Essay On Sonia Sotomayor

Justin Newsom
Selcraig: MWF 10 am
11/02/2014
Sonia Sotomayor: My Beloved World
Sonia Maria Sotomayor was born June 25th, 1954 in an area of New York City commonly known as The Bronx. Overcoming adversity and hardships, Sotomayor became the third woman, and the first Hispanic Supreme court justice. Her parents were Puerto Rico immigrants who came to the US with nothing to their name. Sonia grew up in horrible conditions in housing projects in the Bronx. Struggling for a glimpse of a life, Sonia’s mother got a job as a nurse and often worked long hours without coming home. On the other hand, her father was a raging alcoholic who passed away when Sonia was only nine years old. As if life wasn’t already hard enough, Sonia was diagnosed with juvenile

“My father’s neglect made me sad, but I understood that he could not help himself, my mother’s neglect made me angry” (p. 16) However we see how she is conflicted with the sorrow of her father’s passing, and the desire to no longer let him be a negative aspect in her life when she herself states, “Maybe it would be easier this way.” Mourning her husbands’ death, Sonia’s mother fell into a long season of depression, and shut herself away from everyone for months. As a result, Sonia threw herself into books from the library until she couldn’t take it anymore and begged her mother not to die

College was a whole new world, an unexplored frontier for Sonia that she would develop brilliantly. At Princeton, she joins a Puerto Rican student organization whose main goal or purpose was to get more Latino students. Apart with being a straight A student, Sonia finds herself able to turn depression and self doubt into a motivational force that allows her to exceed in many ways. Sonia in her senior year will win the Pyne Prize which is the most prestigious award awarded to seniors, and also graduate with honors as Summa Cum