<p>My father was born and raised in Lakeland, Florida, and his whole family before him came from that area. My mother, on the other hand, was born in Cuba, and her family immigrated to the United States when she was six. So on one hand, I have a very traditional "American" family background (for lack of a better description), and on the other, a traditional Hispanic background. Being raised in both cultures gives me the unique ability to be a part of two worlds, but also to stand back and observe one from a distance if I so choose. I was raised speaking Spanish and English. When I speak Spanish (and when others speak Spanish to me), I drift closer to the Cuban in me, and often find myself making critical observations about the American side of me; whereas when I speak English, the opposite is true, and I find myself observing things about my Cuban heritage that might not be so apparent from the Spanish-speaking side.</p>
<p>These two cultures are vastly different in many ways, and the presence of both within me has challenged me to pursue my goals and aspirations in light of my view of the world around me. I can appreciate the fact that certain problems have more than one answer; that there are always two sides to a story; that the view from the East is different but no less accurate than the view from the West. It's always been a challenge for me to gather data from all perspectives (and certainly, some perspectives are more appealing to me than others), but I've always tried to tackle life's questions by the horns and search tirelessly, from all directions possible, for the truth in things.</p>
<p>I believe that there are a certain set of answers to certain problems. In giving my friends advice, my goal is always to take both sides of the situation into consideration, and to offer solutions that are both practical and attainable. Hailing from two cultures, however, I realize that the closest I come to most of these answers can be nothing more than varying shades of grey, because there are simply too many perspectives, too many experiences, and too many cultures to derive a single common answer. Certainly, I can come close to the truth by reading and understanding what great intellectuals and philosophers have observed in the past, but ultimately, my opinions will always be in some way subjective, biased, and tied up in complicated knots of preconception.</p>
<p>I have always aspired to be a person of understanding--one who considers as many angles on any given situation as possible in order to understand it more fully and comprehensively. I want to be in a profession that allows me to not only expand my talents and take advantage of my gifts, but to also share my viewpoints and learn from the viewpoints of others based on their own personal experiences in the areas of ethics, social justice, politics, religion, etc. I always enjoy exposure to new ideas, which is why I so admire the more expressive individuals of the world: the artists, the musicians, the writers, and the philosophers. I want to come up with new solutions for old problems by examining aspects of them that may be easy to ignore, as well as make the changes necessary in my ideas in order to keep them relevant and fresh and exciting. I admire those who acknowledge that they don't have ultimate knowledge, that they very well could be (and often are) wrong, and that they themselves are constantly in a learning process. Ironically, it has been my experience that those who are most prepared to see the faults in their thinking are usually those who prove to be the most effective in finding solutions to today's tough questions.</p>