Personal Narrative: Hopi Native American Reservation

I was a fourth grader when my dad told me that we were moving to the Unites States, “land of wealth, excitement, and fabulous cities.” But there clearly was a mistake; I was brought to the middle of nowhere in the arid region of the Hopi Native American Reservation in Arizona. Our family’s migration to the United States was not a well-planned search for lucrative opportunity, international education, freedom, or happiness. Rather, it was a call to mission. Yet I struggled to accept it, because I thought that I was only forced to follow my parents. They always told me, “you came to Hopi for a reason too,” nevertheless "Yup, I know. I know," was my sarcastic response. However, during one night, my doubts were shattered and my mind was renewed.

When my mission team friends from New York City, Raleigh, Detroit, Los Angeles, and Dallas first saw my home, desolate, ghetto, and barren were likely the words they thought of. While I understand their first impression, with persistent unemployment, alcoholism, and low college enrollment, our community is problematic in many ways. It is possible that we are now too numb to perceive these as problems, but my thought is otherwise. I believe that the unique, innate strength of the Hopis keep the tribal members firm against any challenge. The word “Hopi”, itself holds a lot of meanings such as: peace, optimism, respect, kindness, humility, and strength, or nahongvita. Residing with the Hopi people, I 've learned to have a different perspective and acquired their traits. What was desolate for my friends from the cities, to me, was peaceful, ghetto was traditional and home, and barren was possibility of life. As a result, I’ve acquired the confidence to overcome the awaiting challenges of the

However, I have not allowed this fact to permit urban students to outperform me. By actively communicating with my counselor and administrators, I maximized my educational career. I doubled my math classes, became one of the few to enroll in physics, convinced my Spanish teacher to unprecedently offer third year Spanish, and became Hopi High’s first AP student. At home, I delved into subjects that my school did not offer, such as: philosophy, music, Korean language and history. I have became a dynamic learner to overcome the limit that my environment set, and with this kind of attitude, I believe that I can grow and learn far more in college. Moreover, I want to prove to the community and the school that we can be as high achieving as any other schools