Ashley Ramos

Aisha Sidibe

English 21003

29 August 2018

 

Dear, Professor Sidibe

My name is Ashley Ramos everyone calls me Ash or the stupid nickname such as ashy even though I am not. I was born and raised in Yonkers, New York which is just north of the bronx in Westchester County. It is pretty annoying when someone tells me that I live in the Bronx because it is right next to Yonkers but that does not make any sense. I attended Palisade Preparatory High School which had about 500-600 students, and we wore uniform. Being that I attended a small high school and lived in a small city coming to City College was a changing moment for me, I have never seen so many students in my life. I remember coming to my academic planning day and I forced my sister to come with me and then the advisors eventually separated us leaving me by myself to talk to all theses strangers. It honestly was giving me an anxiety attack because I was never used to being around so many people at once. I also got to express myself more by wearing things I actually liked instead of a burgundy shirt and khaki pants every single day to school. Who knew that coming to City College would have such an impact on my life, I thought it was going to be a regular school with the same drama you see and hear everyday.

I grew up with very traditional hispanic parents. They come from Dominican Republic and they came with some attitude. Everything was strict with them, we had to do good in school or else we did not get to have things that we wanted. My parents shaped me to become who I am a young intelligent and respectful young lady, this lead me to be number 4 of my class in ranking. Although it’s not number 1 it was pretty good to me. I graduated with a 91 gpa and got into the school of my choice I was pretty happy being that I was constantly put down by my terrible guidance counselor. Since my parents were traditional they were a bit religious; I used to go to catholic school on Saturdays until I finally did my communion, after that it changed my whole view on religion it just became something that I knew existed but did not preach every single day about. I can not day I am religious but I do believe in a  God and that is all that matters.

Being Hispanic and a minority has pushed me away from science and math growing up because usually people who were science majors would end up being doctors and that was something that was not really talked about in my family. Everyone told me to go into education and be a teacher or something easy. But I wanted to challenge myself some more and go for a subject that is a little more tough. I then took AP biology in high school and loved it. My sister used to tell me do not take the class because I would not be able to handle it. But I proved her wrong, and took it anyways. I loved it from that point on. It was one of my favorite classes I have ever taken and really sparked up love for science. After this class I took a class called EMS which was a medical class but with a mix of biology. This guided me towards the medical field it was something very interesting and new to me. When I came to City College I decided that I am good enough to succeed in sciences and I am going for it.

This semester I hope to leave a better writer due to this class. I have never really been a writer , English was more difficult for me than math or science causing me never focus more on my writing. I want to become a better writer and I want to branch out a bit more to a subject in which I am less comfortable with.

Sincerely , Ashley Ramos