The Story of Self: Discovering a Purpose

Throughout my life I have learned to adapt and reinvent myself to adjust to a variety of lifestyles. I grew up having to move to new cities often, as a result of my father’s unstable employment. He worked as an electrical engineer but unfortunately in his line of work he would find himself getting laid off when his companies struggled financially. This forced me to constantly meet and make new connections every time we moved. I got used to the vagrant lifestyle and instead of identifying this as a hurdle, I welcomed the idea of getting to live in a new area. Having experiences living in different economic classes, with new ethnic cultures, and various urban milieus, I developed a familiarity with a vast assortment of societies. Having to move through so many different communities, I witnessed the best and worst that cities had to offer. I acquired from this an open minded perspective towards society because of my constant movement and lack of a steady home base. My entire life I have been intuitively observing human behavior and functions of society as a result, but still struggled to realize a purpose to utilize the influx of information. However, retrospectively I have begun to pinpoint areas of society that required improvement. Once acknowledging that there was a problem, I simply just needed to identify my own voice to implement an action to improve the weaknesses I observed. This journey of self-awareness to strive for bettering my community was a slow process, but it helped in defining my values as a person today.

My living experiences growing up included living all throughout California. I recall living in middle class suburbia east of the San Francisco Bay, in the growing city of Brentwood. It was an adjustment having to live the slow paced lifestyle on the country side of northern California but I got used to it after a while. I witnessed the blossoming city in its transitional stage. In the last twenty years, Brentwood shifted from an agricultural-dependent economy to a popular middle class town for commuters. With the population doubling every five years I experienced the difficulties the town struggled with, such as dealing with congested traffic issues. The city planners would constantly race to scramble for transportation improvements in order to deal with the influx of the relocated populous to the area. They flipped former farm fields of land to large shopping centers that would draw the attention of potential tenants. Although the city is flourishing with people now, I took in the lesson of properly building up a town by learning from the city organizers mistakes. Later on in life, I spent years living in affluent regions of north Los Angeles where the population was almost entirely Jewish, Armenian or Mormon. This was my first time experiencing these new cultures and living life at a higher standard where I had access to so many more resources than Brentwood could provide. However, with a quick shift in my father’s career, my family moved further south to the inner cities of Los Angeles. Here the population was divided into either black or Latino neighborhoods. My years in Los Angeles showed me a side to California I was not fond of. Although the city as a whole was ethnically diverse, its communities were completely segregated and there was little interaction between each subdivision. Additionally, the infrastructure was weak, the air quality was unhealthy and wildfires were a common occurrence. My movement throughout California sparked my awareness with the illusions of a perfect society, and my interests in city planning began to emerge. I connected with the idea of working to improve the communities I grew up. Once I was finally ready to transfer to the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) I had acquired a brief experience of developmental affairs and how I would like to improve them, but still lacked a tool for engaging in any of the issues.

My first year at UCSB I ended up enrolled in the Economics major that was not in line with my values to make a difference. After the first quarter I lost inspiration in continuing the major and decided to drop it. After realizing I wanted a more engaging subject that spoke to my upbringing, I switched to Sociology. Due to years of ethnographic data acquired in my life, I felt that I could relate that information to the work I was introduced to in my sociology classes. Studying the material strengthened my interests of the functions of society, and the major gave me the opportunity to delve even deeper into the material. However, I felt this was not enough because possessing this knowledge did not give me the voice I needed to one day be involved with societal affairs. Knowing my weakness as an oral speaker I found writing to be a tool that I not only enjoyed but was far more effective for me. After taking a couple writing classes at the university, I discovered the potential writing conveys in persuading and influencing private/public bureaucracies. This allowed me to expressly elaborate my opinions in ways speaking did not. Following this realization, I began the process of refining my writing abilities to develop a tool of engagement that I could use, and so I joined the writing program at UCSB. This new voice was my way of speaking out to encourage change for the issues I witnessed growing up. Slowly, I felt my work was becoming consistent with the values I possessed as a person. After finally developing the courage to follow my passions at university I began to extend this courage to other parts of my life as well.

During my senior year at UCSB I realized I had one final year left before I had to take everything I learned and channel it into some sort of career. Before I did this I wanted to be completely ready for the next phase of my life, and this meant being aware of my full potential in this world. Therefore, in an impulsive move I signed up to study abroad on the other side of the world in London, England. I felt that I already familiarized myself with life in America and I did not want to be content with only concerning myself with my accustomed environment. Therefore, I chose to pack up and move to Europe for the next four months to receive the firsthand experience of life in another country. American pride is contagious and prior to my trip I was submersed in the belief that America was the greatest nation on Earth. I wanted to test this belief by traveling throughout Europe and seeing how other countries functioned. Similar to my childhood moving throughout California, I took the same open-minded approach to the vast cultures I experienced abroad.

The trip was eye opening, and forever changed my view of the world. It exceeded my expectations by far and exposed me to ways of life that I was not accustomed to. As I would tour around Europe I was amazed at the beauty of the cities and how they were displayed. The standard of living was set at a different tone than in America and I began to appreciate its distinctiveness. Some highlights I took from the trip was the diversity among the population in cities like London and Paris, and how so many cultures coexisted. This encouraged me to bring this sort of solidarity back to the cities of America where I still saw so many segregated towns. Additionally, the developmental planning that went into designing these cities was beyond the effort I experienced back home. There were salient vestiges of the past all throughout Europe that created a sense of pride unlike any I had experienced back home, disproving the American pride ideology. Lastly, the transportation services in many of the large metropolitan cities were so innovative that the need to drive was eliminated for much of the population. I fully embraced the experiences I gathered, and found a desire to work in the urban development field to improve communities back in America. My time abroad successfully achieved its purpose in providing a vision for me that I needed in order to truly follow my passions.

After initially struggling to find a meaningful purpose to my life I look back now and realize that all my experiences have aligned to reach this point. My trip abroad has provided a glimmer of optimism to work on improving problems I witnessed in society while growing up. After finally discovering my voice in writing I feel ready to engage in the development of California’s urban cities. As my university days are coming to an end, I am eagerly anticipating the next chapter of my life. My approach to society has and will be to continue to embrace new challenges and view the world with an observant eye. Fully embracing my surroundings allows me to work on improving them for future generations. Now that I understand my passions and values I can genuinely work towards the social concerns that I relate to.