esto lo escribi para mi clase de Literature, si quieren conocerme más.. sean libres de leerlo.
Language Arts
Autobiography
It’s amazing how people can change within time, learning new things that before seem to be all the same and boring. With this piece of autobiography you’ll read about something that totally changed my life and its course. Some might think it was good or bad, you choose what side to take.
Since I was little, as every kid I was totally obsessed with television, and its cartoons. As many of my classmates may agree with me, the cartoons that were most shocking for our childhood were for example: Saint Seiya for the boys and some girls, but for girls mostly was Sailor Moon, Sakura Card Captor and others. In that time, we would’ve never imagined where all this amazing series came from; we just wanted to be like them. I never imagined all of this would bring a totally new, unknown world for me to unlock and learn about.
As I grew up, I started to watch series like Friends, E.R. and others, no more cartoons in my life.
At the age of 13-14 a friend of mine showed me this picture of one cartoon called Naruto. I really got impressed when I saw it. I started to watch the series in Internet, because in Paraguay, no televisions air it. As I searched for more information about it I learned a lot of its backgrounds, like who makes it, where, and all of that. There’s where I learned that this cartoons weren’t just cartoons they were Anime (Japanese Animation). Before we just called them cartoons, and we actually thought they were made in the US, totally ignorant. Shortly after that I downloaded the songs from this series that were of course all in Japanese. Even though I didn’t understood anything it really caught my attention, the videos, de lyrics (which I depended on translations), the voices, the rhythm, everything just was so surprising for me, things I never heard before. I only heard this songs, openings and endings of the anime series; hardly would I know that a much bigger of Asian music artists was ahead.
When a year or so passed by I watched already more than 20 complete series of anime without counting those I watched without finishing them, which are a lot. I learned some words and expressions of the Japanese, while watching though it wasn’t enough.
That’s when I told my parents about studying Japanese, a few weeks later, I started in the Paraguayan-Japanese Center near my school. Without realizing I listen to more and more Japanese music, and got more into their culture, gaining more interest not only in Japan but Asia. Since that time, I also started looking more about Korea, China, Taiwan and other East Asia countries.
Not only did I gain knowledge about Asia within the years, but also met a lot of different, quite interesting friends thanks to activities involving Asia related topics. My first anime convention was at the end of 2007, which was also the first big one in my country, so basically I’m one of the veterans of these kinds of events in Paraguay. My parents thought and still do that some of this things just changed me and brings some bad consequences to me, but I prefer to say that they just didn’t expect this and their idea of my “perfect life in the future” has been totally erased. Before all this the plan was for me to go and study overseas in US, and why not, start a life over there. Everything was my English, they are so proud of it, and wants me to always use it, those days; I agreed with them, I had no problems with that idea whatsoever.
Little did they know, things would change dramatically. For me this perfect life faded in a matter of seconds. Asia became my life, my everything. Since the last few months I’ve been working for scholarships in any of the countries that I love from Asia. My parents and aunt gave me some papers of scholarships for US, but I rejected all of them without even giving a look. I have “graduated” as I like to say from English songs, I don’t hear them anymore only in some rare nostalgic occasions.
They told me they do regret a lot of things, for example giving me so much freedom with all these things of Asia. Their was one day that my dad told me that he wasn’t happy seeing me study Japanese nor Korean, he only wanted me to continue German (which I was studying also at that time), because he found Asian languages to be of low class and pointless. I assumed he said those things just because he was terribly mad at me, I don’t think he actually meant that, but it’s something that I’ll never forget. My aunt has always been against Asians, he is quite a racist may I say but not in a radical way. Before she was the one who was the most against to all these, but within time I guess she realized that going to Asia would really make me happy, with this thought she is coming to soften about the idea, and agreeing with it more and more. Another thing that really bothers my mom, that at the same time I find it understandable is that as the months passed by, I interacted more with the new friends I made along this new road I was facing, and left behind my classmates, friends who I have since I was 4 years old. I’m not happy even today with this, I do regret not spending time with them, but I don’t regret all the moments I shared with the others. Moments that made me really happy after a long time of self-steam and depression days I had before meeting them. Don’t get me wrong, I do love my classmates and appreciate everything they did for me within this 13 years, I would never replace them. My heart aches knowing I didn’t shared what I would’ve liked with them, and it hurts so much to have changed to someone who they won’t enjoy being with because of the difference not only in tastes but in mind. Many people told me that this happens because of my maturity; telling me that even though I’m a 16 year old, I have the mind of someone much older. While my classmates are enjoying adolescence, I have passed that emotion and stage so fast without realizing.
This doesn’t mean I’m an adult at all, I may be mature and all, but I’m still an adolescent living life like one, just with different morals, different way of thinking compared to everyone else. There are things that I talk to all my outside school friends that are mostly of 19 years old to 25years old, that I can’t converse with my school mates, because they’ll look at it like something stupid.
And being graduation day just a year from today, makes me think about my past a lot, everything I’ve passed and what I did and what I wish I would have done. Thinking about what I’m leaving behind. I’m happy to say, with tears of joy and happiness while writing this, I don’t regret ANYTHING. I had a beautiful childhood, beautiful puberty and beautiful moments that I’ve shared with all my friends and family. I’m glad to have found this new world called Asia who brought so many things to my life and made the person I am today. Believe it or not that continent brought along some tears, of joy and struggles for all my loving friends and family.
Everything I’ve learned until today has made me a stronger person and even though my parents haven’t totally agreed about my plans, I’ll be sure to fight for my dreams, no matter what they think, but I also know that whatever path I choose, they will support me.
Maybe this text about my life has been just pure words and meaningless. I don’t know if you’ll find a moral teaching, but for me it does. Never hesitate to speak your mind, it doesn’t matter what other people think, what matters is what you think, don’t be afraid to be who you are, show your true colors, and have a dream, because if you do, it’ll come true, work hard, and everything will come along, those dreams will be fulfilled.
