Personal Reflection

While I was writing my educational autobiography, I was surprised at how hard it was for me to focus on one aspect of my education, as if my education was an accumulated product of my experiences and interactions with different people - my family, friends and classmates. In this sense, I began to view education as a shared experience that these people were participants in my development as a person and helped me find my place and role in society.

Nonetheless, I was likewise disturbed by and reminded of how deeply class relations and more specifically, the status of my classmates affected this role. For many, a big part of growing up is finding a role and trying to fit into society;however, since my parents were immigrants to this country, like Rodriguez's story, a big part of my educational experience was based on being self aware, seeking acceptance, and assimilating into a culture and community that my parents were foreign to. Thus, for me the distance from my classmates' society left me very anxious about my position in the community.

In rereading my essay again, I have begun to question what constitutes opportunity. How do others' reinterpretation of the same opportunity translate towards different consequences? When the opportunity cost of education differs how does one's outlook on education change? Also, in relating to Rodriguez's story, I also wondered whether the separation between two cultures in the educational process could be prevented. Unlike Rodriguez, I didn't alienate myself from my family but rather felt alienated from my classmates, and thus, I wonder whether one chooses which community one feels alienated from, whether one's conformity to cultural norms is imposed by society or imposed by one's perception of where one should fit into society.