Autobiography – Teressa Cali

My name is Teressa Cali and I’ve lived in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn my entire life.  I chose to attend Macaulay Honors at Brooklyn College for a few different reasons.  I enjoy living in Brooklyn and I never want to leave New York City, so going away wasn’t one of my desires.  I know that Macaulay will provide me with opportunities that I may not have found in other colleges and I believe that these seminars will offer me experiences that I will treasure.  I hope that this seminar allows me to understand the different cultures of New York and learn more about the types of people that have immigrated here.  I plan on majoring in Business Administration with a concentration in Health Professions and minoring in Psychology.  I love working with other people and teaching them new things, so I hope to go to graduate school for Occupational Therapy.  I know this profession will be rewarding for me.

Living in Bensonhurst my whole life, I’ve seen the many different people that have lived and still reside here.  Before I was born and when I was younger, Bensonhurst was mainly inhabited by Italian-Americans.  As time went on, most Italians moved away and our neighborhood has changed greatly.  Asian and Jewish people make up most of my community now.  We are one of the few Italian families left on my block.  We have considered moving, but we have so many memories in Bensonhurst, that it would be hard to leave that all behind.  Both my parents were born in America, so I’ve learned much of the immigrant experience from my grandparents, who are originally from Italy.  When my grandparents came to America, they had very little.  They started a life in a new country that they had not known.  My grandparents worked very hard to support a family and have a better life than they did in Italy.  They were so grateful to have the opportunity to come to this amazing country and live in New York.  My grandparents always tell me how lucky I am to be living in America.  My grandfather says that each generation in our family has advanced so much.  He was unable to go to college because he could not afford it, so he made sure he was able to send his children (my father) to college.  I received a scholarship to Macaulay Honors, which made my grandfather so proud.  When my grandparents tell me how hard they worked, it inspires me to work hard and do well in school, which helped me get accepted to Macaulay.

There are so many places in New York that my family and I love to visit.  One place is Little Italy.  My grandmother was born in an apartment there and her family lived there until she was three.  They went back to Italy when the Great Depression started because there weren’t any jobs available, and being an immigrant made it even more difficult.  It wasn’t until after World War II that my grandmother returned to America to raise her family in Brooklyn.  My grandma told me that many Italians immigrated to Little Italy, but now it is full of all types of people, exemplifying the diversity of New York and how it has changed.

The block that I live on is another very important place to me because three generations have lived there.  I’ve lived on 60^th Street my whole life.  My father grew up on the same block and my grandparents still live in the same house.  My great grandmother lived down the block and my aunt lives around the corner.  There are so many memories that my family has made throughout the years on 60^th Street: family parties, holidays, block parties, get-togethers and more.  It is a great feeling to know that my family is so close by and there are so many things on my block that remind me of the many experiences that we’ve had.

Knowing that my grandparents were immigrants and seeing how far they’ve come has helped me understand why so many people come to America.  I have realized that the United States is what it is because of immigrants that came here and shaped the country.  I love that New York is so diverse and that I have the opportunity to experience and learn about all different cultures and people in this great city.