For the first seven years of my life, I came from a single parent home and for the first four years of that, I was the only child. Fortunately for me, this meant that I received a lot of one-on-one time with my mom. She had me reading and writing at a very young age and often thought I was excelled in many areas. Though she only had a basic amount of education, she was still able to teach me and help me learn. This is one aspect that differs greatly from Richard Rodriguez's life. His mom did push him, but not to the extent that my mom did. Richard's parents could barely speak English and had very minimal education, making it very challenging for them to help him learn and grow academically. I think part of the reason why he pushed his parents away as much as he did may be strongly because of this. Education was something that was so important to Richard, and when his parents didn't feel as strongly about it as he did or weren't able to help him as much as we would have liked, he began to resent them. He states that he was "annoyed when he was unable to get help ", on a simple mathematics assignment (346). He saw how much they struggled; he didn't want to grow up to live like that. He knew he needed education and knowledge if there was any chance of him growing up to be successful. Education and learning became his life, something that his parents knew very little about. .
As a result of the large amount of attention and time I received from my mom, she had me tested at four years old to start kindergarten a year early. Though she was hesitant to let me go, I did start school at four and would from then on be the youngest student in my class. Even though this was just the start of my formal education, to me it was a major turning point. My mom often said that I was definitely at the same academic place as the rest of the students in my classes, but that I often lacked the emotional readiness that many of them possessed.
