Personal Statement

Growing up in the 209 has felt like this never ending cycle in the agricultural community being a
hispanic or latino as we go from job to job throughout the seasons. Merced is the most diverse
community I know and all I've only ever known, home to 90,000 residents Merced produces the
majority of food/goods here in the central valley. What may seem to be your normal fruits or
veggies you see at the grocery store have more of a meaning then what you may think as it is
what keeps the hispanic community united and alive. Hi my name is Bryan Mora, soon to
graduate June 2024 and this is my story.

¿Qué vas a hacer con tu vida? is an ongoing question that circulates in my head everyday as I
reflect on those rural mornings and sleepless nights led by that inner hunger that drove me
there every single day at 5 in the morning. Working in the fields gave me a different perspective
of life and made me value what I have to a whole different level though it might sound like an
exaggeration it’s not. This summer like the rest of them I worked seasonal jobs which include
tomato, cherry, apricot,diestel turkey farms, shoving out weeds, and replanting tomatoes. This
mixture of jobs was definitely something that I’ll remember when I’m older as they taught me
that not everything is easy as I’ve got that first hand experience or idea of what my dad goes
through waking up every day for work at 3 am. It made me realize that I wanna be better and do
better in life for my family because talking to most of the people I worked with they all had
similar stories leading to immigration from Mexico not having access to an education which is
why I’m very grateful but also want to take full advantage of the opportunities in front of me.
Physical pain is temporary but as the years go by we all grow older decreasing the tolerance of
how much pain we can handle and let me tell you while I was working being the young one
there I felt more tired then the oldest people there during my first days telling myself everyday
that I was not going anymore but my inner self was not comfortable with giving up so easily
because like other kids my age that were also there I had a choice to either show up or not
making me I guess you can say privileged in a way but I hate that word because I don’t feel that
way at all. I’m often told you have it all though people are not aware of the struggles my parents
had to go through to give me a better life than what they had so I wanna prove to my dad that I
can do the same and much more and though money played a big role in my motivation
everyday I value the experience much more because money comes and goes but the things you
learn to do or the knowledge you obtain will stay with you for a lifetime.

I’ve always loved to work for everything I have because growing up in a small apartment
and having to share a room, clothes, shoes with my siblings made me feel good about buying
my own things where I have this unlimited freedom.. My schedule when working 2 jobs would
consist of going to work at 3 am starting at 5 am finish at 12 am get home shower eat sleep then
waking up at 4pm getting ready for my second job leaving my house at 5pm start work by 6pm
and finish at 2 am get home eat and go to work again. To specify I would basically only get
anywhere from 3-4 hours of sleep if that then worked the entirety of day Monday to Saturday
and occasionally Sunday. Waking up early was only the beginning of what was to come
everyday because after what felt like a beat down with the first job the only thing in my mind was
how I was even going to pull through to show up for the second one but after just looking at the
bright side of things I would simply motivate myself which would hard sometimes because I
swore to myself that it was going to be last day everyday.

Yet as I worked it gave me a lot of time to reflect back and really think about what I wanna do in
the future. It was like a new mission everyday and once completed it felt like the game was
never over but now I realized that the “game” is over when I want it to be because although I
cannot control destiny of what is to come in my near future what I can control is how I face
adversity choosing where I’m gonna lie in these next few years of my life. I’ve never been the
perfect kid, smartest kid, one in the spotlight but I have always worked hard to achieve my goals
and though I may cross paths with adversity along the way I would say I try my best to face it
the best way possible and yes not all the times go my way but that’s just how life works not
everything will go the way you want it to which sucks but at the end of the day you have to see it
through motivating yourself to stay on track because one thing that has no value or no one can
take from you is who you are as a person because in this world no matter what anyone says we
are all special in different ways.

Stumbling upon different obstacles like carry heavy ladders, excessive back pain, having to deal
with asshole bosses were all temporary because I’ve motivated myself to the point where in
these next few years I’m going to show my siblings and little to come into highschool that gpa
and all those ap classes in the end don’t matter though yes it gets you ahead of others it
necessarily doesn’t mean that you can’t be successful in life even due to the fact that success
looks differently for everyone for example I know my vision of success differs from my current
highschool friends which is totally fine as at the end of the day we will all go our separate ways
overcoming our own problems all part of the beauty of life and just like my dad has always told I
would want to be remember as the hard worker who people would only have good things to say
about not someone who couldn’t do anything with their lives because they let adversity win.