Woman, person of color,
non-heterosexual, Cal Poly student, liberal, and the list goes on. The difficulty I find in writing an
autobiography is what hat to wear while writing it. As a woman I could focus on rites of passage
that women experience. As a person of
color I could hone in on the disadvantages of my skin. As a non-heterosexual I could elaborate on the
scowls and whispers directed my way. My
goal is to provide a brief description of my journey to Cal Poly without
wearing one particular hat.
Growing up in Los Angeles you would
expect exposure to a plethora of diversity. Not the case when you’re raised by Hispanic
Catholics that never attended college. My
parents and grandparents were all blue collar workers and never encouraged us to commingle with a demographic that was unlike their own. Pursuit of higher education was also low on my
family’s list of priorities. It’s not
that they were anti-education, but they would have been proud if you at least
got through high school without getting pregnant! Unfortunately, most of my relatives couldn’t
even do that, but I was happy to oblige them.
Most families have expectations of
their children. From the major you
choose, to the person you marry, to the career you enter, there may be unspoken
expectations. My situation was less
restricted. I was neither discouraged nor
encouraged by family to follow a designated route. The indifference drove me to prove myself for
my own satisfaction. It gave me the
desire to be better than my relatives educationally, physically, and
economically.
After graduating high school in
Orange County I took a year off to secure employment since I would be
financially responsible for my education. An internship provided by an adult educational
facility gave me the opportunity and I was hired as a clerk in a hospital’s
radiology department. Once my year off
came to a close I was promoted and several employees were placed under my
charge. The department director offered
to cross train me as an EKG technician and of course I jumped at the
opportunity to learn about cardiology. My
schedule was beyond full time and I often pulled double shifts which only
allowed for attending school part time.
Experiences at the hospital led me
to the pre-med route while majoring in anthropology. This major was appealing for its comprehensive
study of culture. My belief was that it
would enable me to understand and build connections to my future patients. Soon afterward a friend and mentor advised me
to attend school full time and work part time. Financially it was insane but the advice came
with an offer of free room and board. The
catch was that I needed to leave Southern California and move to Fresno. Relocating was easy. However, it was several months before finding
a part time job at a hospital. My new
job was as an anesthesia technician at a children’s hospital. Being a member of the surgical team was
exciting and enjoyable but brought me to the painful realization that there are
aspects of medicine that I would not be capable of fulfilling.
Pre-med was no longer in my future,
but I continued pursuing a degree in anthropology. Cal Poly, I discovered, was the only school
in the CSU system to offer the degree as a bachelor of science which was my deciding
factor in choosing where to transfer. My
declared concentration is environmental studies and sustainability. GIS is also of particular interest to me and I
hope to obtain a career in its utilization by multiple industries.
In
two years my journey at Cal Poly will come to an end and transition into the
next phase of my life. Looking forward,
I envision a career in public service. More
specifically, my hope is to obtain federal employment for the Department of the
Interior, possibly with the Bureau of Land Management.
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