On September 23rd, 2004, my parents named me Joshua Irizarry inside a hospital located in the Bronx. Ever since that day, New York City has been my home. Although the city has its problems, such as being dangerous and expensive, I still love it and want to at least live near it in the future. However, as I stated, it has its issues. Since I’m not from any wealthy area of the city, such as lower Manhattan, myself and the people around me have experienced situations we would have preferred not to experience; including being threatened with weapons or being mugged; however, it is important to keep in mind, the chances of this happening again, or in general, is slim.
Nonetheless, I would still like to live outside of the city, preferably in a suburban neighborhood close enough to New York City so I can commute. This is because even though the city has problems, it still has a lot of amazing career opportunities. It is also my main reason for coming to college in the first place. My goal in my life is to get one of those high-salary jobs in Manhattan, so I can afford my three objectives for life. These objectives include being able to financially support my mother (who is constantly working hard), an affordable Tudor-style home near New York City, and a convertible BMW M4 Competition.
The objective of being able to support my mother financially is my main goal. In the late 1990s, my mother left her home country of the Dominican Republic and arrived in New York City with one goal in mind; to have a better life. She is always working, pushing her limits to now not only support herself but me and my grandmother as well. While I was home, there were days and nights when I wouldn’t see her due to working or sleeping over at my grandmother’s home to take care of her. Even with all these sacrifices that she made, she put me in the position I’m in today. That is why I’m taking this opportunity to be at Geneseo to the full extent. To better both my life and hers.
Thankfully, Geneseo has treated me well. These past few weeks, I’ve met many great people. Some, of course, I met once, then never again; others, I see occasionally and say hi to. The rest have become my friends. The professors have also been treating me very good as well. Although the coursework wasn’t arduous, I realized how important the idea of time management is. I slacked a bit at first, which caused me to be a little behind in two classes but catching up will be possible.
In this class, Theater a Therapy for Veterans is going a bit differently than expected. The first time I saw I was given this class, I thought I would be working on a play, or something similar, for the entire semester. On the contrary, we have been mainly doing tasks about writing and filling journals. Overall, this class has been going smoothly, and just like all my other professors, this one seems very passionate about what they teach. I also did not expect this class to be as interactive with one another. Originally, I believed it would be very interactive because I thought the class would focus on manufacturing a play. However, during syllabus week, when we were told about the readings and writing, I believed it would be just that, then work together on a play at the end. However, as I already mentioned, it has been more than that; I’m glad since we have discussions that are interesting and have me question myself. All and all, this class and college has been wonderful, and I can’t wait for what the future holds.
