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Adam is the youngest of four children and the only son. He was always a curious person, even as a child. He also says he knew his life would expand well beyond his hometown. He comes from a large-extended family with many relatives. But Adam’s maternal grandmother was the person the family revolved around. Adam says she was the “anchor” of the family. When she passed away a few years ago, it dramatically affected Adam, his parents and his sisters. He looks back now and believes that event may have been one of the things that led him on his current path. He’s now finishing academic work at St. Thomas and one day, he hopes to return to Corpus Christi. Serving his hometown are motivating factors in Adam’s life.
Here’s Adam Peña with his essay for KUHF’s This I Believe.
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“I believe in learning.
I believe in learning that takes me beyond myself. Learning gives me the opportunity to relive the past and create a future while still physically inhabiting the present.
I believe in learning because it allows me to celebrate, as Dewitt Jones of National Geographic encourages, what is right with the world and yet still recognize what is wrong with it. Learning is like the light needed to play with a kaleidoscope because it highlights the different colors, changing contours, and colliding configurations that the world possesses and offers to me.
With learning, I have, as Emerson suggests, to “go where there is no path and leave a trail for others”. Learning provides me the opportunity to question and in my questioning, I am led to new experiences. Echoing the words of singer/songwriter Ben Harper, my soul becomes as open the sky with learning. My passion for learning supplies the continuous creative curiosity that pervades my soul.
I have a passion for learning and here is why. It is quite simple actually; learning is part of who I am. I have grown personally because I have had to learn from my mistakes and challenges. I can be what I want be and choose who I want to be because I have had to learn who I am through life experiences. Learning opens new aspects of who I am and who I am becoming. It constantly cuts fresh facets into my character.
Life is learned. This I believe.”