The purpose of this assignment is to reflect upon and explore the concept of
feeling “neither here nor there,” as presented in our first reading, Julia Alvarez’s speech.
By writing about your personal connections in a narrative essay you relate a story of
your own while making references to passages in the speech.
Describe a time when you have experienced similar
feelings of being neither here nor there. Another way of thinking about his would
be when you are new and unfamiliar with a place or situation. To help your reader
understand the connections between your story and Julia Alvarez, you are
required to use at least 2 quotations in the essay, using in-text citations and a
Works Cited Page.
You can create any situation to feel like you dont belong neither here nor ther based on the small background information Ive provided and Ive also provided the speech in the files attached. Thank you
Small Background:
Being born in the United States coming from a Dominican family, there were several moments from Julia Alvarez speech that I felt very connected and remembered of the examples I related to “Neither here nor there” that I could use for my essay. For my essay topic I chose my experience at a predominantly white boarding school program that I attended my freshman year of high school at Fayetteville-Manlius High School from 2015-2016. Although I loved the experience, when I arrived it was a different fitting, i missed my family from the moment I got there and it was difficult trying to connect with friends. I remember speaking to my mom and her words encouraged me to be proud of myself for doing things that no one in my family has ever done. “By creating your own paths, you encourage those who are with you on the journey and those who come after you that it can be done.”(11) Julia Alvarez took advantage of her opportunities and encouraged and inspired many women. I saw as I paved the way for my siblings and showed them that there is more to this world than the small city we come from. I also want to inspire them to continue their educational studies. There were many educational opportunities shown to me and I ended up in a small town of Manlius, NY which has two middle schools to come together to one highschool. “You have become this strange hybrid, this multicultural person, this bilingual being who doesnt really feel totally at home.” (1) Like Julia Alvarez going to a new school made her see herself and the world in a different perspective as well as myself when I went to FMHS. I had come from the small city of Lawrence, going to school with people of hispanic culture to being the only Dominican attending school. Including myself there were only 7 minority students and only one other student than myself, which was one of my housemates, spoke spanish.
