Prompt: Discuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, that marked your transition from childhood to adulthood within your culture, community, or family.
Background: On a hot and humid day, my course at a Columbia University Summer Program toured Harlem through the same route as the one described in Langston Hughes’s, Theme for English B. In his poem, Hughes describes his walk from City College to his home in Harlem.
When we walked down the steps from City College to Harlem, just as Hughes did, I realized Hughes’s prevalent battle; he was the only African American student in his class from an underprivileged background. Going down, these steps seemed like a dead end. I did not want to go to Harlem, as I did not see any opportunity there. But as I walked my last step down, I looked back and saw that these steps did not disappear; opportunity did not close. There would always be a pathway to City College. I would just have to work harder to get there. I am fortunate enough to say that I have neither experience of financial hardships nor racial barriers, even as an African American male. Perhaps my challenges arise from my childhood; as I was raised in an abusive household. My father was always preoccupied with his companies and romances, leaving me to
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I heard the children laughing. Their happiness was contagious; and their playground had endless adventures. I looked to my left and saw a child begging to be swung higher, excitement wanderlust in her eyes. But the park changed something in me. Hughes, in his obstacles saw something so positive as a park; a place of happiness and unequivocal positivity. Suddenly I imagined myself on the swing. I chose to think about my highest times; including when I left my abusive household to live with my mother in California. This is when I found solace. I was finally in a playground, with opportunities to swing as high as I pleased and monkey bars that challenged me to go a little