One of the first ideas that popped into my mind when I saw this prompt was my name which all my life has been a symbol of my struggle with identity. I was born and raised in the inner city of Denver, Colorado which has for my whole life felt like home, the changing colors of the trees, the up and downhill flow of the streets, and always the prescence of not only my culture but the immersion of other mixed throughout the neighborhoods. I am ethnically Mexican, I have brown skin and black hair, but going to school no one looked like the people I lived next too. When I was young my parents decided to enroll me in a private school deep into the suburbs away from Denver. It was as a student that I always felt this invisible barrier between me and other kids that never seemed to go away. Names like Connor or Samuel were always the most common name I heard when a teacher took roll call in elementary school. However, my name was different, it was Esteban, and no one could ever seem to pronounce it or even recognize it. The instant that word appeared, I would be met with a face of confusion, contsanlty having to remind people that I was not the one of the three other Hispanic kids that went to the school. Since I was just a child and had no hobbies or passions yet, my name was one of the most definfing features of my identity. So, when I eventually abandon my name in favor for a shorter more approachable name, I felt like I was living as another person entirely. It was what felt like at the time a cleaner name that people seemed to have an easier time pronouncing, spelling and being interested in. Since my peers were all children at the time, so pronouncing words was still something of a challenge. The main point of this narrative is my name was a symbol of my outcasted cultural identity and so I changed it to fit in. Later in life I realized how important it was, and I grew to respect my name more and more. Its like what you said on the first day of class about being a Jorge, everyday I really do feel more and more like an Esteban and less like the name I pretended to be.

Other than the noticeable spelling errors I feel as if this first writing compared to the other writings on this site illustrate just how far not only my ability to express my thoughts has come but also the complexity of my sentence structure and ideas.

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