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What I have said should not detract from the dedication of our faculty. I have never seen a faculty so committed to their students' perseverance; I thank everybody at the Textron School for their support. They would "raise the bar" every year, as Mr. Landau would say, but they would still have to account for our academic deficiencies. I am humbled at college, for I see the difference in our academic backgrounds. But, don't misunderstand me. I am as intelligent as everybody at Boston College, the university I have attended since my high school graduation. People need to know and never confuse the following: Being knowledgeable of facts doesn't measure one's intelligence. What really counts in our society, in the United States of America, are numbers. Everything, for some reason or other, has to be measured. Everything has to be of a tangible nature. This is something regrettable, for I know many talented individuals from my neighborhood in Providence who could make it in the real world, but they were never given the opportunity to do so because of their limited academic knowledge. I am not advocating that the standards be lowered. On the contrary, eventually they need to be reached. With the help of people like those at the Textron School, it will happen. I am only relating how disappointed I feel when I see the wasted talent where I come from. Bilingual people, artistic people, and people who are individuals are neglecting their talent. I ask myself, do these people of Hispanic, Black, and Asian descent realize that they are special? I deliberately name the ethnicities of the majority of my high school to fortify for you my belief that they are all special within their cultures as well as outside of them. They need to add their flavors to the American culture, express themselves, and refuse to ever assimilate. Why would people of such rich backgrounds throw that away? I always found it somewhat humorous when I would witness people in my school give their presentations. I understood why many would switch from their colloquial speech to formal speech; however, I never understood why such a proud people would try to diminish their accents. I would say to myself, "Cut the act. Be yourself." While the school I went to wasn't as challenging as I would have liked it to be, I ask myself if I would have been disciplined enough to accomplish more. My first semester of college shaped me into a disciplined individual. The amount of work, the pitiless professors, all of the college rigors imaginable, changed my bad habits to good ones because I realized that it wasn't going to be as easy as in high school. My general gaps have been filled, but nevertheless I still need work. I have grown in every sense of the word. I feel appreciative of the faculty at my high school. Sometimes I have internal dialogue in my dorm room. I think of the word disadvantaged and try to give it a definition, but I can't. Although I may sometimes consider myself disadvantaged, isn't it a relative thing? Considering myself disadvantaged would seem preposterous to someone in poverty in a third world country. Many would find the money my family is making to be a fortune, while many would see it as meager. Thus I came to this conclusion: I am not going to consider myself disadvantaged, but I am going to consider the following sentiment, although it is paradoxical (but then again, I am a paradoxical kind of being). I feel privileged at being disadvantaged. I say that with all sincerity. Future Plans Where do I go now? What do I do? Personally, my aim in life is to help the poor, relieve some pain, and produce progress in the minds of the ones who can't help being slothful. I want to contribute to the progress of our society, not because of feeling indebted for the help I received, but because it simply comes out of my heart. In respect to self-indulgence, I want to be a writer (although some would consider this a form of helping people). What kind of a writer? What do you think? I want to be a creative writer. My interests are writing poetry and novels with stories that leave one's mind enchanted. I also want to be a playwright. I was exposed to the theater during my senior year at Textron Chamber School through a program called WISE (Wise Individualized Senior Experience). It was a valuable experience. The program consisted of a mentor, a sponsor, and an internship site or a project of interest. The mentors were people from the faculty. The sponsors had to be someone from one's site or someone who was in the field of one's project. Some of us chose to do nursing; many of us chose to investigate teaching at a public school. One person did photography, another marketing. The interests were many. I seemed to be the only one to choose performing arts, particularly the performance of drama. I interned at the Trinity Repertory in downtown Providence. I worked in the education department. It was a beneficial experience for me because I got a sense of both the performance end of theater, as well as the business end. A day at the office would consist of filing, stapling, copying, and the typical office duties of a seventeen year old. As I am an optimist, I would say to myself, "This is going to get better, Moises." And it did. I attended four Trinity productions, which were all for free. I also built a close relationship with my sponsor, whom I now miss terribly. We would go to different high schools to help them with their theater projects. At this point, I understood why my sponsor was content with his job. At first, I found it boring. But, when I saw him help the kids with their projects and give them theater workshops at Trinity, I understood his contentment. He is a giving person. He was so nice as to get me an audition for a spokesperson position. Although I didn't get a callback, it was a valuable experience nevertheless. He also helped me with the play I performed in, which was sponsored by the MET school. A junior at the MET wrote and produced her twisted version of Alice in Wonderland. I had a grand time. Towards the end of my WISE project, I realized that I was required to make a presentation. I presented a play I wrote, which was full of typos and extremely amateur in quality. I also gave a video recording of the play I was in, and an awkward summary of the history of theatre, correlated to my particular experience. It was an organized presentation, but I still have a lot of criticisms of it in mind. I could go on for pages about what was wrong with my presentation, but that's history. I will do all the things I have said I would do, for myself and for the people who believe in me—namely my girlfriend of almost four years, my family, and last but not least my high school. Thank you all.
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