Breddyn Martinez wrote this piece during our In-Schools Autobiography Series at Everett Middle School. It was published in “Closer To My Dreams: 8th Grade Anthology 2008.”
I once had the goal of coming to the United States. I had this goal because I wanted to be with my family and look for a nice future. Not just for me, but for my mom because she always helped me when I needed her. She was not with me physically, but she was in my mind.
However, I had an obstacle. I didn’t know English and I needed to learn it to help my family. Another obstacle was that I felt alone. When I left my country my dad told me that I had to be strong, because here in the U.S. there are a lot of challenges that you need to overcome. That inspired me to keep working for my goal. The last obstacles were at school. In my country, I was getting bad grades and I needed to wake up. Then I was inspired and got good grades. Those grades let me keep dreaming of my goal. The way that I reached that goal was thinking of my mom. She gave me the hope to keep working. Also, I needed to work hard in school. I did my homework and classwork, and I studied for tests. Another way that I reached my goal was thinking of my future and my family’s future.
The outcome was that I’m now living with my family. I came to the U.S. in an airplane with all my family. I’m excited, because it’s the first time in my life I’m getting good grades. Also, I have a lot of friends who are helping me to learn and speak English. Now, I’m in the last year of middle school, and that means that I am reaching my goal.
In the future, I want to become a doctor, because in my country there are a lot of people who don’t have resources to pay for their health. That’s why I want to be a doctor. I will help those people who really need help. I must do that for them. To reach the goal of becoming a doctor, I need to work hard. I know that I will have big success in my life but I need to overcome the last obstacle. I need to be strong, because I left my dad and that is like losing a part of me. Finally, when I reach all my goals, I will be proud of myself because I will have proved that all my efforts got results.
