Personal Narrative: Growing Up In A Substandard Socioeconomic Environment

Growing up as the oldest child of two first generation immigrants from differing backgrounds, I was met with many challenges that come with living in a substandard socioeconomic environment. For majority of my life my parents were both completing their education and working full time jobs, while raising five kids. With minimal extended family support and being the oldest I took on the role of secondary caregiver of my siblings, as a way to help shoulder my parents burdens. This became more so when my father was diagnosed with prostate cancer and the medical expenses pushed us further into poverty. Thankfully government assistance was afforded to us. Going into my freshmen year of high school my father passed his medical board exams and was
clear of cancer. This allowed us to move from the inner city of Newark, New Jersey to an underserved area of rural Mississippi. Not until my junior year when we moved to the central valley of California did I see how living in these areas had an affect on my education. I previously had been in honor classes’ majority of my life but with this relocation I was met with difficulties acclimating to the new educational rigor. Due to my early disadvantages on both the economic and educational avenues I believe I fall under this category.