Every now and then I still wonder how I ended up here. To be honest, I never thought that I would end up getting a college education in the United States. When I was 14 years old and barely graduating from middle school, my parents decided to send me to a boarding school in Kingsville. When they first talked to me about it I thought they were kidding, but days after my graduation I realized that the decision was already made and they did not even ask for my opinion. I still remember my mom telling me that I was going to be there only for a year, just for me to learn English, but of course I never believed her.
Once my freshman year started, I had to confront many challenges, such as being away from home, not knowing anyone, adapting to a new culture, having more responsibilities and the most difficult one for me, having all my classes in a completely different language. But luckily, I was not the only one who did not know English at all. There were people from other countries, such as Rwanda, China, Korea and others who were in the same position. The process of learning English was not easy at that school since we were punished if we accidentally spoke a word in a language other than English in front of a faculty member. But with that in mind, I knew somehow I was going to learn faster and get back home.
Along with all the school responsibilities, we had to clean our rooms every day in the morning before heading to breakfast, and if we wanted to go home for the weekend, we had to pass our room cleaning inspections every day. In addition, each student had a mandatory job after class and sports practice afterward. To summarize, they had a strict schedule for students to follow. Not to be too dramatic, but during my first year, I compared that school to jail because I was not used to having all those responsibilities.
As time passed, I was right and my parents made me return for my sophomore year and somehow I completed all my high school education at the same school. Believe it or not, I started to like the school during my second year, or at least I got used to it. As a high school graduation requirement, I had to apply to at least one university in Texas, so I applied to UTRGV, but my plan was to go back to Mexico.
Unfortunately for me, my parents did not like the idea of me returning to Mexico due to the difficult situations that the country was going through, so I enrolled at UTRGV in Fall 2015. If there is one good decision I made in my life, it would be attending that boarding school and enrolling at UTRGV. All sacrifices were worth it and I am now a senior majoring in accounting. There are many opportunities that the university provides to its students, and I’m taking advantage of them. It is funny how I still remember my high school teachers saying, “We do this for you. We push too hard because once you attend college, things will get even harder.” Well, in my experience, college life has been way easier than high school.
