I believe that I am not my parents, I am not my grades, I am not a stereotype! Who were you, who are you, who do you want to become? Labels, in this world we all live by labels. They're plenty of people in this world telling you who you are, yet they don't know the real you. “You’ll be just like your parents, if you get a F, then you're going to be a F in life, and you're going to follow the same steps of every other black girl from the eastside”. A gigantic amount of people make these assumptions yet they never ask me, “who are you really, what do you do for fun, what went wrong in your life, or how can you improve it”. How can people judge or tell me who I'm going to be if they don't take the time to get to know me? I am not my parents I am not my grades, and I am not a stereotype! I am me, everything that I am capable of being, I am me. Who are your parents, and have people told you you're going to end up like them? My parents did not attend college, they had children young, they aren't married, they struggle everyday, and yes people tell me I'm going to be just like them. Who am I, and do I believe that I'm going to be just like my parents? I am a young, strong, and independent young lady. No! I'm not going to be like my parents, I'm going to be me! I'm going to grow up and follow my dreams. Everything I see in my future: my achievements, my success, my happiness, is going to be because of me because I control my future. Because I believe in me, I believe in my future, I believe I am not my parents. Henry 2 What are your grades? This is the most asked question in my life. They don't want to know how i'm feeling, hows life going, or the struggles and the greatness I have achieved. “How are your grades”, they ask. I want to respond with does it really matter if it's an A or an F. Are my grades more important than my heart. Is the world going to end if I don't pass some chemistry class I don't even need. Can we change the subject and talk about me? Maybe if we had a decent conversation you would know the real me. My grades aren't me, my personality is. My grades don't define me because either way I will succeed. What is a stereotype? A stereotype is a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing. I don't see my name typed anywhere in the definition of a stereotype. The reason why my name is not in the definition is because a stereotype is something that I am not. When people tell me what “statistics” say about where i'm going to end up in life, I tell them well i'm that percentage that doesn't follow the status quo. Jasmin Simone Henry is no stereotype. I strongly believe that who I am solely depends on me. Nothing defines me, but my personality. Who am I you ask. I honestly don’t know who I am, but I can definitely tell you who I am not. I am not my parents, I am not my grades, and I am not a stereotype! I am me, everything I am capable of being.