Prompt:
Choose an issue of importance to you - the issue could be personal, school related, local, political, or international in scope - and write an essay in which you explain the significance of that issue to yourself, your family, your community, or your generation.
I know I have a lot to improve on in this essay and would love any feedback. The essay cannot exceed a page, and so I have cut a lot and it seems rather short. However, anything helps.
Please and thank you :)
The sun rose in the morning and warmed the hotel room as my boyfriend and I put the coffee on to start the day. It was to be an exciting day as my brother was to walk the stage to receive his high school diploma. It was also the day that my boyfriend, Vinod, was to meet my family after a year of us being a couple. We sat down to the complimentary breakfast before heading to my mother's house where we would meet before the ceremony. He and I talked over our breakfast of fruit and cereal about my family. I kept telling him how much they would love him and how excited I was for my brother to be graduating and moving on with his life.
After the ceremony we all reconvened at my mother's house where much of my family and my mother's friends came to eat and congratulate my brother. Everyone ate well and gave their well wishes to my brother. Family members talked of how much everyone has grown and even sometimes exchanged embarrassing memories of one another. It was a great time and everyone seemed to adore Vinod. When the gathering died around eight o' clock Vinod and I decided to stay the night there at my mother's and drive back home in the morning. As we exited out of the house through the garage door to retrieve our bags from the car, we stumbled upon a conversation I wish we wouldn't have. When we stepped into the light on the pavement we heard "Shhh, here they come." It was too late - we had heard everything. My mother's friends who had stepped out to have a cigarette gathered closely outside to tell racist jokes about Vinod's Indian race and say vile things about us as a couple. My heart sank as I could only imagine what went through Vinod's mind and the horrible feeling that must had washed over him at that moment.
I wish I could say that was the only time he and I have experienced anything like that. It wasn't. Some places we go we receive disapproving looks and whispers. We are sometimes treated differently at places like the grocery store, the airport - even sometimes in restaurants. At the end of the day, no matter how much it bothers us, we have to shrug it off. We cannot dwell on the fear and ignorance of some people. If that were the case, we would never leave the house. The reality of it is that people's fear of multiracial relationships affects couples everyday in a society where the existence of multiracial couples continues to grow. I do not know exactly what it is that gets people's blood boiling about people of different ethnicities coming together. Nothing is different and we learn from one another. I feel my life has been enriched as I have been given the opportunity to learn about his Indian culture and as well as getting to know his family. Together we complete a beautiful life that others can either embrace or turn away from. They suffer from the fear of change from they know as the ordinary. Yet, to us nothing is out of the ordinary. To us, we are just people.
Choose an issue of importance to you - the issue could be personal, school related, local, political, or international in scope - and write an essay in which you explain the significance of that issue to yourself, your family, your community, or your generation.
I know I have a lot to improve on in this essay and would love any feedback. The essay cannot exceed a page, and so I have cut a lot and it seems rather short. However, anything helps.
Please and thank you :)
The sun rose in the morning and warmed the hotel room as my boyfriend and I put the coffee on to start the day. It was to be an exciting day as my brother was to walk the stage to receive his high school diploma. It was also the day that my boyfriend, Vinod, was to meet my family after a year of us being a couple. We sat down to the complimentary breakfast before heading to my mother's house where we would meet before the ceremony. He and I talked over our breakfast of fruit and cereal about my family. I kept telling him how much they would love him and how excited I was for my brother to be graduating and moving on with his life.
After the ceremony we all reconvened at my mother's house where much of my family and my mother's friends came to eat and congratulate my brother. Everyone ate well and gave their well wishes to my brother. Family members talked of how much everyone has grown and even sometimes exchanged embarrassing memories of one another. It was a great time and everyone seemed to adore Vinod. When the gathering died around eight o' clock Vinod and I decided to stay the night there at my mother's and drive back home in the morning. As we exited out of the house through the garage door to retrieve our bags from the car, we stumbled upon a conversation I wish we wouldn't have. When we stepped into the light on the pavement we heard "Shhh, here they come." It was too late - we had heard everything. My mother's friends who had stepped out to have a cigarette gathered closely outside to tell racist jokes about Vinod's Indian race and say vile things about us as a couple. My heart sank as I could only imagine what went through Vinod's mind and the horrible feeling that must had washed over him at that moment.
I wish I could say that was the only time he and I have experienced anything like that. It wasn't. Some places we go we receive disapproving looks and whispers. We are sometimes treated differently at places like the grocery store, the airport - even sometimes in restaurants. At the end of the day, no matter how much it bothers us, we have to shrug it off. We cannot dwell on the fear and ignorance of some people. If that were the case, we would never leave the house. The reality of it is that people's fear of multiracial relationships affects couples everyday in a society where the existence of multiracial couples continues to grow. I do not know exactly what it is that gets people's blood boiling about people of different ethnicities coming together. Nothing is different and we learn from one another. I feel my life has been enriched as I have been given the opportunity to learn about his Indian culture and as well as getting to know his family. Together we complete a beautiful life that others can either embrace or turn away from. They suffer from the fear of change from they know as the ordinary. Yet, to us nothing is out of the ordinary. To us, we are just people.