What My Father Never Had

Brenda Zuniga, 8th Grade
Valley Center Middle School, Valley Center, CA
Inland Empire

"An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you know and what you don't," announced Anatole France.

For me education is the key to open all the doors to my future, and not only for me but for my family. My family is not like any. My parents struggle morning and night to give me and my brothers an education.

Every day in my life since I was 5 years old I have seen my father every morning at 6 o'clock ready to go to work. Every educated person would go well dressed and go to their jobs and be secured every day you will be paid - but not for my father. My father didn't have the education, and neither did my mother. And still, here we are in the United States of America with two bought houses.

My dad is not a teacher, layer, or even a car washer. My dad is a yard worker. He has never worn a suit to go to work because he works in yard-working, plumbing, and anything that the community can offer him.

He has worked so hard since he was twelve years old that he almost lost his life twice. But for him that does not matter because he wants his children to have the education that he never had - and never be pointed to as being someone that is less than trash.

Probably you would not think that people would be so cruel with a worker, but when my dad was younger they wouldn't hire him for being Mexican. And sometimes still today in the 21st century, people discriminate against him for being a Mexican.

When I hear that my dad worked more than 12 hours a day and that the person who hired him did not pay him a cent, I just get so angry. For this reason I want to go in college to give my dad a life that he didn't have and fight for the rights that people took away from my dad. I want to not only go to college but to university and then get my masters degree. That is why I need your help to be someone and help others. To never see someone be discriminated for being from another place, for being an immigrant.