

will be excited to see what happens once I graduate from school in June and see what happens

with my development.

Another great developmental peace in my life was my trip to New York. I have been

fascinated with New York all my life and have you dedicated my life to decorating my room in

New York style. I was always drawn to the stories in movies of New York and I always wanted

to go. It wasn't until my friends I'll miss out one day when we were talking about it and they told

me that I was never going to go and stay caught up and went for it. That's him the night we got

together and we got airline tickets to go to New York for two weeks almost a year in advance.

We were determined to go to New York no matter what was going to happen. And I think that it
was one of the best and most life-changing trips of my life. New York turned out to be

everything that I would have hoped for and so much more. I was able to spend two weeks in the

city with my closest friends and truly Bond over our experiences in New York. This trip showed

me a lot about life in making sure that we accomplished what we want to as soon as possible.

Life is not guaranteed forever and I think that if we have the opportunity, we need to Chase and

follow our dreams as soon as possible. One may never know when our last day on this planet is

and I don't want to live this life with a long list of things that I wish I could do. This trip showed

me what it meant to have supportive friends that stand by you through any Journey and the

importance of realizing your dreams are possible if you put your mind to them.

The final piece in my life's journey I would say is this current covid-19 pandemic that we

are living through. This has changed my life a lot because it is giving me so much more time at

the beginning of quarantine to reflect on my life and everything that I have wanted to

accomplish. They gave me so much more time and energy to focus on my schooling and making

sure that I advance so much more in it. And while I am struggling at the moment I see the end in

sight. I am so close to being done and I am ready to finish my schooling and move on to the next

phase of my life. Also, having my entire family catch covid at one point was very eye-opening to

me and made me realize that family is what's most important. Being stuck at home with my

family for the whole month of January while we were all sick was an experience. Our very

existence and mortality were put in our faces as we all fought off. I think that even though it was

a terrible experience it brought us closer together as a family and needed us to appreciate all that

we were doing for each other as we were getting better slowly. The current pandemic has shown

me that like I mentioned before, life is not forever and we must accomplish and fight for what we

need and want in this life now.

 Overall as I hope you are approved in this assessment of my life is that life is a journey

with so many pieces that play a part in it. Well, this is not everything that has affected me. To

me, they're the greatest milestones in my life and I've left an impact on who I am as a person.

Realizing that life is a journey and we must live every day fighting for what we want and meet

has made me realize that no one's life is over at a certain age. No one's life is running out if we

continue to fight for what we want in this life.

Finally to mention I will be including this assignment in my e-portfolio that I've already

created. I think that this assignment is a great reflection of my entire life's journey and has shown

so much of how much I've grown as a person. I think that more than just professionally has

shown how much I've grown emotionally and spiritually as a person. I am overall thankful for

the assessment because it has made me reflect on everything that I have accomplished and be

proud of my journey. All my journey is far from over. I think that taking a second to reflect on

everything that I have accomplished is a great step for my future.