Collage Essay

Personal Statement

Unlike many other kids at the age of seven I had already begun to face the subject of diversity. I learned at a young age that kids can be cruel. It is hard to recall exactly how many nights I prayed that I would wake up with golden blonde hair and bright blue eyes. I was too young to understand my deep-rooted family history, and why I looked different from many of the other kids at my elementary school. Several years later as a seventh grader, I was still struggling with my appearance.

I can vividly remember walking into my mother's kindergarten class one day when I was job shadowing with her and having her introduce me to her class. Naturally, she explained how I was her daughter and that I was going to be spending the day with them. It was then that one little boy raised his hand and asked how I could be her daughter when I was Mexican and she was not. My mother responded to the boy's question by explaining how I was not Mexican but rather Italian. As I stood there mortified and in tears she went into further detail clarifying how I looked unlike her because I was almost all Italian allowing me to have stronger Italian features while she was just a fraction Italian. It was that afternoon hours after my demeaning experience, that I became fascinated with finding out more about my Italian heritage.

I began by searching for the answers to the questions that many other people posed upon first meeting me such as, "what are you?" "why do you look that way?" "were your ancestors from Italy?" "does your family still live there?" I already had the knowledge that I was Italian and that I possessed many distinguishing features such as my dark hair and eyes and olive skin, but I wanted to know more than the obvious. I began asking questions from both my father and grandfather, and I found the information I learned to be both intriguing and inspiring.