Why Is Immigration Important To Me

885 Words4 Pages
One of the most influential factors in my life has been the fact that I am an immigrant. I was not born in the United States, but in Colombia. I came to the United States when I was nine years old. My early childhood in Colombia was very different than the life New Jersey provided. 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 and worked really hard to give me “what they never had.” Still, I was not in the best schools in Colombia 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…show more content…
Other members of my family are also currently attending college and we all have big aspiration for each other. A strong support system has also helped me to be a very healthy individual. I have engaged in very low risk activities through most of my life because my family always guided me to think of my future and love myself instead of binge drinking and partying every weekend. I was able to make better choices for myself and feel confident about the choices I made. Although my family is Hispanic, I don't think that the Hispanic culture affected me as much as American culture did. When my family started to establish a life here, we started eating very unhealthy foods and everyone gained weight, including me. We had fast food and sugary drinks all the time. 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

More about Why Is Immigration Important To Me

Open Document