Ellis Laoyan

Course: College Writing, ENGL-101
Professor: Austrie Duarte
Assignment Title: Privilege: Seeing the Unseen

Assignment Details

For this assignment, we were to write an essay defining our privileges (or lack thereof). In writing this essay, I had to ask myself what advantages or disadvantages I shared with others and which privileges were particular to myself and my family. At first, I was not sure how to go about this essay because I had never really understood nor given much thought to privileges, especially when I used to live back in the Philippines. However, moving to the United States shifted my perspective and made me realize the importance of acknowledging and understanding my privileges.

Application

Completing this essay required a lot of self-reflection. This continuous process of self-reflection will help me in the future by clarifying and aligning my goals and objectives and help motivate me to work towards achieving them, just like I realized I wanted to pursue a career in nursing. Also, constant self-reflection would help me grow personally and increase my self-awareness, making me more capable of helping others, which is essential in the career I am working towards.

Results/Conclusions

Writing this essay has been an enlightening journey of navigating my privileges and, likewise, my lack thereof. Through this, I have learned that being an immigrant has certain privileges and that it is important for me to acknowledge them. Also, instead of feeling shameful or guilty about the privileges I received, I am learning to be grateful and working towards paying those privileges forward. Coming to terms with privilege can be challenging and doesn’t happen instantly. Rather, I realized that it is a continuous process of acting, learning, and self-reflecting toward creating positive change. 

Challenges and Successes

 The challenge I overcame and am most proud of is not giving in to my fear of failing to measure up academically. Ever since moving to America, I have found my niche in healthcare and realized I had a passion for nursing. It took me a long time to decide whether to pursue this ambition because, besides being a non-native English speaker, I was also hesitant and scared I wouldn’t be able to adjust to the American educational system and meet the required academic standards. However, with the help and support from my family and friends and the sleepless nights of positive self-talking, I finally decided to enroll at CCC to take my prerequisites. And truly, here I am now in my second semester and another step closer to my goal.