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I would say that I’ve been pretty gifted in terms of academic successes. I’ve always viewed myself as a hard worker, leaping headfirst from charter schools into the International Baccalaureate program. I got a 2140/2400 on my SAT, 33/36 on the ACT, 3.89 weighted GPA and have maintained good grades. I also come from a low-income area, I took 5 years of Spanish to be able to communicate with my neighbors, and I attempt to be as inclusive as possible. None of this matters for how I got into UCSC. Sure, these facts about myself look good on a college application. I was born with the golden ticket of being a white male, meaning I have statistically better chances of getting a good degree, getting a better job, and leading a more prosperous life overall, but these things could have gotten me into a wide array of colleges. This combination of privilege and success didn’t direct me towards UC Santa Cruz specifically. What directed me towards this liberal and open-minded university was a specific event that fundamentally changed my worldview, and continues to affect my everyday life.
I had a physical drama class in my sophomore year of high school. We had to use each other as props, lifting and throwing kids across the room and building towering structures out of our own bodies. It was very much a bonding experience, but I was never really concerned with that. I was more concerned with blatantly objectifying a girl in the class by the name of Kaitlyn Betancourt. All I ever knew about her was restricted to the realm of her physical appearance. I would gossip to my friends at the time, discussing her in a hyper-masculine and derogatory manner, valuing her hourglass figure above all else. Kaitlyn Betancourt committed suicide on May 4, 2014. I ended up attending her vigil for two or three hours, sitting, watching, listening. I heard so many stories about Kaitlyn, stories that I could have heard when she was still alive, but I didn’t. I was too wrapped up in my own image, my own perspective, and my own stance as a straight-leaning white male, to value anything about her beyond the superficial, to understand her perspective. I learned firsthand the dangers of exaggerated masculinity, gender roles, and objectification. The idea that, people like me in the social hierarchy, people like me who valued someone solely within a physical sense, could be the cause of such a tragedy, fundamentally changed me and who I strive to be.
Being socialized to solely value the physical aspect of another human being severely limits our understanding of ourselves and of the human race as a whole. This system of perpetuated misogyny, hyper-masculinity, and the social stratification placing men above women is what caused me to become one of the reasons Kaitlyn Betancourt took her life. I had two weeks after a surgery to sit at home and think about what had occurred, and what I learned, the main idea that pushed me to enroll in UC Santa Cruz, is as follows; My moral compass is driven by the stories of others. No matter what is asked of me, what situation I am in, if I am able to learn someone’ story, perspective, or individual view, I have to accept. I simply hope that maybe, with enough stories, I can prevent something like Kaitlyn’ death from happening again, no matter who. Your horizons end where you so choose. Your world ends with you. And I refuse to stop pushing.