From Tears to Inspiration

Before I get into the excitement of my writing biography, I first must indulge you on how my
family arrived in the United States. During the 1980s Hungary was run by a communist
government and my family having endured generations of persecution was ready for a change.
The move from Hungary directly to the U.S. was impossible at the time so our first destination
was Austria. We ended up spending two years in Vienna working out the glitches on our
immigration papers. I was able to learn German during this time at my new school while my
parents worked diligently so that our final move would be as comfortable as possible. During the
summer of 1990 we finally arrived in the U.S. After getting adjusted my parents enrolled me into
the 3
rd
grade at Melrose Elementary School part of LAUSD. I cant really recall too many
memories from this time in my life as I was simply learning to fit in and attempting to pick up
my third language. However, I can remember that I never received much individualized help and
I was in a combined 2
nd
and 3
rd
grade classroom with over 40 students. It did not take my parents
too long to realize that this school was not the place for me and relocation was necessary. My
parents were extremely hard working and it was not long before they managed to land better jobs
and were able to move us to Beverly Hills. Beverly Vista was an entirely different school and
they did not hesitate to place me into an ESL program and put me on a track to succeed. I should
say attempt to place me on track to succeed because I progressed at snail speed and my
memories of Beverly Vista which was K-8 are mainly of playing basketball and football during
recess and my highlights of success were during PE and not in the classroom. I dont think there
is anything to document regarding my writing biography as of yet. I still believe to this day that
most teachers just expected me to be able to write because I could speak English fluently except
none of them actually took the time to sit down and teach it to me. I never learned how to write
in either Hungarian or German because I spent the majority of my time learning how to speak
and I had no foundation to build on. Sadly to say I was left behind because they had too many
high achieving students to attend to. I survived Beverly Vista, but if you ask me how, I would
have not the slightest inkling. High School was amazing and I could write about all the amazing
experiences but, it would not consist of writing. I managed to pick up tips and tricks on writing,
but I still lacked the basic foundations. I stayed afloat in my classes by completing projects not
related to the 5 paragraph format. I loved constructing RC cars and airplanes so I had a great
knack for building things. If there was an assignment that allowed for the creative mind to
flourish I was able to succeed. However, I could still not pass a simple grammar test if my life
depended on it. I can remember water polo games, wrestling matches, track and field events,
swim meets, and girlfriends, but I cant remember a single paper I wrote. I dont know if this is a
result of the educational system or my lack of concern for school. I survived Beverly Hills High
School with a diploma in my hand. As I walked off the beautifully green, rolling front lawn, it
suddenly dawned on me that I had no plans for my future. My friends would soon be departing
for college and I had to come up with something. I was not necessarily ready for college, but I
wanted to continue playing water polo at the collegiate level, so my best possible option was
enrolling into Santa Monica Community College. The college deemed it necessary that I
complete a Math and English entrance exam, lucky me! As in high school, I once again earned
dismal scores and landed myself in developmental courses. My scores would have been
detrimental to someone elses ego, but for me, this was routine. At first it appeared as the
institution was punishing me by placing me in the lowest of low English courses; however, for
the very first time there was a course designed to meet my needs and I would not begin day one
behind any of my peers. It was in fact a reward that would benefit me for the rest of my college
career and adult life. My future from this point on began to shine. I successfully completed the
course with an A and for the very first time tested out of a developmental course. With a huge
smile on my face and an increased drive, I continued to tackle more challenging college courses.
After fulfilling the requirements of SMC I transferred to UNLV and graduated with my first
degree in Recreation. With a continued desire to further myself I completed a professional
degree in elementary education. I continue to strive to even greater heights as I work on my
masters in literacy. My greatest inspiration throughout this process has been the desire to prove
wrong all the teachers who I knew deep down felt I would not succeed.