Stand Up, Speak Out.

                                                                                                                                                   1^st period

                                                                         Stand Up Speak Out.

                   All over the world there are different kinds of people. They are either straight or not straight. I’m one of them. I’m lesbian.  I do not think being lesbian is a crime. A crime is something that people do and it affects everyone else around you. And I know for a fact being a “queer” isn’t. I’m sixteen years old. When I heard about writing this essay, it really got my attention. It gave me a lot of ideas to write about.  

                    This is who I am. I ignore everyone around me who thinks not being straight is wrong or nasty. I always say, “Love has no gender.” People really don’t know how stupid they sound when they talk about us, in a way that might offend us. It’s like saying, “Ew. Look at them, they’re straight.” Doesn’t that sound dumb? People are just homophobic. It’s a thing that I don’t see leaving. There always has to be a person that thinks it’s disgusting to love or like the same sex as you. People judge you for what you are. Before they do that they should see what they are first. They’re just good at talking. Anyways, that shouldn’t matter. You shouldn’t care what people say about you. You are you. They are they.

                      I grew up in a somewhat religious family. My family is Christian. They believe that God created a man and a woman to be together, but in my eyes I don’t see anything wrong with it. God loves me just the way I am. I came out to my mother in tenth grade. I knew I was a lesbian in eighth grade. That’s when I started realizing my sexuality. It was hard to tell my mother I liked women instead of man, because of the fact that I’m her only girl and I didn’t want her to feel bummed. There was one day that I decided to tell her. I didn’t want to stay in the closet anymore. I wanted to come out. I wanted to show who I really was. I didn’t want to pretend to be something I wasn’t. When I told her, her face went blank. She stayed quite, speechless. No words came out of her mouth. I still remember everything that happened that night. She told me, “Why? No.. You can’t be.” And I responded, “I do. And you have to accept me for who I am.” All she did was look at me. At that moment I thought to myself, that I should have never told her. I was scared, what if she didn’t see me the same anymore? The room was quite. There was an awkward moment of silence. After that moment she stared at me and said, “Okay mija...” She hugged me. I felt good because I felt relieved of what I’ve been trying to tell her since the longest. By this time, my whole family knows, except my father. He doesn’t live with me. I’m just relieved I passed through that already.    

                        When I came to West Adams for tenth grade, I met my girlfriend. Her name is Yesenia. We have 6 months together, and I’ve never been this happy in my life, since I got with her. I love her. Like I’ve said already to me, love has no gender. That’s like my motto. Two men and two women can love each other. It shouldn’t stop the rest of you. We are all free. We all have rights. We decide who we want to be with. We shouldn’t be controlled by people, they don’t own us. And most of all we shouldn’t let people try to make us feel stupid for what we are, they should let us be.  

                         If a man and a women can love each other, than I believe that two men and two women can love each other too. The whole world is full if judgers. All they want to do is make you be something you aren’t by putting you down, or talking about you. But you shouldn’t let that get to you. Those people can’t make you happy as the person you love or like can. So why not, just ignore every single one of them, and be happy? Look at me, I’m happy, for the decisions I’ve taken and because of the fact that I’m not hiding from others anymore. I ignore them all. Plus, I have the person that makes me happy everyday, and the one that always gets a smile to my face. And I wouldn’t trade her for anything. We are free.  So, don’t let people put you down. Tell them to mind their own lives, and you’ll mind yours. You don’t need them. And remember, love yourself for who you are. Don’t love yourself for what others want you to do. Be yourself, and don’t be ashamed to come out. There’s always going to be a right time when you’re ready.

Essay #3. How does it feel to be hispanic me?

                                                                                                                                                  1^st period.

                                                    How does it feel to be Hispanic me?

                    My name is Ulma. I am 16 years old. I was born in Los Angeles, California, in the year 1994. My mother gave birth to me at the hospital called Queen Angels. My mother and my father are both Hispanic. My mother is from Honduras, and my father is from El Salvador. I feel proud to be Hispanic because I am proud of my culture and all my Hispanic roots from my family. I’m proud of being Hispanic because that’s what I represent in my life. We love our music, our food, and everything else we as Hispanics do. Everything about me is made up a many different things from being Hispanic.

                     I think being Hispanic is the best. There are many different things that we do. We celebrate many holidays, in many different ways. We party, we love cooking. All of us Hispanic people consider ourselves family.  We are really religious because to us religions mean a lot to us. I believe that being Hispanic is very fun. We always enjoy ourselves in having a blast. From when It comes from little birthday parties, to really big parties. We celebrate the girl’s fifteenth birthday party. We celebrate May 5^th, as we all know we call it “Cinco De Mayo.” We celebrate the Day of The Dead. We celebrate many different types of holidays. It just shows people that we care of our culture. All of these holidays come from being Hispanic.

                       I’m proud of being Hispanic because I am not ashamed of who I am. It describes me. It describes me in what kind of person I am. It makes me the way I am. It reflects with my attitude. It reflects with me in everything I do. I don’t care what people say or do, to try to put me down for who I am. You are you, I am me. There shouldn’t be a reason why we should be ashamed for who we are. Our families are the ones that raised us up to follow our Hispanic culture and I’ll always represent it
it.
                     Being Hispanic is a pride and a joy. To be Hispanic is to never be ashamed of what you are. To be Hispanic is to always be one. You can’t change what you are. You were born into it. To be Hispanic I something I will represent throughout my whole life. It’s something that I’ll pass down as I grow up. I’ll show my family of what kind of pride I have towards my race. That will keep the Hispanic culture going and going as how it’s been for the past years in history. It will keep growing, because people pass it down to each other. Their families pass it to theirs and our culture grows and grows even more. Being Hispanic is the greatest and I wouldn’t trade it for any other type of race, being Hispanic will always run through my blood, until the day I die.