Autobiographical Paper

I was born in Santa Ana, El Salvador, a small country in central America, on November 21^st. Though I do not have many memories of life back home as I was very young, what I do remember is how important family was, our many trips to the ocean with cousins and my mother taking us with her to her school on days when my sister and I have the day off. Some of the greatest memories that I cherish, are of my family back home. My father’s name is Ernesto, my mother’s name is Maria and my sister’s name is Guadalupe, my father being a life long mechanic and my mom a teacher back home before working at various daycares here in Canada. In the year 2000, we immigrated to Canada, first settling down in Fort Qu’Apelle for 3 years. Life in a new country took a lot of adaptation from our family, and as we came over in September our first winter was quite a shock! Thankfully, we received a lot of support from the catholic church in Fort Qu’Apelle as they had sponsored us to come to Canada and they provided us with many resources to thrive. Our family was very thankful of the relationships that were built with the people of that town, 2 individuals in particular essentially became a grandma and grandpa to my sister and I, they gave us that family love that we really missed as in El Salvador young kids are raised by the whole family. My sister and I attended elementary school at Fort Qu’Apelle Elementary School from grade 1 to 3 and from a young age I was always one to enjoy school and learning. I was known for my love of reading and being a social person.      

            In 2004, our family packed up our things and decided to move to the city of Regina, as my mom was going to attend some classes at the university and my dad had got a job opportunity working at the RCMP barracks. Again, our family had to take some getting used to living in a city here as we always lived in small towns, even back home. My sister and I went to St. Catherine Elementary School until grade 8, at that school is where I met some of my life long friends who I am still close with to this day and where I learned what some of my interest in life where. I was on many leadership programs, captain on the safety patrol and participated in all sports. My summers were spent hanging out with friends, playing sports, riding my bike and exploring the city of Regina with friends. In 2009 I was finally heading to high school; Miller Comprehensive High School was where I went because the majority of my grade 8 class was going to be doing the same. High school was a great experience for me for the most part, I was a part of the football team for 3 years, on the wrestling team and also played basketball. I made some life long friendships in high school as well, developed a lot confidence and I learned a lot about myself as far as where I wanted my life to go. I found that I did enjoy learning about things that I was very interested in, Miller offered many great shop classes and I took the welding course every year I was there. That is where I decided that was something I liked to do and could see myself doing for a living after high school. Once I graduated High school, I took a year off to just work as my family had fallen on some tough times. A little more than a year after I graduated High School, I enrolled in the welding program at SIAST (as it was called back then). After completing the program, I worked as a production welder for 3 years, a job which I enjoyed at the start but found the politics and general attitude of the industry was not something that I wanted to be apart of for the rest of my life. In 2017, I was laid off as the welding industry had taken a down turn and I decided to get into other trades, mainly because the need for money was urgent. I attended Regina Skills and Trade, where I took the 8-week paid training course on Metal roofing and cladding. I always tell people I have nothing but great things to say about that program as they helped me out quite a lot during a time when I really needed it, and not just by paying me to attend the course but showing me valuable life skills.         

  Once I completed the training, I was placed with a local construction/iron working company where I worked for 2 years. That job was another great life experience for me as it did reinforce for me what direction I wanted to take my life. I have respect for those in the trades, my dad being a life long mechanic, but I knew it was not the environment I wanted to be in later in life. In 2019, after a discussion with my family and my amazing girlfriend of 4 years Shay, I decided to finally leave the trades to head to university so I can start building for my future. At first, I wanted to take the social work program at the U of R. After thinking it over, talking to social workers I know and teachers I know very well, I made the choice to enroll in the education program at the U of R

My family has a strong tradition of teachers, my mother and her 5 siblings were all teachers in El Salvador, all teaching K-8 throughout their careers. It isn’t an exaggeration to say my aunts and uncles were big influences on a young me, always making sure to tell us all how important education is, to be a hard worker and to do the right thing. Along those lines, my mother was one of the biggest influences in my decision to enroll in education. She had always been so passionate, patient, caring and understanding and I always wanted to be the kind of man she could be proud of. Now I hope, if all goes well during my program, I can continue our family’s tradition of educators and pass on that passion to the next generation. I hope to make my family proud by being the best educator I can be, someone that can be relied on, trusted like they had been throughout their careers and someone who can give back to the youth.