Hello again, my name is Jessie. I am a first year student at City College of New York. I was born and raised in the Bronx. I played soccer for all four years of high school. Soccer is something I have enjoyed since I was very young. I follow and keep up with the leagues and international play. Music is very important to me because there are lyrics that I can relate. Some songs describe my situation or feelings better than I could have. Music is an escape from reality that I need at times. Those were just a little fun facts about myself. I do not believe there is much to say about myself. 

My mother was born and raised in Ecuador. There are many stories told in Ecuador. My mother once told me one about a church. Cantuña, an indigenous man, was hired to build the atrium of San Francisco church in Quito. An atrium is an opened-roofed entrance hall or central court. During the last night before the deadline, the Devil appeared to Cantuña and offered him a deal. In exchange of Cantuña’s soul, the Devil would help him finish the work. Cantuña accepted the offer while adding one condition, “I will give you my soul, but the work has to be complete until dawn and if a single brick is missing, the deal is broken”. There are two different endings to this story; Cantuña saved his soul in both. In one version, Cantuña hid a rock under his poncho so a stone could be missing from the final product. In the other version, Cantuña wrote on a stone that anyone who touches it will recognize God alone. The demons could not touch the stone and left construction incomplete. The Church of San Francisco is standing with a rock missing in the atrium.

My father is from Puerto Rico. There is a legend about a hummingbird. Two young lovers accidentally met at a pool in a forest. Alida and Taroo are from different tribes. Alida’s father discovered this and arranged a marriage for Alida with a man from their tribe. She prayed to the gods to escape her from this fate. They answered and turned Alida to a red flower. Taroo was not aware of any of this; he waited for Alida each night at the pool. The moon took pity on him and revealed Alida’s transformation. Taroo begged the gods to help him find her and again they complied by turning him into a hummingbird. Taroo flies from one blossom to another, looking for his lost love.

I have always struggled when it came to writing. It is hard to concentrate on one thing for so long. I would become distracted by the simplest of things surrounding me. I prefer to get straight to the point rather than stretching out a topic. This made it difficult for me to be able to write essays that were pages long. I decided to talk  to my high school counselor about this issue. She helped me develop strategies that can help my writing process become more successful. The first thing I will do is make a list of the topics of discussion. Secondly, I will figure out the format I would like to use for my essay. The introduction is the area that takes the longest for me to complete. I tend to overthink how to begin my writing. Once I complete the introduction, the rest of the essay seems easier to write.