As a child my mother always said; “Never judge a person because, you may be intimidating an angel”.

Last Year, my freshman year I joined a program called, “MCJROTC” and a new school where I didn’t know a single soul. I became a very shy person and was very quiet my first week. Although it was because, I didn’t know anybody. Soon enough I started getting involved and being a good cadet. One day I was walking down the hall to the ROTC room I heard.

“She’s not a good cadet, she can’t take my spot. I don’t understand what they see in her and she’s not good enough, everyone says the same thing about her too”, a cadet stated.
I just thought, “wow how could people say these things when they don’t even know me as a person. Was it the color of my skin?”

In the end I just walked past them and my feelings were a little hurt after they stated their opinions. Soon as time went on I started to progress more and more. My leaders told me how much they underestimated me. After that I became the best and the most motivated cadet.

Still as I progressed I felt more and more discriminated against, the fact of stereotypes and my ethnicity. Although I kept pushing myself to go harder. Throughout the year I had some competition and ended up passing them up but it very hard. Then all my hard work finally got even better. I awarded a meritorious promotion and I was “thrilled”. I proved it to myself I could persevere in the face of such hateful language.

Later in the year a tragedy happened and I had to move schools. It felt like my whole life had fallen apart. The people I called my “family” wouldn’t see me anymore. But, now I have thrived at my new school and everyone is proud of me. As the time went on I have grown from my past and immaturity. I have learned to not care about how I am judged and to always push myself to move forward.