My name is John Aichele Acido, I am 20 years old turning 21 on Oct. 22nd I am a Filipino American born in San Diego California born by first generation Filipino parents from Manila Phillipines.
At this point of my life, I am finally beginning to understand who I am and what I want to do with my life. I am fortunate to have been born in Southern California where their is a large Filipino and American Prescence giving me a sense of who I am and comfort level. I have been through many trials for my age but my experiences are nothing compared to what my parents or what immigrating Filipino's from the Phillipines have encountered. I feel that I take what I have for granted due to my American-Filipino upbringing and influence.
In the Phillipines education is taken very seriously and should be a high standard either if you are a Filipino born here or from the Motherland. I realize that I have a serious advantage of being born here, that I have more opportunities for myself as an American Citizen than my parents, cousins, or Filipino's that are not the 2nd generatioin. My life now is dedicated to school, work, health working towards becoming a respected health care professional in the future.
My reason for wanting to achieve is because I have discovered recently that Filipino's do not have a strong prescense for being the model asian nationality for income and education as to east asians are. I do not wish to be part of the statistic and want to pursue success as a personal goal and live comfortably making my own living and having a family.
I have re-embraced my heritage and cultural standards and values not forgetting who I am and where I have come from. I have come back to school more ambitious to succeed and transfer to a 4 year university while at the same time having a career in the military for stability.
I felt I was lucky to have been born Filipino and I think that my nationality makes a considerably large amount of my identity and has been an influence in how my thought process is in making good decisions.
If you feel you have had a similar experience or want to share how you've grown up. Just comment!
Sincerely, John Aichele Acido
