American Icon and Picture

American Icon
By: Livy Solis

Would you feel deprived if you only had one parent at home? As I sat by myself during dinner, I looked at the empty chairs and sighed. My mom couldn't join me because she was at work and wouldn't get home until later. Even though I was disappointed, I understood because she worked hard to support me. When she got home she looked exhausted but she still made time for me. We decided to watch La Bamba. My eyes were glued to the television screen. As I learned about Richie Valens life and how he started off with so little and ended up a fantastic singer. I learned that his mother encouraged him so much by setting up shows for him to perform at. That opened up my eyes because my mom has always been supportive of many things that I enjoy to do, one thing was writing.

Ever since elementary school I have always enjoyed writing short stories, it wasn’t until 9th grade where I felt very proud of my tragedy story. Like Richie I started at an early age to find something that I liked to do. Most people in my class were excited for this project and had many ideas popping through their heads like a bunch of spam ads taking over your computer screen. My head was blank and I dozed off into my own world. When I got home I asked my mom what I should do for the project. She suggested that I should write my story based on a book. I didn’t feel that sparked energy feeling I have when it comes to writing. My mom observed me and could tell that I was not doing well with this writing. She reminded me of my successful work and inspired me to write.
I brainstormed some ideas and once I had it I grabbed my pencil and let all my thoughts flow into that paper I wrote fast yet nice and steady. I made sure to use descriptive language and felt confident that my first draft was dandy. The following day I let a few of my classmates critique it while I read theirs. I anxiously waited to see what kind of feedback I was going to get. I scanned the comments and smiled at most of them until I ran into a vague negative comment, I read the word, “bad”. That word stuck to me like some nasty glue that wouldn't come off no matter how hard I tried to pull it away.
I remembered seeing Richie being determined to get better at his music and even though some of his classmates didn’t think he was good enough, he still played music. After thinking about it some more I shrugged it off and continued to work on my story, this time I knew my story was great. I showed it to my teacher and she liked my story. I was proud of my final grade and I let my mom take a look at it. She loved it and told me if I continued to write like this I would be able to have even more fantastic stories to share. I was back on my feet again and I realized that I just had to be reminded of what I could accomplish.
Richie died young at 17 however; he accomplished a lot because music was his passion. His two most popular hits were Donna and La Bamba. La Bamba was traditionally a Mexican folk song, but he made it into his own version. He inspired many Mexican Americans after he sang that song. He was a great rock and roll musician. When the movie ended I was glad to know that he achieved his dream as a singer by the support of his mom and believing in himself. I will too by continuing to work hard and not giving up on myself.