About me

Hello all my name is Lauren Cortez, I’m an only child that grew up here in Sacramento into a mixed racial household with my mom (Caucasian) and dad (Mexican). Throughout my life my family was quite conservative but in recent times they have started to change their view and started being more understanding of other people. Growing up I thought I had it pretty good, and I still think that I did seeing that we never had to worry about basic necessities or anything of the like. Sadly, I don’t have all that much to say about my childhood since I don’t quite remember it besides what people tell me. My memories start roughly at seventh grade, that’s when my parents broke the news that they were getting a divorce. Around that time I started to become aware of how my household really was, I realized that I grew up in a household filled with emotional and verbal abuse and for most of my life, before and after the divorce, I was being manipulated and brainwashed by my dad to try and turn me against my mom. After becoming aware of the cards I was dealt I fell into a deep depression and developed severe anxiety. For a long time I was in denial of what was going on around me and it caused me to develop a bit of an attitude issue since I didn’t want to admit to the truth. These issues then started to effect me in school, resulting in me failing all of middle school.
Luckily, my mom made me aware of some of the things wrong with me (mostly the temper issues) and I began counseling. Sadly we could only afford it for a short amount of time so I can’t go anymore but the time spent there was very helpful. Around this time I began high school and I decided it was time for me to turn my life around and find a reason to keep going, This led me to try in school and figure out what I was going to do with my life, and that I did, I joined clubs like the Red Cross and pushed myself academically resulting in being in the top 15% of my graduating class. But what I find the most important is that I overcame (for the most part) my anxiety, depression, and as for the issues with temper they were completely gone. Through finding my worth and getting involved in clubs I found my passion for helping others, and I learned that I want a future in the medical field. As of now I want to live, I am truly happy with my life, and I want to help others.

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