The community I grew up in central Texas celebrated my heritage, honored differences in culture, and fostered personal growth and self-discovery. My parents, with the strong work ethic they developed on their family’s farms in Ghana, encouraged my brother and me to work hard and find ways to use our skills to be of service to others, which wasn’t hard to do growing up in Austin with its many avenues to become involved and take care of the community, whether it was helping to direct families through the Trail of Lights at Zilker Park during the winter or raise money for educational programs for underprivileged kids in the area through working the concession stands at the University of Texas at Austin. It was this collaborative mindset that Austin
Growing up in Texas What is it like growing up in Texas? I have people always state that their home state is the best place to grow up, but I can honestly say where I grew up was the best. We had some much to do and so much to see.
In Plano, Texas, many drive to get from place to place, but for this suburban mom’s fear of driving has gotten difficult. For Kalika Patel, driving was never a difficult task, but through past experiences it has gotten difficult. She said this “started when I was running regular errands, but suddenly my blood pressure increased, and I became dizzy” This may not sound like anything major, but after this first incident, this occurred to her many other times. Mrs. Patel said “this kept happening over and over again, finally it felt as it was an anxiety problem” Currently, she still deals with anxiety, but she said “that [her] condition has gotten much better from the few years ago, when this innocent first occurred,” as she told our news team.
I’ve completed my move to Houston. I traded in my Maryland license for a Texas one. With that said, I’ve found a new church home. I joined Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church on January 13th. The church is very similar to STCF.
Golden light from a Texas sunset illuminating stark white fields of cotton, green and yellow tractors leisurely making their way down the middle of Main Street, and a community that will always support you are just a few things one might experience if you came to my hometown in rural Texas. Matador, Texas isn't just a dusty old town in the middle of nowhere, it is a town that no matter who you are or what you are trying to do, hard work is always required; it is where I grew up from the day I was born, spent lazy summer days reading and writing abstract stories without distractions of people, traffic, or even the ever-present cell phone, and where I learned about a whole other side of society, one where the community gathers together for anything
O-Oklahoma Oklahoma is the place I was born yet the only time I was ever there was maybe the first two to three months of my life I don’t remember obviously. I’ve always wondered what it’s like there. One day I hope to go there because I fell in love with a lot of their sports teams and I want to meet my biological brother. My favorite sports teams in Oklahoma are the Oklahoma City Thunder of the NBA, and the colleges of Oklahoma State (The Cowboys), Oklahoma (The Sooners), and Tulsa (The Golden Hurricanes). I started paying attention to the NBA when my brother Scott bought NBA 2k11 I played with every team and found myself playing with the Thunder the most, because I loved playing with Kevin Durant and Russel Westbrook.
Growing up in southwest Atlanta, Georgia, I have been surrounded by ‘black success’ instead of just ‘success’ for the duration of my life. The blacks in my area are equally as successful, if not more accomplished than, the non-blacks, but we are always titled separately and put into a captive box. The box we are held in told young girls that they should aspire to be athletes, cosmetologists, or plain unemployed. The same box told young men that they could only be considered “somebody” if they were able to catch a ball well. These are occupations we would ‘best be suited for’; these are occupations that perpetuate the box.
Growing up in California, my whole life has been around farming and like many others, it’s how I make a living. It’s now been at least a year, living through the Dust bowl and many people have migrated to California with the hope of surviving this crisis. Keeping my crops has become a struggle and that's what most people including me depend on. I am lucky enough to be able to pay my mortgages even though I’m not able to keep the land with the help of family. It’s practically impossible.
I have lived in East Oakland my whole life. To the majority of people, the mention of East Oakland evokes thoughts of violence, shootings, and gangs. I was one of the people who believed in these stereotypes, and for a particularly long time. I was one of the people who saw Oakland as a wasteland, a place with nothing to offer me, and a place I had nothing to offer to.
Ok the first, I was born in Laredo tx spent a good few years living there then we moved to Austin. Then my dad wanted my mom and me to move to Arkansas I was still 4 or 5. My dad convinced my mom and we went, then my mom started having suspicions about my dad cheating. And it wasn 't long after that my mom caught him
19 years ago today in a Hispanic house hold two parents three siblings and the world to conquer. Screaming, laughing, learning and growing molded this one young lady to overcome all statics .Factors such as birthplace, extracurricular activities and the simple thing she couldn’t control, her origin were deciding factors for where she is present day. New York, the city that never sleeps, a city diverse in all aspects of life, the city where it all started. 18 years growing up in Harlem wasn’t all it was cracked up to be especially for a young Hispanic female. Being surrounded with drugs, violence and public disobedience were some of the easiest of distractions that I encountered every day.
From as early as I could remember I noticed I was not like the others kids. I had an interest for things most kids would not be interested in. I liked interacting with people, knowing about people and their life stories; I wanted to help in anyway that I could when I would hear everyone’s problems. I thought outside the box throughout my whole childhood and I wanted to make the most out of my knowledge. I told myself that I was going to dedicate my life to helping my community.
I grew up in inner city Baltimore Maryland. Neither of my parents were or are followers of Christ. They divorced when I was very young. I spent most of my life moving from place to place with my mother and two brothers. I gave up on high school when I failed my freshmen year.
When I was 14 I had to move to San Clemente, California. I had already recently moved temporarily to Texas while a house was made ready for us on the military base. “The house is ready!” my mother had said excitedly, after being on the phone for a few minutes. “It’s time to go back?”
One night, during the cold winter, I walked along the side walk to reach the local store down the block. As I walked out, before I can realize it, I was dropping down onto the concrete while bullets swiftly passed me. I then began to run back home, but I wanted to keep running. Away from Chicago, away from the west side. Growing up in Chicago, it was easy to assume that there was nothing different beyond the blocks of my streets.
The majority of my mother's extended family lives in Texas, so I have travelled to Texas many times and have become familiar with its people and culture. When it came time for me to begin looking at colleges, I researched schools in Texas and concluded Rice would be worth a visit, due to its small size, caliber of engineering program, and beautiful campus. I first visited campus last year, went on a tour, and attended the information session. It was there I learned about the Residential College System, and realized Rice would be for me. It promotes the exposure to an array of backgrounds and diversity, a concept that would not occur to this extent at any other school I have looked at.