Siempre inventando. The English translation of this phrase is “always inventing.” It is a common phrase within the Cuban culture of Miami that is used to describe someone who always challenges norms, and one I am all too familiar with.
Since I was very young, I have never really accepted anything as is. If there was something, I found to be inefficient, I would question why it is that way and try to think of a better way of doing it. Often, this would cause me a lot of trouble because I would fail in trying to take a new approach, but luckily for me, my parents always tried to push me to keep that attitude and continue to develop more efficient methods of solving problems. They had that attitude because they both came from difficult backgrounds and achieved a lot that was not expected of someone of their background. My mother is from Venezuela and came to the United States to study for high school at Louisiana State University at the age of 16. You could imagine, she had a rough time fitting in, and an even more tough time succeeding. Similarly, my father grew up one of 6 children in a poor family in Miami, but from the age of 8 to today, he has worked 60+ hours a week to escape poverty, build a successful business and provide all of his siblings with well-paying jobs despite him being the only one to graduate college. Both incredibly tough people, self-made people, who understood that anything was possible through hard work and persistence. Throughout my life, my exposure to our family business and the lessons taught to me by my parents, I have learned that anything is possible, so when I see space for improvement, I push to think of better ways to accomplish the goal. When I see something that is not working, I pivot. This has all led me to fall in love with business, technology and entrepreneurship. Three subjects that I believe can combine to solve most problems that exist in the world and subjects that have motivated me in becoming a Computer Science and Economics double major with an I&E Certificate at Duke.
