Only Daughter By Sandra Cisneros Essay

In the story “Only Daughter”, Sandra Cisneros is the only daughter in a family of 6 children. Since she’s the only girl, she faced challenges in her transition from childhood to adulthood. She constantly had to prove that she would be outstanding in life or that she was on the right path. Eventually, she did achieve awesome accolades, but still fret her father’s response to it all. More pressure was put on her, she felt than her brothers. Her story is related to mine because our transition from childhood to adulthood was filled with life lessons and memories that didn’t flow like it should’ve.
When she was younger Cisneros pretty much knew she wanted to go to college and make something of herself as did I. Her father thought of college as the gateway to life. He did see it differently for her because she was a girl though. He saw it to start her life with a husband and to have a family and be happy. For me, college was always painted as the way out. I was always told that college is the way to go if you wanted to make a lot of money and if you don’t want to struggle. College wasn’t pressured onto me like it was for Sandra Cisneros so my 1st semester back in 2013, didn’t work out the way it should’ve. I would walk to class, wind blowing through my hair while laughing with my classmates and get into my seat and no work

would be done. I wasted money and time because I didn’t take it seriously
As a child, it was tough for me because I was different, especially middle school.

From my looks to the way I spoke and the way I thought about life. While some details positive, I looked at them in a negative light. I was angry with issues I couldn’t change. I was also angry with things I could change but didn’t. Like Cisneros tried to impress her father with her writings, I tried to impress my friends that I was cool or that I should be liked. I was bullied too. Each day was a struggle for me from 4th grade to 12th grade and the same as Sandra, we moved multiple times but none of the terrible experiences went away until I graduated from high

school.
After going through a couple of years being free and doing what I wanted to do, one day I was sitting at home analyzing my situation and I didn’t agree with some of my actions. I was in a relationship at the time and even started to look at that a bit closer. I would converse with my family and we talked about people we mutually knew and how good they were doing or something they had achieved, and it made think about my situation and look at myself. “Am I where I should be?”, “At 22, is my place in life okay?”, “At this age, should I have more accomplishments?”. Sandra Cisneros watched her brother graduate medical school and she realized that he fulfilled one of their dad’s visions. She wondered if because she didn’t a husband or a family like he said she should’ve, would she fulfill one too.
In conclusion, my transition from adulthood to childhood didn’t go as smoothly as it did for others. I still struggle because I sense that I should be somewhere else in life and I make that judgment because of other’s place in life. The most important thing I took from Sandra Cisneros’ story is to make my own self-happy instead of others and if that person really is there for me they’ll be happy as well.