Thank You, Zach (The Zach Effect) The First Autobiography of Daniel Soto

The Beginning: Syndrome Part Two: Learning Disability and the Last Surgery

This chapter is the continuation of the first part of my childhood since the previous chapter has a different story. After knowing the background history of my heart surgeries in Brazil, this part explains how I got to Houston and its reasons I went there and explained my difficulties with learning. But first, let's learn what I did in Trujillo; after Christmas, my father's new job moved us to Trujillo. I was in Trujillo for six years; I made many friends, learned new places, and spent time with family. At the same time, it was a moment of a lot of challenge and effort. I started primary school, and the learning was complex; I had difficulties in school; for that reason and many other reasons related to my syndrome, I spent many hours in physical therapy, speech therapy, and learning therapy. When I was about seven years old, I started treatment for growth hormones (like Messi), a daily injection that I never used to. Periodically I would travel to Lima to see my cardiologist and neurologist.

I made a friend in Trujillo that we instantly became best friends, and we still are through this day. One day, my brother made a friend in Fleming College named Fortunato. After meeting Fortunato's family, Fortunato had a brother about my age, and his name is Sebastian. Unfortunately, Sebastian and I were in different classrooms in that school, but it did not matter because we could see each other at the playground and other school activities. One day Sebastian's family moved to Houston a year before I moved there. When they moved first, I was sad and did not know when I will ever see him again until my parents told my brother and me that we would move to Houston, Texas, USA. At first, I was happy because I was excited to go to the United States and see the Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, and Spiderman (I was a Spiderman fan back then and still am). But, when my parents show me where Houston I was shocked that Houston is not even close to New York at all, and it was the first time I ever heard of Texas in my life (at that time, I only knew California and New York as of the only states in the US).

My family and I migrated to the United States for many reasons. One of the reasons is for me to have a better future than in Peru in many ways. A few of the methods are for better education, better hospitalization for my heart surgeries, better living, better job opportunities, and many other ways. My parents and my brother share some of those reasons with me too. Now, after we arrived in Houston on January 29, 2006, we lived with Sebastian's family in their apartment for our first six months in a new country. When I mean apartment, I meant Fortunato's bedroom for the entire six months. Fortunato was excited to have his first bedroom alone, but he had to wait until we moved out there first. While my mother was studying to become a US teacher, my father was working at different jobs. My brother was in the same school as his friend Fortunato, and I enrolled in Sebastian's school, but I did not understand English at that time. I remember the classroom I was in. Sebastian was sitting next to me, and another kid named Franco sit the other side of me; both of them were translating the English language into Spanish. I was in that school for a few months until I transfer to Spanish speaking school to understand it better.

When I was a fifth grade, I attended my mother's first school; she taught in the US, and it was called Morgan Elementary School in Galveston, Texas. Galveston is about an hour away from Houston, so my family and I moved to League City to be closer to my mom's job, and also, the city is friendly to live in. Yes, I was still far away from Sebastian's family, but at least I could see them more frequently than my friends in Trujillo. Technically my family and I lived in League City for eleven years, from summer 2006 to summer 2017. Let's go back to the story of when I was a student at Morgan Elementary School. When I was a student there, my mother told the principal about my syndrome and my learning difficulties. She explained how the public school works in this country by mentioning the special education program that helps students who needed them. She also explained how to apply it and the requirements for it. With the principal's help, my mother started the process, and I was accepted to the program. At that moment, I started having a one-on-one with a special education teacher for a few moments, less school work, extended time for the exams, school work in Spanish, and other kinds of help during my school years. In the following year, I started middle school in a different school district. I continued in the special education program since it renewed every three years; in my case, after evaluations, the program was constantly renewed until I finished high school. I had annual meetings with my parents, teachers, special education teacher, and administrators to start a suitable program plan. Outside of school, I went to occupation therapy that taught me how to be independent, such as dressing by myself, how to tie shoes, and how to use utensils properly. I made some incredible friends throughout my middle and high school years that had taught me about friendships. In summer 2017, my parents and I decided to move to Glendale, California, in Los Angeles County, so my dad could work at his career job, an agricultural engineer. My mother attended several teaching positions in different schools. In contrast, I attended Glendale Community College until I became a student at CSUN (California State University Northridge) in thirty minutes drive from my house there. If you are wondering where my brother is, he lives in New York, which means I visited New York many times because of him until he decides to live somewhere else, but for now, I will continue going to New York to see him.