The Dream
   
 
I was born August 12, 1989 in East L.A. California we were never wealthy or had extra money. I went to Bernard Elementary and Washington Middle School I discovered I was very good at math and at school in general. My mom was a janitor and my dad was a construction worker, they are just average people trying to make an honest living.

   It was the last week of summer and I was very nervous about going into high school, but I was sure I was ready for the stress and work that came with it. My summer wasn't all that great it was the same old, staying home and playing ball.

   My first day of school came my school was for very prestigious students, which from where I came from was very strange for someone to go to a prep school. When I arrived to my school I noticed that it was large, white like a mini white house or capitol hill, the scent in the air was inexplicable, it was like a million roses mixed with the world’s finest cologne.  I stuck out like a sore thumb because, well I couldn't afford the uniforms so I just wore plain blue jeans with a collar dress shirt and some old dress shoes. The bell for first period rang so I proceeded, when I got to my first period, people were looking at me strangely but I didn't care because I was there to learn.
As kind of an introduction activity we went one by one standing up and introducing ourselves, I was the second person who was to go.  This kid named Billy was first, he was from North Los Angeles, and appeared very wealthy with his tight knit silk suit, Gucci belt, Armani shoes and pants, that seemed to flow with color like the ocean waves.  Billy was done introducing himself to I stood up and introduced myself, right away I could see the kids confused, and joked that a “Mexican” was in their class.  I could hear whispers and rude jokes being told.  I stated to introduce myself anyways, I said that my name was Jose Huerta, I live in East Los Angeles, and I have 2 brothers and 2 sisters, everyone was in disbelief when I said I was from East Los Angeles, it was as if they saw a ghost.

First period ended but it was the same routine every period of the day, almost as if it was a tradition to let students introduce themselves to the class.  It was the sixth week of school, and we were getting our grades today, I was so nervous because there was so much work that I had already done that I couldn’t even tell it I was doing it right or not.  The moment of truth came and I got my grades I was shocked I had 1 C+, 2 B’s, and 3A’s, it was almost as if my teacher was mocking me because the C+ was a 79.8%.  I was angry that even though I had worked so hard he didn’t give me that extra .13% to get at least a B-.  The next day came so I confronted by science teacher that gave me a C+, and I asked him “Why did you give me a  C+”?  My teacher answered “because all you have turned in is C quality work”.  I was furious because some of the kids that had turned in an essay that was a big portion of our grade got an A, well that didn’t stop me from keeping my determination and perseverance levels up.
Finally it was the day I was waiting for, it was the day we got instructions for what to do for the science fair.  I was very good at science so I thought the project was going to be easy, but it wasn’t we had to do an experiment with living organisms. 

A few weeks passed by and I couldn’t get a hold of bacteria.  I asked my science teacher where I could get them but he just said bacteria was to high end for me to afford.  At that moment it all made sense, it made sense that my teachers were always giving me funny looks, giving me lower grades than I deserve, everything, they discriminated me because I wasn’t “average”, at that point I was determined to show my teachers that all of us were equal, and that we should be treated equal. 

It was the next day it was English class my teacher told us that we needed to write a report about ourselves.  I got home and asked my parents “who are we?”  My parents looked at me as if I was crazy.  Well what do you mean, “Who are we?” my mom said.  I went on to explain well I mean like where do we come from?  Who are our ancestors?  My mom put her hand on my shoulders and said, well I could go on about our ancestors, our roots, our hometown, but I could put this in a simpler context, we are just a family trying to make a better life for ourselves.  I looked at my mom, and I couldn’t quite grasp what she was saying, so I asked, “Aren’t all families out here trying to make a better life for themselves”?  “Yes but not all families have a son like you”, she said.  I didn’t see why I was so special, I mean yeah I know I was smarter than most kids, but I’m not at all special. 
It was a week before my report was due, and I still didn’t know what to write, luckily I was home so I had time to look around the house for inspiration.  I went to the attic looked through some boxes and found something; it was an imprint of my foot on a clay tile.  On the side of the tile it read “life is going to be hard, but don’t worry because don’t ever let anyone tell you, you can’t do something, follow your dreams and do what you love”.  That quote right there was all the inspiration I needed, so I started to write.  I wrote, I am not average, I’m not normal, I’m human, I was born in East Los Angeles, not like most people that go to this school. I’ve had 2 siblings that have died and I’m only 18, not a thing you would want to experience at such a young age.  I have lived in East Los Angeles all my life and I’ve never known about the opportunities out there.  For example, I didn’t know colleges existed until my parents mentioned it to me last year.  Well enough on that, I’ve never really asked for much, but the one thing that I have asked for, is the ability to learn.  I love learning it is incredible how much you can learn at school, but because of my situation I didn’t have the privilege of real learning until now.  Now that I go to this school I can actually learn, the only thing about it though is that I am pretty much an outcast at this school.  I don’t know why but I don’t get treated equally, some of my teachers discriminate me just because of my ethnicity.  Well I could keep on telling you about “who I am”, but I’m not, I’ll put this in a simple concept, “I am just an average kid trying to get an equal chance as the other students, I don’t believe that I should be treated differently than everyone else, I believe we should all be treated equally”.

I was done writing and I thought to myself, wow this is great!  It was the day to turn in the paper, so I did.  I was so nervous though, my mind racing with thoughts and emotions.  A few weeks passed by and I wondered why I hadn’t gotten my paper back, when during my English period, I got my paper back.  I was the only one to get their paper back, which seemed odd.  At the end of the day I got called up to the office after school, so I went.  I walked into the office and they redirected me to my counselor’s office.  I walked into my counselor’s office and to my surprise all of my teachers were there.  They told me to sit down, I was confused to see them there, and when almost simultaneously they all said “we’re sorry”.  “Sorry for what”, I said?  “Sorry for treating you different”, they said, “we all read your story and we were actually surprised because you want to actually learn, even some of the kids that go here just buy their way through, we all promise to treat you equally and be 100% fair with you they said.  The only thing I said was “ok”.

They dismissed me and I got into my mom’s car, she asked me “what happened at school today”?  Well today I learned that people can change, my teachers learned that everyone should be treated equally, no matter what color, race, nothing, we all should be treated equally.  That’s what I learned today, and that made all the difference.