The document recounts the author's educational journey, beginning from a troubled childhood influenced by a prejudiced environment and ineffective schooling. Despite negative experiences, the author found solace in self-directed learning and ultimately thrived in university, discovering a passion for English and writing through supportive teachers. The narrative emphasizes the importance of self-belief and active engagement in overcoming societal prejudices in education.

1. My school experiences.
I can say these started when I was five because I have a single mother who always
cared about my education. She and an uncle, who was a teacher, gave me books
as gifts at an early age and taught me how to read before I started my elementary
education. I was born in a town full of prejudices against women, gay people, weak
kids and those who struggle in school and life. And the worst thing is that you end
thinking that the whole world works like that, but it doesn´t. I never liked elementary,
college or high school, bad teachers, stupid classmates who harrassed me and
mediocre teachers who did the same. The neighborhood was full of intolerant people
with narrow minded ways of thinking; so I never had good teachers or even good
friends before university and I thought that outside my hometown, everything was
going to be the same. That made me terribly sad and not very confident.
My house was always full of books and encyclopedias and my mother taught me
how to be a self taught person because it was obvious I wasn’t going to learn
anything good from school. She said “use all those books on the shelf whenever you
have a question”. I learned a lot by myself and I didn´t care if I was called “nerd”
“fool” “weird”. The thing is I failed in many subjects because I was a rebellious guy,
I hated my classmates, teachers, schools and I didn´t care about a thing. However,
in high school I had a good teacher in the English subject. He had very good
techniques and even I made him angry many times, I appreciated what he did
because I found easy to learn English. Also I like rock bands who sing in English, so
at that time I was very interested in English lyrics and I learned many songs before I
entered university. Believe it or not, that helped me not to fail in English subjects
later.
There is always a good ending, and that happened to me in 1997. I choose English
as a career at the Universidad Veracruzana without thinking about it seriously. I
wanted to escape from my hometown and my choice wasn´t wrong. Once I started
my career in Xalapa city I found a completely different world. I had very good
teachers, and also bad ones. It’s ironic that most of the bad ones taught me English
as a subject. I didn´t care because the Spanish subjects made me feel comfortable.

2. I didn´t know I was good at writing until I found those teachers, especially a woman
and a gay teacher. These among others who teach Spanish subjects taught me that
I didn´t have to believe that just because everyone behaves in a common manner it
means you have to do the same. It was definitely the best time of my life.
I was happy for the first time and I had good friends and had good experiences, I
could improve my writing, and also I learned translation which was something I really
liked and still like it today.
I can´t say that prejudices have ended. They’re still there and that make kids in
schools stop improving, be good people and have a good future in jobs. The
education process is not just practical and going along with teachers, also you have
to believe in yourself, be blunt, self taught, brave and willing to participate directly in
the process because as an observer you won´t learn what is neccesary, shame is
not an obstacle, prejudices are.