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Javier Silva
Mr. Yoon
Calculus
18 August 2014
The Story of Self
My name is Javier Jesus Silva, I am 17 years old, and I was born in the Torrance
Memorial. When I was born, I was brought into the house I live in today. I was also
brought home in the car that will be mine when I get my license. There are 6 people in
my family, and 3 dogs. My parents names are Javier Arias, and Gloria Silva. My older
sisters name is Mayra; she is about to start her sophomore year in Dominguez Hills.
Then its me; my younger brothers name is Adrian, who is a sophomore here at DaVinci.
And my little sisters name is Samantha, and she is about to start 2nd grade at Cabrillo.
Our 3 dogs are named Missy, Roxy, and Mimi.
All 4 of my grandparents are from Mexico, but Ive only met 1 of them. My mom
was born here, and she was raised over there. My dad was born and raised over there.
Because Im Mexican, I grew up in the typical Mexican culture. My parents were
fortunate enough to have very good jobs, especially compared to the Mexican population
that migrated over here. My parents always tried to do everything in their ability to make
our lives better by giving us almost everything we wanted. Being a typical Mexican, my
parents enrolled me in soccer when I was very young, and they were actually my soccer
coaches when I barely started paying in AYSO. I dont meant to brag, but people would
tell my parents that I was a natural. All of my soccer skills just came to me, even if it was
my first time playing. Ever since then, Ive loved soccer, and I will continue loving it for

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the rest of my life. By playing soccer, it helped me make friends, and meet new people.
When I started to pay soccer, I also started to watch soccer. My dad went for a Mexican
league team called Pumas. But I wanted to be different and root for my own team, so I
started to watch the Spanish league. I immediately fell in love with the Spanish giants,
Barcelona and Real Madrid. It was roughly 2007 when I really started rooting for
Barcelona, favoring them over Real Madrid. I was so amazed by the skills all the players
possessed, and ever since then, Ive always dreamed to play for Barcelona. You can say
that I am a hardcore soccer fan. A day hasnt gone by that I dont do something that
involves soccer. I either: play soccer, watch it, or play FIFA, its a good addiction.
When I started Elementary school one subject that always stood out to me was
Math. I dont want to seem like a teachers pet, but I was also a natural at it. I would zone
out in class, and soar through the year with As. In 5th grade, I got the presidential award
for having and advanced score in the California Standardized tests throughout all of
elementary school. I never really struggled to do well in the class, but I did struggle to
focus. I kind of got cocky, and thought that I was too good in middle school. But I
realized what was going on, and then I got my stuff straight, and barely passed the class.
Something that motivates me in life is to make my parents proud. I want my
parents to be able to look at me, and say, wow, thats our son. We raised such a brilliant
kid. Because of them, I have what I have. I am going to get what Im going to get
because of them. I just dont want to be a failure, and have my parents be able to say that
they raised a horrible kid. Almost every decision Ive made was because I thought, what
would my parents think? I have never done drugs, or even taken a sip of alcohol because
I would never want to disappoint my parents like that. Something else that motivates me

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are my younger siblings, and somewhat my older sister. Even though the oldest child
should be the role model, I feel like I should still try just as much as my older sister. My
little brother and I are very competitive. We are so competitive that every time I hit a
growth spurt, he hits it like a month later. I am 1 year and 4 months older than him. Its
not too far, but close enough to him to compare himself to me. I just want to show him
who is the older brother, and that I made it. I also want whats best for my little sister. I
am older than her by 10 years, and I lover her a lot.
What I look forward to being when I grow up is a professional soccer player. I
know that a lot of people have that same goal, but I will do anything to achieve that
dream. As an athlete, my worse fear is breaking any part of my leg to my foot. I know
that if that happens, that it will never fully heal, and it is more likely for the same thing to
happen again.
What I love about being Mexican is that family is everything. Friends come and
go, but family is forever. My aunts and uncles support me in everything I do. For
example, I always have someone rooting for me when I go play soccer. One day I had a
semi-finals game, and if we won, we would make it to the finals in the same day. My
parents were in San Francisco for the weekend, so they couldnt make it. But my cousin,
Uriel, played on the same team, so his parents were also supporting me. But my God
Father from my first communion went to go watch the 2 games. We barely won the first
game 2-1, and qualified to the finals. We started losing that game within the first 30
seconds because a player got a cramp. They subbed me in for him, and I played forward.
By the end of the half, we were winning 3-1, I assisted second goal. We started the
second half dominating the ball possession, and a through ball came to me, and I chipped

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the keeper, and scored a goal. All I hear were my uncles, and aunts screaming,
GOALLLLLLL. I had never so proud of my self in my life. We won the tournament,
and I went home with a nice 1st place medal. Even though my parents werent there to
whiteness my goal, or the championship game, I had other people supporting me.