Who am I? That must be the question you have asked yourself. Well my name is Sheila and I am a senior in Jamaica High School. As you know, this webpage deals with social injustices and how we can change the world. I believe that one way of banishing all of societies ills is too inform people of what is going on in the world. But enough about my webpage, let me tell you more about myself.

I was born in Manila,Philippines and raised in Queens, New York.I came to this country at the tender age of four, speaking barely any English. The only word I really knew was "yes." Relocating to a new country was extremely difficult. I had to learn a whole new different language as well as acclimatize myself to a totally new environment. I remember my second older sister, who is four years older, tell me that the schools in America is extremely different from the schools in the Philippines. She would tell me how strict schools were back in the Phillippines. You had to have short, clean nails and appropriate socks. Teachers would hit you with a ruler if you acted up. Schools in America was something different. I was too young to even know how schools were like in Manila were. It took awhile, but soon I adjusted to how the way things worked in this whole new world I was living in. I will be honest, I was a little monster when I first came to school. But I started to change. I became more obedient as I changed school grades. It was like a miracle. If you ask me what was the reason behind my sudden change, I can tell you that I don't have the slightest clue.

Living in America has changed me. For the good and for the bad. Though I have met plenty of friends and become acustom to the American culture, I lost my ability to talk in my native language. It has become difficult for me to speak full sentences Tagalog, my native tongue. Instead I speak "tagalish," a combination of both English and Tagalog. Of course, this is nothing to be proud of, and hopefully I can learn to speak it fully again. Despite the fact that I cannot speak my Tagalog perfectly, that is not to say that I am ashamed my culture or abandoned it. I am very proud of my culture. My culture is a rich culture.

Living in this country has shown me different career opportunities. The most common career for Filipino women is Nursing. My mother is a nurse, many of my aunts are nurses, and my second older sister is studying nursing. I chose a different path. Though I plan to study marketing and fashion merchandising, I will pursue my dream to work on film either as a director or screenwriter. Maybe both. I have no desire to follow the footsteps of my mother, mainly because I feel that I want to set my own path. I want to create a mold for myself.

I have plenty of determination to succeed in life. My purpose in life is to prove to all those who doubted me. I want to show all the cynics that I can succeed, even if I didn't get the fabulous grades in high school. As I said, I have plenty of determination, I am intelligent, I am creative, and I have lots of goals set for myself. I refuse to lower my standards. And no one ever should.