“My parents always told me that school should be something I should focus on.”

Mr. Aleman tell us how his experience was when he was a child to when he went to college. He tells us about what he had to go throw as a child and how he felt to be the first to get a college degree. Mr. Aleman  parents would always tell me that school was the most important thing in life. Mr. Aleman tells us what his parents did for a living and how he felt about today he also tells us how it felt to go to college twice.

Transcript 

David Aleman: Hi my name is mr.aleman and I am a math teacher her at JMS and how would you like me to start. 

 Gabriella Alford: I’m going to start by asking you the first question which is tell me a little bit about yourself ?

DA:Well I umm I grew up in East LA so I been in LA my whole life and I started off on the wrong track but I kind of decided that school is very important and my parents always told me that school should be something I should focus on and I went to college twice and I became a teacher I am really happy to know and this is just something I have experience and i want to let other students know so they can also be in a successful life.

GA: Tell me a story about someone who has a significant impact on your life?

DA:The person I think of automatically is my dad ummI hear a lot about his stories I always ask him questions about his life and he tell me who he had to cross the border and had to come to LA and he was deported a couple of times because he was hanging out with the  wrong crowd.He was umm in gangs in his past life and involved with selling  narcotics or drugs and he does not do that no more  he tells me these things because he want to let me know that you know that sometimes we make mistakes but we got to for them instead of making them and he always been working my mom was the one who took care of us she stayed at home. At the time my dad was the one making the money and he started working under some companies and bosses and know i am happy to say and and so is he that he started his own business and he is his own boss and he as his own clients and he is doing really well and it makes me really proud to see you can state from almost nothing u know from almost nothing to living a more comfortable life.

GA: What have you have accomplish in life?

DA:c

and I got this master’s degree this June so this is one of the accomplishments I have made and I am really proud i am one of the only one from my family that has gone to college and graduate with a masters and that makes me really broad and I hope to motivate my sibling and even my cousins so yeah.

GA: Are you proud of what what you have become in life?

DA: I am proud I am going to say that it was very difficult for the past two years  I had to do a lot of schooling and I was very busy and tired and know that I am done with school I have more time to focus on being a teacher I  feel that more proud i am very proud to be back in my community altho I did not grow up around here in south la in Vernon i grew up in East LA but i feel Ii am very connected to this community and I’m very proud of being back and help out student like you  or student around us so they can also you know feel like there is a chance for them to be successful and that this area is not the only place you will stay.

GA: What was the happiest and the saddest moment in your life?

DA: Umm the happiest moment  I probably have to say getting accepted to college when I was in high school, I was a little scared because I did not feel I do enough I didn’t think I took high level classes  or had a good GPA I was always a little umm kinda scared but when I found out I got accepted to UCSB I was really excited because I knew it was a nice school they have really good professors there and I was just really excited  to continue my education and move to a different city and go and experience it. The saddest moment in my life it hard to say I really don’t have many sad moment I like to stay positive as much as I can but if i had to say it would be me leaving  because when I left to santa barbara I always felt guilty leaving my parents behind and I was very homesick for a why when I moved out. I did not know who to reply to who I can talk to I made friends but i still did not feel comfortable with those friends I did not feel a connection with them and my parents for a while made me feel guilty for leaving them because they said that I should not go  to far that I should stay closer to home so I always felt like what I was doing was a bad choice that going to college mm they started seeing that it was a good idea for me to do this and that if it makes me happy they were also happy so I think it change after a while in the beginning I felt sad moving out home.

GA: What was the most challenging part in your life?

DA: I think one of the most challenging part or experiences in my life would have to be right after I graduated college the first time from UC SANTA BARBARA  I was not sure what I wanted to do I was still very umm in indecisive I was very depressed after I graduated because I was applying to many different jobs and I got interviews and nobody expected me nobody wanted me to work for them so I felt that what I did was worthless all this time I spent in  college was a waste of time and I felt very disappointed i felt very frustrated and I became depressed I was just very sad I didn’t know what to do I really felt that what I did was good but going to college was a good idea but I did not see the benefits of it right away it was a good 6 month were i really did not have a job I was working in Macys just working in the office helping out in the office  but I did not feel happy there I did not go to college to be there try something bigger expand it was 6 months when I felt like that I did not know what was going to happen or if I was going to stay in that job forever I was afraid that was going to happen but after the 6 months I got a call back from a job I interview for as a financial coordinator they deal a lot with money and it made me really happy because I saw that I was moving fired and I was growing.