And it manifested itself in little sacrifices that, when I think back on now, I didn't even have to make. Like for example: If my parents took us out to fast food when we were kids, they would usually take us out to McDonalds. My siblings and I used to look wistfully at Burger King sometimes, because they had different toys and those fun-looking cardboard crowns. We never asked our parents to switch restaurants, though, because we had this idea in our minds that BK might be more expensive. When I think back on it now, I don't think they would have cared. In fact, BK's burgers are slightly bigger, so they might even have liked it.
But kid's minds are weird. We try to protect our parents because we know they try to protect us. We don't want to impose, like you say.
I was trying to explain this concept to a teacher in training last year. She was grumbling about not getting much parent response about all the summer academic programs that she was trying to get her Latino students to apply for. I was telling her that the parents probably didn't even know about the programs because her students probably never told their parents. I know that I didn't, because I thought programs like those were troublesome and expensive.
The first time I applied for a summer program, it was because I left my backpack open and my mom saw the course booklet that my teacher gave me. By strange coincidence, she had already heard about the program from another mother who had been bragging about her kids. My parents encouraged me to apply, much to my surprise and awe. The program had a non-refundable $30 application fee and the courses were about $500 each, so I had considered the idea a lost cause before. My parents said they'd pay the $30, though, so I applied and I got full financial aid for my class. I didn't pay anything but the initial $30. It was amazing!!
wow, that's a great story! i really don't like how sometimes latinos can take such a defeatist attitude towards things. i know i got that from my mom, the whole "we probably can't afford it, so why bother looking into it." we try to do everything ourselves and sometimes forget that there are such things as assistance out there.
i kinda read through your lj a little bit and i think it's great that you're pursuing a career in sciences. when i was in junior college, i studied psychology and transferred to a university as a biopsychology major. my plan was to get an undergrad in biopsych, then a masters in neurology and get a phd and be a neurologist. well, my first quarter at university was so hard cos the level of work was so different from the jc that i failed almost all of my classes! i had a meeting with my guidance counselor and since i was already a junior cos i transferred, she was like have you considered changing your major? so i took that to mean that i was too stupid to follow my dream and i couldn't make it. i had to switch gears in college and to this day, i am a little pissed off with that guidance counselor and wish i would have done something different. but hey, life leads you were you're supposed to be, right?
hopefully one day i can go back to school and do all the things i wanted to. right now my plan is to get into RN and hopefully take it from there. (sorry, i rambled)
Aw, it stinks when the people who should be giving you encouragement and pointing you to resources instead just make it easy to change majors! A lot of my major classes were hard and I've been frustrated at times, but no one told me to consider letting go of my plans. Good thing. After a lot of hard classes, I've gotten better at studying and organizing myself. Sometimes people just need time to adjust.
I hope your next choice was something also good. I'm been staring at the acronym "RN" for a while, trying to figure out what it means. I looked it up on Wikipedia and the two things that make most sense to me are registered nurse and Royal Navy. I think the first one makes the most sense. Am I close? Anyway, good luck!
Yeah, yeah, exactly!
And it manifested itself in little sacrifices that, when I think back on now, I didn't even have to make. Like for example: If my parents took us out to fast food when we were kids, they would usually take us out to McDonalds. My siblings and I used to look wistfully at Burger King sometimes, because they had different toys and those fun-looking cardboard crowns. We never asked our parents to switch restaurants, though, because we had this idea in our minds that BK might be more expensive. When I think back on it now, I don't think they would have cared. In fact, BK's burgers are slightly bigger, so they might even have liked it.
But kid's minds are weird. We try to protect our parents because we know they try to protect us. We don't want to impose, like you say.
I was trying to explain this concept to a teacher in training last year. She was grumbling about not getting much parent response about all the summer academic programs that she was trying to get her Latino students to apply for. I was telling her that the parents probably didn't even know about the programs because her students probably never told their parents. I know that I didn't, because I thought programs like those were troublesome and expensive.
The first time I applied for a summer program, it was because I left my backpack open and my mom saw the course booklet that my teacher gave me. By strange coincidence, she had already heard about the program from another mother who had been bragging about her kids. My parents encouraged me to apply, much to my surprise and awe. The program had a non-refundable $30 application fee and the courses were about $500 each, so I had considered the idea a lost cause before. My parents said they'd pay the $30, though, so I applied and I got full financial aid for my class. I didn't pay anything but the initial $30. It was amazing!!
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i kinda read through your lj a little bit and i think it's great that you're pursuing a career in sciences. when i was in junior college, i studied psychology and transferred to a university as a biopsychology major. my plan was to get an undergrad in biopsych, then a masters in neurology and get a phd and be a neurologist. well, my first quarter at university was so hard cos the level of work was so different from the jc that i failed almost all of my classes! i had a meeting with my guidance counselor and since i was already a junior cos i transferred, she was like have you considered changing your major? so i took that to mean that i was too stupid to follow my dream and i couldn't make it. i had to switch gears in college and to this day, i am a little pissed off with that guidance counselor and wish i would have done something different. but hey, life leads you were you're supposed to be, right?
hopefully one day i can go back to school and do all the things i wanted to. right now my plan is to get into RN and hopefully take it from there. (sorry, i rambled)
Reply
I hope your next choice was something also good. I'm been staring at the acronym "RN" for a while, trying to figure out what it means. I looked it up on Wikipedia and the two things that make most sense to me are registered nurse and Royal Navy. I think the first one makes the most sense. Am I close? Anyway, good luck!
Reply
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