Since I was young, all I ever desired was the chance to be free. Free from poverty, free from abuse and free from violence. When I was younger, I thought that if I made a wish on star, I would be free yet as I grew older, I realized something. Freedom to me means having a better life. One in which poverty didn’t exist, one in which I am able to be treated with respect and love, freedom to me means being able to walk down the streets without the fear of gangs. Education is the only thing that will delivery me from my current life, it will bring me freedom. Education will open the doors and I will finally be able to escape this life of misery.
I want to be free to see what lies out in the world. I am the first one in my family to go to college and in essence, I will the first free person. I will not have to work as hard as my mom does. When I finish college, I will never have to work more than eight hours as she has had to. I will go to college so that I can have a stable economic life. I want to be free from the worry of poverty. I miss the security that money provides. Money would erase the worry lines around my mother’s eyes. I want an education because I want to take care of family I want my mother to be free from worry.
Education is my ticket out of a gang-infested neighborhood and it is a ticket out of fear. The only way out in my neighborhood is by a coffin or in handcuffs. Yet I have found a different way, education. I will go to college and make something of myself. I will prove to my friends and family that there is another way. I will the odds that tell that by now I should be a high school drop out and pregnant. I will not leave my vicinity by handcuffs but I will it in a graduation gown.
To me an education will allow me to have choices in my life. With an education, I will be able to obtain a good job and this in turn will allow me to choose who I want in my life. My mother got remarried a man who believes that being the head of the household means being a tyrant. To him, I am the price he had to pay for marrying my mother. Sadly, he has never embraced me as his own. In his hands, I have suffered unspeakable verbal abuse. Whenever we argue, he resorts to calling me horrible names and telling me that I am worthless. My mother has remained silent. From his lips, I hear that I am useless and that I don’t deserve to live in his home. In some ways, he has succeeded in breaking me down. At home, I do not voice my opinion much anymore as I know he will dismiss it. In every other way he has failed because of him, I am a stronger person. I know that if I am still able to thrive in my life I can do anything. If have and education and I would be able to provide for myself, economically and then I will not have to tolerate any more abuse.
Often times I daydream about escaping my current life and I wish I could. Yet I can’t. What I can do is plan for my future and ensures my survival. For me education is not just about learning it is about having a say in my life. Education is a way that I can an escape a life filled with gangs and violence. To me education and freedom are the same concepts.
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