KINDERGATEN
“Dalarey! Vente a comer!” my mom called from the kitchen as she made her delicious family recipe of scrambled eggs.
I was really nervous; it was my first day of school in the US. My family had just recently moved to California from Mexico. No one in my family knew a single word in English, not even my older sister who took an English class in Mexico.
As I walked into my classroom later that morning I noticed my teacher, Mr. Johnson. He was a slim, tall man. An older man, his head covered in white hairs. I noticed he would put the english language learners in the back. That’s when I knew it was going to be a bad first year of school.
“Dalarey Sanchez!” he yelled out my name when he caught me talking to my friend Selena Ramirez.
“Yes, Mr. Johnson?” I said as I stopped talking to Selena and looked at him with an esoteric look.
“I can’t believe you are wasting time talking to Selena! You don’t even know how to speak English properly and you are over here gossiping in your dumb language! Ugh Mexicans! They’ll never learn!”
When I got home later that evening I noticed my mom’s anger in her deep green eyes. Mr. Johnson had called her after school to tell her I needed to get homeschooled to learn English away from people.

THIRD GRADE
My first day back in public school, I had just received a diploma saying I had finally reached the level I needed to be in.
I’m back in this white-girl school, I thought in my head as I walked into my new classroom.
“Good morning students, we have a new student,” said Mrs. Jones as she introduced me to the class.
Fortunately, Selena was in my class. Otherwise I would’ve been alone because the rest of the class was mostly white people and most of them were racist. Who would have known that little girls like them were as racist as an older person? Or that they had so much hatred towards different people.
As the days passed, their hate towards me and Selena got worse. Every time we passed by them they’d yell out “Oh look there go the Mexicans. They’re so ugly and dark I don’t know how they are ever going to achieve anything in life.”
“Oh gosh specially Dalarey, ha she’s so boney and skinny!”
“Her family is probably too poor to feed her.”
That’s all we’d hear for the rest of the year.

FOURTH GRADE
“Hey fatty next time share the tacos,” yelled out Julie as she laughed with her group of friends.
This year was different than last. I had gone to the doctor and he prescribed me some sort of pills so I could gain weight. I had gone from 54 pounds to 96 pounds. I had gone from being skinny to being overweight. Julie, a white girl, was now my main bully. Selena had moved to Arizona due to the fact that her parents found a job there. I was alone, surrounded by bullies.
I’m fat, ugly, and useless. I’m never going to be anything in this world. I’m never going to as pretty as the white girls, I thought as I remembered all the comments Julie and her friends had made about me.
Every time I’d get home, I would tell my mom to send me back to Mexico with my aunt Rosa back in my hometown where I had all my friends. But she would always tell me the same thing:
“Dalarey, you are never going to please everyone because everyone has their own opinion. Some will think you are pretty, others will think you are ugly. Who cares what others think? You should still be able to achieve something someday.”
She was the only reason I kept going to school even if I had a lugubrious attitude.

SEVENTH GRADE
One day as I walked into the middle school I was attending, I saw a familiar face.
“Dalarey Sanchez!” yelled the girl that looked familiar.
“Yes? How do you know me? Or how do I know you? You look familiar.” I responded.
“I’m Selena! Selena Ramirez. Do you remember me now?”
I ran up to my best friend and hugged her. I had not recognized her since I hadn’t seen her since third grade. She was slightly different than before; she was now tall and slim. She also had long dark brown hair. She moved back because her parents found a stable job in California and had bought a home here. I started showing her around because it was her first day back. I finally had my best friend; I wasn’t alone anymore.
That year I decided to change myself, I was willing to lose weight the easy way. I stopped eating food, I became bulimic. I figured that if I stopped eating my body would be malleable. It helped me lose weight so fast. My self-esteem grew and I felt more confident towards myself.

NINTH GRADE
I started playing for the “Lightning Girls,” a local soccer team. It was full of girls like me-Mexican with parents didn't speak English. Coach Nelly always motivated us towards a better future.
“Dalarey, I see potential in you. I can see you graduating and moving on to a whole new level. I know you can do this! Never let what anyone tells you get to you. Always remember to stay in the correct path too. That’s one of the essentials of life, to stay in the path towards success.”
The rest of that year, I took AP classes that gave me a whole new perspective. I worked really hard to keep my record clean until one day it all got messed up. Julie had pulled my hair and dropped me to the ground. I stood up and punched her straight in the face. I had hit her nose, so she started bleeding uncontrollably. Julie finally hit me back and we got in a very violent fight until Selena and the security guard separated us.
When I got called into the principal’s office he told me, “Dalarey why would you do such thing? I can’t believe you would attack Julie like that.”
With that said I got expelled for discrimination towards white people and for attacking Julie. I guess it was considered a very abusive event.

TWELFTH GRADE
My last year of high school and I enjoyed it as much as I could. I had moved back to my old high school because I was only expelled for a year.  I was class governor, leader of one of the clubs at school, and was one of the top students. I was graduating on honor roll and was getting many diplomas according to my achievements.
“Felicidades Dalarey!” said Selena when I told her that I was one of the top students.
I still had problems with Julie; she was still the racist, onerous she had always been. She became one of the  drug addicts of school. No one really hung out with her anymore. She was just seen as one of the lower class girls.
FLASH FORWARD
Currently I am 33 and have prospered in life. I own one of the most successful marketing businesses in the United States. Life is great at this moment in life. Coincidently Julie came yesterday for an interview to work in my business. Who knew that life can change in such drastic in such celerity if you work for it?