“I guess we are who we are for a lot of reasons. And maybe we’ll never know most of them. But even if we don’t have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there.” – The perks of being a wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
In the past, I believed that where I came from was where I could only stay. I use to look at the sky, and I would whisper to myself: the skies are so diminutive. Why was that? Well I was living on an island where it was believed by my ancestors, that you were born there, and there you would live, marry someone and settled for a job like working at Walmart. It was all about making a living, you know, making enough money to live, but not enough to get out and go to the States. I guess most of the people were scared of the unknown or they just wanted to stay on their comfort zone, in Puerto Rico nothing is far, and you know all the people basically you have connections all over the place because it is so small.
Anyways, my parents wanted to get out of there. Our economic stability wasn’t the best neither the worst, but the place we were living wasn’t exactly the place they would of like to raise me, they wanted to show me that there is more than a diminutive sky. My dad signed up for the army, and in less time than what I imagine we were landing on Texas. And I felt like they took me from my “place”. And I was very mad, and I would think: They think this is going to make a difference… whatever, they can take me from there but they can’t take the place out of me.”
The truth is that I was never the kind of girl that was rude or anything but I felt that by taking me away from my family, friends and culture they were taking away my traditions. Honestly I was pretty upset for a long time. Until I read the book the perks of being a wallflower, and the previous quote on the top of the page changed my perspective. It doesn’t matter where you come from, you decide where you want to go, and who you want to become. My mother use to say, sons of convicts become lawyers. Your family, culture or traditions doesn’t decide who you are and where you are going, you do.