Dance To The Beat Of My Own Drum

Rose Vasquez, 11th Grade
Valley Center High School, Valley Center, CA
San Diego Area

San Diego County

The Indian reservations of San Diego County are "among the most economically disadvantaged members of society and with such economic deficits these tribal households have a result of inadequate resources for medical care, employment, and education," (Minorities in Rural Areas, lack & Jenson, 2002, Roseigno & Cromley, 2001).

Boom! Boom! Boom! I hear the drums beating in my ears. I get the urge to dance, to make myself feel free and to let my black hair fly. I dance to the beat of the drum and then I lose my step. I'm ruined, or so I thought. The sanity left in me listens to my heart. Of all the temptations this life has to offer: alcohol, drugs, sex, and I still have not experimented even though they taunt. The Indian reservation makes all these seem glorious because they are all around. The reservation says these are our friends now, no one else. My heart says not to listen, so I do not.

I do not listen to the reservation because I strive for something greater, something to make it better, to make everyone better. I will bring it back and share it. There will be knowledge for everyone. I will use my knowledge as a medicine to heal wounds because everyone on the reservation is not well. I can see clearer than the drug addict, clearer than the alcoholic and clearer than the promiscuous girls.

Relinquished from the monster, I can once again think straight. I get back up, dust myself off and see it is not too late. I can do it. I walk to a clearing, the clearing saved just for me. I begin to dance once again, but this time I do not lose my balance. Unlike all the rest on the Indian reservation, I dance to the beat of my own drum. Boom! Boom! Boom!

This is where I come from, a place where American Indians have been left out of the American dream. Richard Nixon quoted, "The American Indian has been left in the shadow world of the American dream," I am an American Indian. I believe in the fundamentals of our country. I believe if we are all given the chance we can inspire to be somebody. Funding opportunities like The Campaign for College Opportunity give our youth the privilege to be the future leaders of tomorrow.