My Immigrant: A Personal Analysis

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One of the most influential factors in my life has been the fact that I am immigrant. I was not born in the United States but in Colombia. My whole life was different there than here, over there my family lived a humble life. Socioeconomic status impacted my early upbringing because my parents grew up in poverty and with nothing higher than a high school education. When I was being raised, they instilled the idea of education in my brain and worked really hard to give me “what they never had.” Still we were not in the best schools in the country and we lived among many other people who barely got by. For this reason we decided that Colombia was not going to provide the best future and we came to the United States. Growing up through my adolescent…show more content…
However, we were situated next to a town that is well known for gangs, drugs and the occasional shooting. Eventually the accessibility to weed and drugs was there and in high school many of my friends smoked and partook in risky behaviors. As well, the violence was there when individuals from a neighboring town crossed over to ours to make trouble. Safety here became an issue as the town we lived in was safe but we were still surrounded by other towns that were not. For me education was always important and I am fortunate that I finished high school and are now on my way to finish college. I was able to get my associates degree in communications and so now I may be more qualified over someone who may not have a degree and I am hoping my chances and opportunities will grow as I attain my bachelors degree. I have a very strong support network coming from my family and this has helped me push for higher education and be a very healthy individual. I have engaged in very low risk activities through most of my life and in a way I am glad because my family always guided me to think of my future and love myself instead of binge drinking and partying every…show more content…
We had fast food and sugary drinks all the time and we enjoyed it because they were items that we were never exposed to before. However, when I was in middle school we had a diabetes screening and a letter was sent home to my parents saying that I was prone for Diabetes Type 2. My mom since that day has completely changed our lifestyle and diet to a healthier one. Access to health insurance has been a roller coaster all my life. My family had health insurance for a few years from my dad's job. However, the company went bankrupt and he was laid off. We lost all our health insurance benefits and I didn't have health insurance for almost ten years until about a year ago. The company htaht my dad worked at afterward would offer extremely high insurance premiums that were impossible for anyone to acquire on the salary. We were limited to only going to the community health clinic and paying for all expenses out of pocket. My mom would do anything and everything to avoid me from getting sick. We spent a lot of money on over the counter drugs. We also spent a lot of time being unnecessarily sick for long periods of time and only went to the doctor when we were very
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