Students Write - Prof. Martin's Class: Manuel

Finding the Way in Aldine
by Manuel Soto

Manuel, with his parents, at his graduation from MacArthur High School in June, 2017

In my Aldine community, many of the Latino families there push their sons and daughters to become greater than they are. Taking a year off school immediately gives off the impression that you don’t want to study anymore. My family is Hispanic and they seemed disappointed because they wanted to brag to my tios and tias about my success and I told them I would go, they just had to wait, but I was labeled as a failure.
My parents did not graduate from high school, so when I graduated from MacArthur High School they were extremely proud. Now the next step would be college, so I entered college to study Computer Engineering. Many people don’t really know what Computer Engineering is and I can understand that.  I literally searched in Google “careers that deal with computers” and computer engineering sounded interesting to be part of building computers and evolving them making them better and smarter.
Throughout my life, I’ve been messing with computers, and I’ve broken many by trying to open them up and “fix” them. Each time I would open one and see the many components of a computer I would be intrigued and every piece of equipment in there has a purpose; I want to know what each thing does and its correspondence to making the computer function. I will do my best in school to make my parents proud, to have a career in my life, to have a job that can support my family that I will have in the future, and to give them the best life I can provide.
For most of my life I’ve been lost.  I was never sure of what things I wanted to accomplish and many people in my life would ask me, “que quieres hacer en tu vida?” The answer would always be "I’m not sure about that at this moment," and I would get lectured on thinking about it seriously. I didn’t listen because I imagined that I would stumble across something interesting; I kind of did, by messing with computers I realized I was genuinely curious.
My folks don’t know what Computer Engineering is but even when I explain they ask, “is there even jobs for that?” Since they are from Mexico, their perspective is quite different than that of someone’s who lives here, so I do my best to let them know that I will be successful by working towards this career. There are many bumps in the road of becoming a computer engineer but I will get through it all no matter what.

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Manuel is a current student in Professor Bruce Martin's writing course.

Students Write - Prof. Martin's Class: Nicall

FM 1960 - Opportunity for Change
by Nicall Lindsay

Do you ever just drive around your community and wonder what you can do to make it better? In low income neighborhoods there are an excessive number of liquor stores, pawn shops, and places to receive loans. I am living in a low income community off FM 1960 in Houston. I want to change the outlook of it.

Why is there an excessive number of liquor stores in low income neighborhoods? Research shows that liquor stores target areas in poverty. A suggestion I have is that Harris County should place a limit on how many liquor stores you can have in a community.

There are lots of pawn shops and ready cash loan shops, with loan and pawns shops working together. We should have a place that gives people an alternate option on that same exact street. That way people won’t have to turn around and sell their belongings to the local pawn shops in order to pay back their loans.  It's a never-ending cycle that is designed for failure.

I see defeat within low income areas, people working just to barely get by. The feeling of being in a sunken place should be a problem for individuals; it should be everyone’s problem. Trying to make the neighborhood you live in the best it can be and should be something that everyone wants. I know things can be better; I've handed out turkey with the Fifth Ward Texas Senator Borris Miles and seen the smiles on people’s faces.

You can’t wake up every day doing the same thing over and over again and expect a different result.  Why not wake up every day coming up with ideas on how to improve your surroundings. Changing the outlook on low income communities can make a better and more positive environment for people within the community.

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Nicall is a current student in Professor Bruce Martin's writing class.

Students Write - Prof. Martin's Class: Brian

My Astrophysics - From Humble to the Stars
by Brian Jimenez

This is the first time I officially made my parents proud and I knew it. I could tell by the way they treated me the whole day of my graduation.  It was the best day of my life, and it was a memorable one for them.

The complete goal my parents want me to accomplish is moving out the community that we are currently in. We live in the Humble area, which is not that bad, but I don’t want to go outside walking my dog and seeing people fighting, being loud, and feeling insecure about life because of the people there. My parents want to see me succeed in life and they do not want me to live in conditions like that.

My mother wants me to go to school, and here I am. My community is filled with organic intellectuals. So, when I met with some neighbors, the most education they really got is maybe an associate’s degree. They are all basically on manual-work jobs that require hard exhausting labor, but the pay is good.

I know that it will be hard to be an astrophysicist. But when someone asks me where I come from, and I say Humble, they are going to be surprised because many people only hear bad stuff about Humble. When they know a Humble-guy with a PhD, I am going to flip the script.

I know what my parents mean every time they tell me to go to school for a better living. Like my dad always told me, “Mijo, ojala agarres un trabajo donde te paguen mas que a mi.” I will make sure I take him in a good community, here or in Mexico, where they pay me more than they pay him, so he can be proud.   

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Brian is a current student in Professor Bruce Martin's writing class.

Students Write - Prof. Martin's Class: Juan

Helping Others: A Product of Aldine
by Juan Herrera

As a community, we suffer from a bystander syndrome when it comes to the problems that actively damage those around us in Aldine. Driving down Little York or Aldine Mail Route, I consistently see homeless people asking for money at stoplights. I can’t remember how many times I’ve driven past these people, wondering why my parents wouldn’t just roll down the window and hand them a dollar or two, only to be told that my parents worked hard for their cash, why should they hand it out?

We’ve become so accustomed to seeing accidents, shootings, fires, and more in Aldine that we’ve numbed ourselves to it.  Every year, a MacArthur student dies because there are no proper sidewalks for them to walk on, and every year someone is shot over something as minor as a verbal disagreement. Why do we continue to allow these sorts of things to keep happening, wouldn’t you think that we’d be more open to talk about this, to raise our voices and say, “That’s enough?”

I’d love to work with the community to find out why we continue to look the other way when tragedy strikes, why we look the other way when there are people that are in obvious need. I understand the need for survival because I grew up in the same area as the rest of Aldine but wouldn’t we better our community if we decided to help each other out? Wouldn’t it be better if we were less complicit in the ailments of our community and attempted to help our neighbors more?

My father came from a Mexican working-class family that owned a farm and only grew what they needed to survive so he’s always put himself and his family as priority number one. My mother grew up in a wealthier family in Mexico but with the lack of a paternal figure in her life she always had to look out for her sisters. My parents raised me to always think of myself first and then helping others and growing up being raised by my parents in Aldine only accentuated this feeling.

Being more aware of Aldine has made more concerned with helping my neighbors. I wanted to help people like those girls’ families. I plan on going into the criminal justice field by majoring in Criminology and pursuing a career as a criminal psychologist after completing my four years. There, I can support Aldine to focus on their issues and on their survival.

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Juan is a current student in Professor Bruce Martin's writing course.