Rachel Franco

Ethnics 2400 Intro

Professor Jensen

February 18, 2022

Steps Toward Freedom

Who is Rachel Franco? Rachel is a unique person. I am the daughter of my

loving mother Denise and my father Henry Franco. I am also a sister, the youngest of

the three. Above me are Andrew and Nathan. These people make me a part of a family

that I love and enjoy and they make me strive to try my hardest and support me and

love me unconditionally. In the eyes of my family, I can be lazy, loud, annoying, loving, a

golfer, and sometimes rude.

In public, I can be seen as someone completely different at school. I can be

known to be quiet because I never talk much in my classes. I can be seen as

hardworking because I always strive to get all A’s and turn in assignments on time. I’m

known to be super nice at school because of how I’m willing to help others and

participate. I’m known to be an artist because of my capabilities in the art classes I’m in

and I’m always willing to participate, try new things and push the limits of art. I can also

be seen as a rich girl or a brat or something along those lines because I play golf and I

own a car and seem quite well off. Something else the public will see from me is that I’m

American but also caucasian and half Hispanic, that I am conservative, and that I’m

religious. Those can perceive me in a bad light because being half caucasian I can be

half labeled higher off from the Hispanic side I can be seen as an immigrant and lower
class with other stereotypes from the races. Being a Conservative and an American I

can be seen as racist, homophobic, a bigot and etc.

From my personal perspective, I can say I don’t see myself for all of these things.

Those who believe all these or say that I can only be one thing and that I have to stay in

my box. From the ted talk “the danger of a single story” Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

says “The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that

they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only

story.” So by me being put into a box, I am not complete and I am not living my true

self.

I feel that this is a part of self-respect. I believe that self-respect is accepting

oneself for its faults with seeing and accepting the way you do things and who you are.

With that believing that you are good and worthy of being treated well plus

understanding yourself and beliefs, and living your true self. Furthermore, I feel that it

can also be loving yourself. Not only to have those for yourself it should also be applied

to the people around you. This is what I believe true self-respect should be.

Looking into having self-respect we need to look at and understand who we are

as a person and who we want to be and strive to become so that we become our best

version. Taking from the for Tezcatlipoca it talks about us growing and then having a

self-reflection. Applying the Tezcatlipoca to ourselves will help us grow and constantly

become better because the process never ends. Then despite us having faults, we

need to recognize them and accept them as ourselves and if possible work on them. If

we don’t do this we won’t understand ourselves to the fullest extent then we can’t be
free and have respect for ourselves. From Mary Pickford, she said “ Those who never

make mistakes lose a great many chances to learn something” I find this important

because we need to know that we will make mistakes in our life; we are human; it’s not

possible to be perfect and nor should we try to be perfect. But we need to be able to

accept it and what she says is to learn from it. Then looking at the importance of having

respect for others and how it ties into ourselves I look at the quote from a previous

president Theodore Roosevelt makes a statement of “I am an American; free born and

free bred, where I acknowledge no man as my superior, except for his own worth, or as

my inferior, except for his own demerit.” Looking at this I have interpreted it as that we

are equal no matter what or who someone is except if they themself don’t have self-

respect. Then tying back into yourself if we don’t have self-worth and respect then

others won’t give that to us.

For myself, It has been a journey of learning to respect me. Throughout the last

couple of years in my life, I have struggled with depression, anxiety, and an overall lack

of self-worth. Realizing I really don’t have any self-respect or had very little. I had a

dilemma with myself not feeling good enough and I had felt that I would be better off

dead. That was a major decrease with having problems with using drug substances,

having self-harm issues, and not being able to stand up for me. Despite the low points,

one of the major things I think that increased my respect for myself was to ask for help

when I knew I desperately needed it. Because knowing I wasn’t going to last much

longer. Going to therapy being put on medication and taking care of myself and learning

to accept who I am. Furthermore, I’ve learned to be myself and not always fit into the

boxes society has given. I have learned to do things that make me happy and not others
and become more of my true self. I feel that this has been a process that hasn’t

stopped and not that it will never end. I’m learning more about myself every day and I’m

changing who I am as a person for the better of myself and even others. I feel that

having more self-respect has made me stand up for myself to others so that they will

respect me and my boundaries and who I am as a person so I’m not pushed around. I

believe that by keeping on track I’m going to have more self-respect. One of my goals is

learning to love myself and understand the amazing qualities of myself. When I leave for

college and I’m out of my house I am excited to learn more and make improvements to

myself and do the things I love and find my passions and understand myself to a deeper

level. Learning to love me will be hard but it will be worth it; I believe it will help me with

my mental health problems and accept me for who I am.

Sources:

● Adichie, C. N. (2009, October 7). The danger of a single story. TED Talks.

Retrieved February 23, 2022, from

https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_

story

● Mary Pickford Quotes About Mistakes. (n.d.). A-Z Quotes. Retrieved February

23, 2022, from

https://www.azquotes.com/author/11647-Mary_Pickford/tag/mistake
● Quotations from the speeches and other works of Theodore Roosevelt - Theodore

Roosevelt Association. (n.d.). Theodore Roosevelt Association. Retrieved

February 25, 2022, from https://www.theodoreroosevelt.org/content.aspx?

page_id=22&club_id=991271&module_id=339333

● The four Tezecatipocas