Personal Essay: Rigoberta's Life

Growing up my parents allowed me to believe I could do anything I want to in life, and I believed them, and I still somewhat do because I have been privileged from birth. I am very grateful because my parents have provided me with encouragement, countless opportunities for traveling, education, and pretty much anything else I could want. I knew I live an incredibly privileged life, but Rigoberta’s story shocked me based on their expectations for the future, which was a lot worse than I thought was possible. On her tenth birthday, Rigoberta learned from her parents that her life would never amount to anything. She said, “They told me I would have many ambitions but I wouldn’t have the opportunity to realize them. They said my life wouldn’t change, …show more content…
She said, “They said I was beginning my life as a woman and I would want many things that I couldn’t have. They tried to tell me that, whatever my ambitions, I’d no way of achieving them” (69). No matter what my dream in life is, my parents will support me, but Rigoberta’s life has been ruined by American and European countries and it has resulted in a completely different mindset than I am used to. I am thankful Rigoberta was able to escape and tell her story to the world because I do think people, myself included, need to read this and learn how a lot of the world is because I think a lot of people, especially in privileged communities like Scripps, do not realize how bad life is for most people in the rest of the world. One other passage along the same theme is one of the wedding vows where the woman says, “I will be a mother, I will suffer, my children will suffer, many of my children will die young because of the circumstances created for us by white men. It will be hard for me to accept my children’s death but I will bear it because our ancestors bore it without giving up”