Sonia Sotomayor

Difficulties in Life

Sonia Sotomayor is the daughter of immigrants from Puerto Rico, the first person in her family to go to college, and a girl from the Bronx. As she walked around the public shaking hands, she answered questions regarding her health condition, her dreams as a child, her family, and her college experience.

Sonia the Child

At the tender age of 8 Sonia Sotomayor was diagnosed with diabetes type 1. Soon she learned to monitor her body and diet and learned how to inject herself insulin. She learned to live with the disease and expressed that she could have gotten another more serious condition, so she did not complain. Next, she shared with the public some of her mother’s history. She told about how her mother wanted

to be enlisted in the military, and did it, although had to say a little lie about her age with the help of her aunt. That experience taught her that sometimes doing the wrong thing for the right reasons is plausible. After her military experience, her mother became a nurse and worked six days per week to support her family. Her mother was her strong pillar and always motivated Sonia and her brother to continue pursue higher education. At some moment a student asked her about her experience growing up with an alcoholic father. Her voice turned then softer, some emotion was hidden in her words. Yes, her father was an alcoholic, and alcohol took his father’s life when she was still a child. She recognized that living in those conditions made her family suffer, but also she shared the other side of her experience with her dad, the memory of a tender, caring man. She said she loved him, “He was my daddy”, she said, alluding to her heart filled with love for him even in those difficult circumstances.
A Persistent Student
As a child Sonia Sotomayor wanted to be a detective because she was inspired by the Nancy Drew books.

Later on in her life, watching the Perry Mason TV series, she decided that she was going to be an attorney at the early age of ten. Growing up during the civil rights era, gave the bright student a motivation to become a judge. She admired judges that stood for what it was right in crucial moments in the United States history. Sonia Sotomayor graduated with honors from her high school and went to Princeton University with a full scholarship. One of the young voices in the room asked her to give advices to the UTSA college students. She stopped for a moment her walk through the rows and turns to see the audience, then she recommended to give small steps, and from there, define the personal goal. She empathized the need to work hard, and wished that students make choices today that will impact positively not just them but the community. Sonia Sotomayor reflected that there is a lot of people who is smart, so the only challenge that one must endure is the challenging yourself to be a better person. Furthermore, she advised students to take advantage from all the opportunities that the college offers. As she places herself as an example, she shared that when she was in college she took extra courses to get a more rounded- education. Someone asked her how hard was to become a Supreme Court Judge. She said that it was easier to get struck by a lightening than become a Supreme

Court Judge. Everyone in the room laugh. The final moments of the conference arrived, Sonia Sotomayor went back on stage and gave some last words to finish her conference. She thanked everyone and promises to be back soon, again a long ovation farewell her.
What I learned in this conference with Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, is that life is not define when we are born. We can be born in any space and what we do from a young age can define us. The odds of Sonia Sotomayor of becoming a successful woman of law were very low. She grew up in a poor family of immigrants and she had a health condition from a young age that could have tied her forever in a single spot. In addition, her father was an alcoholic, and her mother worked very hard most of her days. I think that between her personal vision of life and her mother’s motivation and encouragement Sonia Sotomayor was able to remove the barriers that were in her way. Sometimes, you just need one incredible history to believe that it is possible to reach a dream if we work hard.