Allen Govea CI 476 Teacher as Writer

The Journey that Shaped My Career Decision On August 12, 1989, the world welcomed a future teacher. That was the day that I was born in the City of Chicago. I was born at Cook County Hospital at 1:01am, after my mother had been in labor for 14 hours. At that day in time, my mother was 40 years old and was told that the pregnancy was very risky because of her age. On the morning that I was brought into this world, there were no complications and everything came out right. I was given my name because my sisters husband was named Allen and my parents really liked the name. I was born to hardworking parents who came to the U.S in the 1970s from Mexico because they wanted a better life. They had attempted to come to the U.S many times but they finally were able to accomplish that in the 70s. My parents would always tell me their stories and why they wanted to come to the U.S. They wanted to come to the U.S to have a better life and to make sure that their future kids would have everything in their lives that they were not as fortunate to have. My parents experienced walking through deserts, malnutrition, and excessive heat waves when they were on their way to cross the border that separates the U.S and Mexico. They attempted to cross the border many times up until they were finally able to illegally arrive in the U.S. Stories about the time that they were caught by the border patrol enrage me. They were kicked, slapped, and treated like animals whey they were caught by the patrol. Thinking about what my parents had to go through so that when I was born I would have a better life is one image that will never leave my head. It is something that not everyone can understand.

The events that I experienced in my life allowed me to decide about my career post college graduation. When I was born, I was the youngest of 7. I have 3 older sisters and 3 older brothers, which makes us a huge family. Currently I have 17 nieces/nephews and way too many cousins to count. My nieces/nephews, my brothers and sisters have a really huge role in the reason why I decided to become an Elementary school teacher. I grew up in the Southside of the city of Chicago, in a neighborhood called South Lawndale more commonly known as Little Village, or La Villita, because of its strong population of Mexicans who live in that neighborhood. My neighborhood is also sometimes referred to as Little Mexico, for its strong rooted cultured atmosphere when one steps into it. In Little Village one notices hardworking people walking around streets selling cold popsicles and other vendors selling chopped fruit and corn on a cob. Little Village at its first glance seems like a neighborhood where nothing can ever go wrong at. However, that is not the case at all. Growing up my parents always emphasized the importance of school and how that should be my main priority. At the time when I was very young, I did not know the reason behind their emphasis on education for me and my brother. We both were the youngest of the 7 and we were the closest in age. Even though I liked school and enjoyed it, I still wondered why my parents had an extra push for me and my brother to do well in school and to always be on top of our homework. Eventually, after I was searching and asking for an answer to my questions, my parents finally told me. They sat us down and told us about the past experiences that my brothers and sisters had and how that could affect who we were and how we could become influenced by their decisions. My brothers and sisters (except the one who is close to my age) were all involved in gang activities in my neighborhood. What did this mean? How could that affect us? When my brothers and sisters were initiated into the gang in my neighborhood they

were being initiated for life. The only way that they would be able to get out of any relation with the gangs would be to go through the initiation process all over again which is something that they did not want. When I first found out about this, I did not know how to approach it. I felt lost, confused and uneasy. How is it that my own family was part of something that had been portrayed negatively in the media with so much violence and murder tied into it? How could my own blood family been at one point, the leaders of a gang that cause so much harm in the streets? At that point, my nieces/nephews were close to my age; the oldest being 2 years older than me and the 2nd oldest being 2 years younger than me. My nieces/nephews were experiencing gang life because their parents were all part of it even with their old age. I started to think deeply. What will I do? What could I do? It was during those times that I started to think about ways that I can help people not join gangs and to make a better future for themselves. I was first hand seeing how my brothers and sisters were struggling to make a living and I wanted that to stop. During that time, I was also experiencing firsthand how gang life could influence young people. I started observing scenarios that were not typical for a young kid to experience. In and around my neighborhood, I started seeing how gang members would deal drugs to young kids and others for money. One day, I also had to run from a shooting that was going on while I was walking to the corner store to buy a bag of chips. Another time, I had to surrender my money because members of the rival gang (the one that my family was not a part of) stopped me and demanded that I give them my money. I was experiencing so much and it was an overwhelming occurrence. I was never surer of what I wanted to do and made my deciding factor when I was in 5th grade. One morning during my 5th grade year, my family received some tragic news. Never did I expect to be hearing this news that would drain my energy at the exact moment that I was

informed about it. We had been informed that my brother had been a victim of a shooting. He was indeed shot in the head by a member of a rival gang member. He had been rushed to the hospital and in very critical condition. Later that day, we were told that he was brain dead and that he was a living vegetable. The only way that he was being kept alive was through a machine. He had no brain activity so there was really no way that he would one day wake up. When my family heard that official news, there was a pool of tears. So many of the memories that I had with my brother all of a sudden came to my mind and I realized that I would not share or be part of any new memories anymore. My brother was taken from this world too early. My family had to make a decision of whether or not to keep him on that machine that was keeping him alive or to shut the machine down which meant that he would officially pass away. My mom and family made the very hard decision to take him off the machine. Growing up in my neighborhood, the experiences that I had with close contact with gang activity, the death of my brother and the mental image that I have of my parents being attacked while attempting to come to the U.S were all factors that allowed me to decide on my career decision. I did not want people to be struggling through their lives like my family had been struggling. I needed to find a career that would help people for their future. It was then that I knew that the best way that I would be able to help stop this was to become a teacher. By becoming a teacher, I would be able to motivate and encourage students to make positive decisions. I would be able to be that teacher who provides them with outlook in life and appreciates them all for who they are. As of now, I want to be a teacher for a school in Little Village. I want to go back and give to the community who shaped who I am as a person so that I can be a role model for students. I feel that going back into my own community and educating students there is what I

need to do. I know for a fact that I was born to be a teacher and I know for a fact that I was born to teach in Little Village. It just makes sense to me. Students will be able to see a teacher who lives in their neighborhood and who knows the struggles that most kids are probably going through. I will be living proof that if one sets their minds to something they want to achieve, then they will be able to accomplish it. I will be there to help them when they have troubles and I will be their friend when they feel like everything in their world is going into shambles. I will be their teacher because that is what I was born to do.