Culture Shock Anonymous

I wake up occasionally to the sound of a rooster crowing. I live in Hartford, the only real city in Connecticut and I wake to the sound of a rooster crowing. I am alone when I wake up and there is sunlight pouring into the room. I know when I go downstairs I will be greeted by many of my favorite people. I scurry down and my grandmother (Mama), my grandfather (Papi), Mom, and my aunt (Titi) are all downstairs doing one thing or another. It smells like coffee and melted butter, and Papi's crying Spanish music is playing lightly in the background, as always. This is my childhood home. It is living in this house that that helped instill the strong sense of family and culture that I have today. I have always known that when no one else is there for me my family will still be there to support me.

Mom and I moved out when I was around five years old, into our own house. It was a three family home and we lived on the second floor. We lived here until I was in the fourth grade at Saint Augustine School. I remember starting kindergarten late because my mom refused to send me to a Hartford public school. I always expected the best, because my mom only accepted the best for me. Although we didn't have much my mom would bend over...