One foot rooted in urban Puerto Rican heritage and the other having been later immersed in the Southern black experience as an adult, I have learned to merge the conceivably disparate cultures of my family. Each afforded me a unique point of view, developing the self-assurance that has empowered me to succeed in the face of adversity. Being of Puerto Rican descent in the inner city kept the lack of financial stability of my youth in view and motivated me to pursue my education. As a black American female I learned the value of diversity, having experienced first-hand the misconceptions that can shape in a homogeneous environment. For instance from being called “too much of a free-spirited city girl,” in the country to later being “too old-fashioned
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Growing up in the city I was encouraged to embrace the expression of art and I gained exposure to it in a wealth of ways. I enjoyed seeing the love and passion exude from the pores of my relatives, like my grandmother through a paintbrush on a canvas where she created life-like portraits or like my closest uncle making music in the studio from sunrise to sunset later going on to produce chart-topping tracks for music icons like Michael Jackson, Jessie Powell and more. I worked creatively alongside friends who were writers, filmmakers and vocalists, and volunteered as an intern for a fashion styling company in Manhattan. These experiences instilled in me a love for creativity and freedom and it was in this time of my life that I realized my passion for the power of expression. However I couldn’t fight the overwhelming sentiment that I wanted to be an advocate for others seeing how in my city, creation and art are at the core of our peoples’ livelihood, which I always sought to help …show more content…
For two years I worked to earn an income before I decided to sacrifice money to realize my long-term goal of attending law school. My relatives pushed me to study full-time for the LSAT exam and encouraged me to thoroughly plan ahead to prepare for my future professional career in law. This new perspective provided me with an increased sense of structure and relentless work ethic to apply to my goals –what I first viewed as contradicting- I later realized complemented the creativity and passion that I already
Growing up in the city I was encouraged to embrace the expression of art and I gained exposure to it in a wealth of ways. I enjoyed seeing the love and passion exude from the pores of my relatives, like my grandmother through a paintbrush on a canvas where she created life-like portraits or like my closest uncle making music in the studio from sunrise to sunset later going on to produce chart-topping tracks for music icons like Michael Jackson, Jessie Powell and more. I worked creatively alongside friends who were writers, filmmakers and vocalists, and volunteered as an intern for a fashion styling company in Manhattan. These experiences instilled in me a love for creativity and freedom and it was in this time of my life that I realized my passion for the power of expression. However I couldn’t fight the overwhelming sentiment that I wanted to be an advocate for others seeing how in my city, creation and art are at the core of our peoples’ livelihood, which I always sought to help …show more content…
For two years I worked to earn an income before I decided to sacrifice money to realize my long-term goal of attending law school. My relatives pushed me to study full-time for the LSAT exam and encouraged me to thoroughly plan ahead to prepare for my future professional career in law. This new perspective provided me with an increased sense of structure and relentless work ethic to apply to my goals –what I first viewed as contradicting- I later realized complemented the creativity and passion that I already