We all have that background story that really sums up our whole life and really made us who we are now. My story starts way back when I was a baby. I was born in Mexico and at a young age I came to Chicago. I was a little over two years old when I came to Chicago. In order to come to Chicago my father had to go off and work in California. The thing is that I wasn’t born yet when my father was off working in California. The reason my father was working in California was to make enough money to provide for our family. I guess you could say I wasn’t supposed to be born. My father started working in California in 1993 and I wasn’t born until 1997. My father came to Mexico in 1997, I was later born, and my father left off to Chicago in 1998 a few months before I was about to turn one. Well, I myself did not arrive to Chicago with my mom until the year 2000. When I was two years old, I was already living in a house packed with people. Since then I consider Chicago to be my true home and and this has been my home ever since I arrived here. The neighborhood I live in right now is really the one I grew up in and I’ve been living in Gage Park all these years. I’m very glad I came to this city and I am grateful for the opportunities I was given.
My life was completely changed one day when I found out my mom was going to have a baby. I was finally going to have a sibling which turned out to be a boy. Now that I was enlightened with this idea that I wouldn’t have to grow up all alone. I would be the older brother and now I would have more responsibilities in my life. But I was wrong, I was thinking too hard, and putting all these ideas in my head for nothing. My mom gave birth to my brother but sadly he had died a few days after birth. At age two, I had already lost someone and it was a few days before Christmas. My brother was born on December 20, 2000. I don’t know if it was destiny or fate but the same thing happened again in the year 2005. I was seven years old and almost turning eight in three months. My mom was having another baby and it was in June. My parents decided to name my brother Christian and the first brother I had was named Jesus. I would say I was meant to be alone forever since my brother Christian also died a few days after birth.
I’m the only child in my family and I live with my parents. I was able to get over the deaths of my brothers and able to move on. Now that I am in high school, I have to set goals for myself and objectives that I must accomplish. I learned that I cannot say that I’m done but finished. I have to put the problems I have aside and keep moving forward. I cannot hold myself back or limit myself to just a few things. I must solve my own problems and learn from my mistakes. I cannot bring myself down for something that happened in the past. I must move forward and be able to say one day that I’m finished.
Luis G. Nieto 