Sonia Sotomayor

Prosperity
The trials and tribulations that one goes through in their young life will shape them into someone who pushes through adversity or someone who breaks down and decides to quit. The struggles that Sonia Sotomayor went through in her book My Beloved World pushed her to fight when times got tough for her and her family. Sonia took everything that she could from what she had and she built on it in such a way that greatly helped her later in life. The success of Sonia Sotomayor is a result of a strong role model that helped her navigate life and learn and the hardships she endured at a young age that made her mature.
The death of a parent is extremely hard on a child but the way one bounces back and moves forward from that event

determines their character later in life. When Sonia Sotomayor’s father died she felt lost, but she had to push through her feelings of grief because she had to help her family get through this tragedy. The weeks following her father’s death, Sonia’s family was still very gloomy and unproductive. But, Sonia saw how much staying sad was hurting her family and despite her still dealing with grief, she expressed her feelings about how her mother’s grieving process was affecting her. She told her mother, “What’s wrong with you? Papi died. Are you going to die too? Then what happens to me and Junior? Stop already, Mami, stop it!” (pg 63). The growing up that Sonia had to do at such a young age helped her deal with hardships later in life, because if she could deal with the death of her father and continue to help her family she could persevere through almost anything. Sonia’s ability to press on when life starts beating her down helped her succeed because she can fight through to reach her goals. Sonia saw how her mother was beaten down early in life and did not want to let it get to her like it did to her mother.
Children learn life lessons from their parents that are both intentional and unintentional, and the actions of adults during a tragedy will either push the kids in the same direction or the complete opposite. When Sonia learned the story of how her mother grew up and let the her struggles beat her down, Sonia did not want to struggle in the same way that her mother did so she strived to be better. Sonia’s mother’s family was not very close because of the condition of her mother, and her father leaving the family when she was Sonia’s mother was a kid. Since Sonia’s mother did not have a foundation to build on she was not successful later in life, but Sonia was determined to have a good relationship with her family because that support system is the best one she has. In her book Sonia was talking about how her mother’s father leaving the Sonia’s mother distant from the family and towards her kids, Sonia said “Eventually, I would recognize the long shadow of this abandonment in my own feelings toward my mother, and I would determine not to repeat what I had seen” (pg 49). Sonia saw the relationships that she had with her relatives and how her mother had no support system. Sonia’s mother was not as successful as Sonia because she didn’t have the adults in her life that supported her like Sonia was supported.
The influence of a strong role model in a child’s life plays an enormous part of the success of that child later in life.

Early in her life Sonia felt the love and affection of a role model who did nothing but love her. In her book Sonia touches on the topics of how her grandmother helped guide her through her childhood and was the role model that she needed. Sonia said “I have come to believe that in order to thrive, a child must have at least one adult in her life who shows her unconditional love, respect, and confidence. For me it was Abuelita (her grandmother)” (pg ). When Sonia said this it showed how her grandmother shaped her and helped make her into the person that she is today. Sonia’s grandmother was someone that Sonia inspired to be like because she was very close with her grandmother. Another role model that Sonia had was her mother because of how hard she worked to support her family. Sonia’s mother always wanted the best for her family, this shows when Sonia said “She was the one who moved us to the projects. Unlike my aunt, she chose to work. She was the one who insisted we go to Catholic school” (pg 16). With these two role models in her life Sonia was greatly helped on her path to being successful later in

life.
Some readers of the book might think that what happened in Sonia’s childhood did not shape her as much as what happened to her as a young adult, but her resilience throughout her whole life made her into the strong and successful woman she is today. Sonia’s life was filled with hardships such as her father’s death, the deterioration of her family, and her diagnosis of diabetes. Despite all of these challenges she still pushed through it, learned from it, and got better. Things got better for Sonia later in life when she got accepted to Princeton University but that is because of all the hard work she put in prior to that. Growing up with all of those aspects in her life that went wrong Sonia knew that she could not let anything that went right go to waste because she will not get the chance to do it again.
Sonia Sotomayor is the first Latina in the Supreme Court of Justice in U.S. history and from an outside perspective one might think that things in her life must have lined up in order for her to succeed at such a high level, but they didn’t and she had to fight for everything she has. The death of her father taught her that she can’t be kept down even when she is sad and she had to grow up quickly because she needed to be strong for her family. Sonia had a strong women in her life that taught her for the most part that she had greatness in her and they gave her the guidance she needed to navigate through life. Sonia also learned from her mother’s mistakes and tried her absolute best to not let her relationship with her family deteriorate like her mother’s did. Sonia’s life was not easy but the lessons she learned from the difficulties she faced along with the unconditional love and guidance she received from her grandmother led to her success as an adult.