Essay On Growing As An Individual

Living in a world of many different social settings causes people to have a different outlook on who they are as an individual. Getting exposed to different cultures can cause people to forget their roots since they are pulled into everyone else’s cultures around them. If one forgets their roots it can alter that person’s future. Growing as an individual does not only affect the individual, but the people who the individual associates with daily. When exposed to the benefits of formal English, one’s past has the possibility of getting buried and a new identity can be born within that person. People can be trapped by the language they use, which limits their identity from growing. Different environments may have their own dialects of English, even though they know standard English exists. For example, Malcolm X, a spokesman of the Nation of Islam, states: “It was because of my letters that I happened to stumble upon starting to acquire some kind of a homemade education,” (121). Surrounded by car thieves and drug dealers Malcolm X believed that he was trapped in his …show more content…
Professional writer Leticia Salais, tried her best to forget her past; she also made her son suffer the consequences of not being comfortable with her past by forbidding him from learning Spanish, which is something she truly regretted as he grew older. In relation to not teaching her seven year old son Spanish Salais states: “I am embarrassed that I foolishly kept my beautiful native language from him,” (181). Salais had turned her back to her Spanish culture in order to develop her American culture. The gift of being multicultural and bilingual is one that not many have, but the ones that do have it live a life of more opportunities than someone who is only exposed to one culture throughout their