Shaskia Mateo Encarnacion

Writing for the sciences

Professor Zayas

Feb. 5, 2025

Introducing Me. A peek into my hopes and dreams.

                  Three years ago, a drastic change in my life happened, a change that led me to become an entirely different person, a change that forced me to “grow up” if you want to call it that. I moved to a different country to live with a stepparent I didn’t know and his son who is not an easy task. I left my entire family except for my mom. I went to a school which manages a different system than it does in the Dominican Republic, with people who were certainly different. There were many factors that made me see myself in a different way. I used to be “superficial”, “egotistical”, “naive”, and many other things, safe to say I was not considered “a good person” by many people. I was not a person who considered other’s feelings or validated anyone who wasn’t me unless I earned something in return. But when that same tactic was applied in my life, I knew I had to make a change. Self-analyzing took a moment but once I decided to ask myself the question “who are you?” and “who do you want to be?” I started seeing life, myself and the people around me in a humble and understandable way. Through try and error I developed many qualities I thought I would never acquire. I began to be honest, real, truthful, humble, loving, understandable and more. I also started seeing life in a different manner, as cheesy as it sounds, now I’m able to notice when the sky is blue and beautiful and the trees when they have gorgeous green leaves, all this when before I only saw rain and cloudy days. I am more empathic with real life problems when before I only cared about what lip-gloss I was going to pick every day. Safe to say that whenever I look back, I can’t recognize that girl who was so sad and angry all the time. When it comes to passions and things I find interesting I have many. I love medicine and learning about the human body which is why one of my desires in life is to be a doctor, a surgeon to be exact. I also love “love”. Some might say I’m a hopeless romantic because I still believe in that “old fashioned love” in which two people aren’t able to breathe if they’re not with each other. I am the biggest fan of movies and music, although I have very specific tastes. The type of movies and TV shows I love watching have to be romance and, in some instances, dystopian, as for music I like a little bit of everything but for it to be a favorite it has to mean something. I am Dominican meaning I love the Dominican Republic like It was a baby of my own, which takes me to the next thing. I love babies and kids which is why I am certain that I will love being a mother in the future once I finish my career. I love dogs, specifically mini dachshunds and huskies. I am very fond of my family and friends, and it is the one thing I believe I cherish the most even when they infuriate me. I still couldn’t imagine a life without them. I like dancing, singing, but I can’t do either, shopping, clothes, makeup and basically all the things that make people consider girls “superficial” even though I’m not. When it comes to talents, I’m very good at learning if it’s not math, volleyball but I have to be a defensive specialist because I can’t jump even if my life depended on it. I’m very good at makeup and doing hair. In addition, I am good at reading people and detecting when they are sad or happy or confused, I love helping everyone which is why I consider being a therapist for a long time, but I never found “reading people” reason enough. I am an immensely grateful person, so when it comes to fears it basically comes down to losing what I have, my family, friends, and my health as well as theirs. I never like to see people sad because it brings me down, so I try to stay happy and cheerful for them, I find it takes their mind off things when I’m being silly. And basically that resumes who I am and why I like to see life from a positive side even though more often than none I still get a little depressed when life finds a way to bring me down, I fight enough to know that I can’t go back to who I was before because It’s really not fun to live with yourself when you don’t like you, and all the things that I mentioned previously are the things that motivate to keep going.