In chapter 2 of Always Running, Rodrigues reveals that in his early life, he would often get in trouble. When his parents found out, his father would leave the disciplining to his mother, thus revealing his mother is more involved with his life. Growing up my family was not wealthy. We resided in the back of my aunt’s house. My parents were always working and barely ever home. When it came to going out or needing help with a certain task, I would have to ask my aunt or my cousins. This became more of a reoccurring event when my father was admitted to the hospital because of a heart problem. I had to learn to not depend on anyone at a young age and it helped me grow as a person. Although I understand why my parents couldn’t always be there for me, I did act out at a young age just like Luis. Luis and I both grew up around the same area, South San Gabriel/ Rosemead, which is about 7 minutes away from each other. I understand what struggles he goes through when getting grounded so he can stay away from his bad tendencies. When I went to Rosemead High School, I encountered a lot of troubled kids who were involved with violence and drug use. Being curious, I wanted to get to know these people and why they do the things they do. I learned that a lot of them came from broken families and used these mechanisms to push through life and that they aren’t actually bad people. People have more potential than they believe they are capable of.

My initial thoughts on the first chapter of Always Running written by Luis J. Rodriguez was that it touches on the subject of culture shock. Growing up in Los Angeles, Luis quickly realized that he did not fit, due to the majority of people being white. The image of white families being happy on television and billiards formed Luis’ opinion on how they were the superior group. Since I was little, all I can remember about my childhood was growing up with my brother in Rosemead, a city populated by Asian Americans. Up until I was ten years old, I moved to La Puente, a city which was populated by Hispanics. When attending school in La Puente, there were about five other Asian-Americans, which helped encouraged me to explore other cultures. Instead, I was left in shock at how different my culture was from others and felt out of place in a way. I would get embarrassed over little things such as talking in my native language to my parents when my friends were around because I did not want to seem like an outsider. Due to the culture shock, my family agreed to let my brother and I go back to school in Rosemead. Although I went back, the people I started to befriend were ironically Hispanics. Because of my friends living in a heavily Asian populated city, they understood more than others. A person should not have to go through the struggles of feeling embarrassed about their culture but should be able to embrace it instead.