Personal Statement

Hello, My name is Yadira Salas, I am a mexican american and I live in a small

town called Merced in the middle of California. I want to graduate high school and go to
a CSU to get a degree and have a good qualified job in the future. Growing up in the
household that I lived in was honestly sad and stressful. My parents have grown up
poor and had children at a young age which caused them to have situations of financial
strugglings. When I was born, we lived in a trailer park until I was the age of four. Once
we finally moved into a house, it was a new experience for all of us. Around the age of
eight, my parents had started to have difficulties with my older brother and older sister.
My two oldest siblings had a group of friends who were bad influencers and had gotten
them into situations that you should be smart enough not to get into. That affected me
because I looked up to my two oldest siblings and I was really close to them. I would go
out with them, have sleepovers in their rooms, play games, and talk to them everyday.
Once they kept getting into bad situations, my parents had enough of it and kicked both
of them out of the house. I was so confused on why my parents did that because at my
age, they wouldn’t tell me anything that was going on since I was “too young to
understand”. My siblings started living with a friend for about a year and whenever I had
the chance to see them I would always go because I would only see them around once
a month. I have other siblings that lived me with but things were different with them
because since all of my siblings are older they never wanted to spend time with me or
they would always ignored me, unlike my oldest siblings they always cared for me
growing up especially my older sister, She was and is like a mom to me till this day
since she was always there for me whenever my parents weren’t. My parents were also
very selfish and mostly worried about other things for reputation and financially. So with
all that happening around me at that age really hurt my feelings and always made me
feel alone.

The amount of emotions I felt at a young age was draining. As I reached the age
of thirteen I started to develop acceptance and anxiety which at that age I shouldn’t be
that way yet. I started to realize that my parents were never affectionate with me and it
always made me feel sad when I would see other parents showing their kids affection
because I never got that. That is when I have started to accept that things are different
for every family and if there was something that I wished to receive and couldn’t get it, I
would just accept it. I just accept having the feeling of being alone, having to do things
for myself, and having to solve problems for myself as well.
The older I got the more I started to become mature and understanding about things
around me and around my family. I knew that I started developing new feelings each
day that went by, feelings of sadness, anger, happiness, alone, etc. I’ve been in
situations where I thought I had friends that understood me and really wanted to be my
friends, instead they just used me and betrayed me as if I was nothing. When that
happened I was sad of course but then I just accepted it and moved on and continued
with my life.

Currently, as a seventeen year old, I consider myself as more of an

understanding person, more open with myself, confident, and more matured. Growing
up with a lot of situations happening at a young age really taught me how to manage
myself, keep myself motivated, and know what's best for myself. I am proud that I was
able to move forward and not be in a dark place due to all the emotions I was feeling. I
met new people in life that are currently there for me and care about me. It's a really
nice feeling to have when you have someone there for you when you grew up with the
feeling of not having anyone. My parents now show me their affection and I am closer
than ever with my sister again, even though she has her own home and family, I still
visit her and stay with her whenever I have a chance to, just to catch up and hangout
with her and her kids. Advice that I will continue to tell myself is to keep staying
motivated and don’t give up, have patience and continue to do what you think is best for
yourself because in the end it will all get better and be worth it. Now I strive to finish
school, go to college and get an education and qualify for a good job when I’m older to
be financially stable and have a family of my own.