I don’t watch a lot of shows or movies on Netflix or any other streaming platform. Mostly because I don’t really have the time to sit down and watch it, but there were two movies on Netflix that im glad I made the time to sit down and watch them. These two movies are “Greater” and “My All-American.” I really enjoyed these two movies because they really resonated with me as a football player. These movies were about college football player’s who decided to follow their dreams in become athletes at the collegiate level despite others believing that it would be impossible for them. Nonetheless these two men persevered to accomplish what they set their mind to despite their hardships. “Greater” followed the story of Brandon Burlsworth whose dream was to play for the Arkansas Razorbacks football team at the University of Arkansas. After his high school years he was denied by his college of choice to play football for them because he was undersized. Instead of giving up on his dream he decided to walk-on despite being denied once. To which he worked harder than anyone on the team no matter how tough it got eventually being offered a scholarship, led the team to a National Championship, and was elected as an All-American before being selected in the Draft by the Indianapolis Colts. “My All-American” is similar to “Greater” but instead it follows the story of Freddie Steinmark. Freddie wanted to play football at the collegiate level for Notre Dame who was then rejected by them for being undersized as well. Regardless of that setback the University of Austin welcomed him for a meeting in order to talk about his future. At the end of the meeting he was offered the opportunity to play for them. That still didn’t erase the fact that he was small for the game at the collegiate level so he worked harder than anyone else on the team. Towards the end of his Junior season with Longhorns he was diagnosed with bone cancer where his leg was amputated. Later on he was told that he wouldn’t live past 2 hours despite he ended up living 48 days longer. Although these movies might not catch the interest or relate to anyone. These movies similar as can be captivated me because i liked what they preached. The message they showed was that no matter what anyone believes or any physical standards that anyone sets on you, can be overcome with grit and determination in order to break past those standards.

Growing up getting an education in my family was frowned upon because no one thought it would lead to a prosperous future. Everyone in my family believed that dropping out of school and getting a job at a construction site or at a plantation picking crops was the way to go. Except my parents who believed that education was important for a successful future. Without a second thought though my way of thinking was lining up with the rest of my family and not with theirs. During my Junior year i started contemplating about dropping out ny Senior year so that I can get a job with my eldest cousin at the oil rigs. That summer though, my mother and father showed me that having an education is extremely important and that I should continue to pursue further education. They did this by taking me to go work with them. My father worked as construction worker while my mother worked as a housekeeper and they’re both extremely intelligent individuals who didn’t have the funds to pursue education in Mexico. So when I told them that I was thinking about dropping out of high school they thought it would be a good idea and to take me to go work with them to show me that working in the heat or working for an unsteady pay check was not the path for me. First half of my summer I worked with my mother as a housekeeper and from that experience I learned that people wouldn’t treat with respect or kindness because to them you were just their hired housekeeper who’s there to clean the muck off their toilet bowl and the grime off their stove. Second half of my summer I worked with my father with his construction team and i learned a lot from that experience. Everyday i had to wake up at 5:00 am to get to the work zone and I would have to haul heavy materials, work in the scorching heat, hammer my fingers, and run the possibility of falling off a roof. At the end of the summer before school started my parents asked me if what I went through the summer was what I wanted to go through my whole life. As I looked back through what I went through I realized that I didn’t wanna go through that for the rest of my life. Sure the pay was good but the work was gruesome and back breaking. It didn’t seem worth it to me and I started to take notice into the importance of a higher level education and why so many first-generation Mexican-American students decided become college graduates. With further education I can make just as much if not more by working less than in a construction site. Being a first-generation Mexican-American to graduate from college will change the way of thinking in my family, inspire those younger than me, and perhaps those that are older than me will realize that education can lead them to have a better life. Which is all great, but a really great plus for being a first-generation college graduate from my family would be giving my parents a reason to be proud of their son who broke through family beliefs and barriers that could’ve lead him a different direction. Instead he chose a different path that will teach future generations that you don’t have to stay stuck with the beliefs of your family to make them proud but that there are other ways.