Personal History

I was born in Durham, North Carolina alongside an older brother on July 8, 1996. My parents had just moved from the Philippines which made it harder to raise us because jobs were very scarce at the time. As time progressed, my father and mother obtained jobs that were under their degree making it easier to take care of two kids. During elementary school, my dad introduced me into basketball. I quickly made it my favorite hobby and loved every aspect of the game. As I got older, I realized something great during my childhood which would soon create my personality.

                My parents came to America not knowing anything. My dad struggled to pay for our family needs with just a minimum wage job of working at a pizza parlor. All four of us stayed in a small apartment with nothing inside; it was just barren. I remember my dad telling me how he would look in the dump sites near the apartment complex and he would always find small pieces of furniture to add to our apartment. Later in time my dad finally found a job where he could work under his specialty which was computer engineering. He got offered to work for SAS in Cary which made our lives as a family much easier because we could now afford to actually supply our needs without it being at a minimum. Everything seemed to fall in part together. My mom got offered a job to work at Duke Hospital and Durham Regional Hospital as a nurse and we finally moved out of that crumby apartment into our own house.

                I was born in Durham so I didn’t really know any of my family. My dad told us that our cousins will be moving to Durham with us as well from the Philippines and that they would be staying in our house until they can support themselves. My brother and I didn’t really know what to expect. We both were kind of nervous but ecstatic at the same time because we get to meet our cousins. The entire process of meeting family I didn’t know and having them stay at our house for an extended period of time is something I cherish even today. I couldn’t picture myself what I am as of today without them; they made my life much more enjoyable and taught me valuable lessons.

                Now, I just turned seven, my cousins have moved out two years ago and I’m enrolled at Eno Valley Elementary School. I got to meet a lot of great people here and to interact with them on a day-to-day basis. I always looked at the kids on the blacktop playing a sport I was very unfamiliar with; they had a ball in their hands and would bounce it and throw it towards a goal. I was really curious to ask them what they were playing but at the same time I was too shy to ask. The first thing that popped into my head was, “I gotta ask Dad!” I was so anxious to arrive at home and just barrage my dad with questions. I finally got to ask him and he told me it was a sport called basketball. He explained to me every aspect of the sport, and mentioned how he also played himself when he was in the Philippines. I was so excited to play. My dad and I would go to a random blacktop and we would just play for hours and hours. As months went by I quickly became one of the better kids to play at my school. My dad realized this and enrolled me for a higher competitive league rather than the usual recreation league.

                This time of my life was probably the most influential. I found out that I would be playing for an Amateur American Union team located in San Francisco, California. Our team was called SF City and my teammates were from different states which made it a lot more interesting. I had mixed emotions playing for an AAU team especially located out-of-state. I felt extremely depressed because my parents really never got to watch me, but I also got to play the game I love deeply.  To make everything short, I ended up playing for the same team for three years straight. During my last year, I was ten years old. This year was when my team finally had reached its full potential. We were ranked #2 in the country and had a lot of expectations in regards to making the championship game. Unfortunately that didn’t happen. We lost in the semi-final game because I let my team down in the last minute of regulation. That last minute still haunts me today. I remember it as if it happened yesterday, just watching my man go right by me and score the game-deciding basket. From then on I was completely frustrated with myself, I didn’t know what to do; basketball was all I knew.

                I ended up taking a break from basketball when I entered middle school and then into high school. I searched for other remedies to enjoy myself but it was just never the same. During the end of my freshman year I met one of my greatest friends even today. His name is Devin Williams and he showed me what hard work was and that giving up isn’t an option. I started getting back into basketball because of him and he showed me the quote that fueled myself to become someone greater which was, “A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes hard work, sweat, and tears.” I thank him for helping me become who I am today. I didn’t know who I was and where I would end up; he turned my life around. Without him I would have been on the same endless path to nowhere.