She's the third female Supreme Court Justice and she represents the first Hispanic justice (a big step for American Democracy) in history. She even represents a much needed victory for Obama in this moment. But it is not these landmark facts that make Sotomayor an inspiration for me. Sotomayor grew up in the Bronx, a borough of New York City now known for it's poverty and primarily black and Hispanic population. Her father did not even speak English and both parents worked largely vocational jobs. Sotamayor herself has type 1 diabetes. However, in 1976 she graduated Princeton with a major in history and then graduated Yale law in 1979. She was admitted to the New York Bar in 1980 from which she rose through the ranks, being nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit by Bill Clinton in 1997. Finally, earlier this year President Barack Obama nominated her for a seat in the Supreme Court, to which she was promoted almost entirely uninhibited.
For me, Sotomayor truly proves the point of never giving up or letting where you started off stand in your way. It was beyond unlikely that a Latino woman from the Bronx would attend Princeton and yet she got there. The fact she followed this with Yale Law is even more incredible. But to end up making history in the Supreme Court is a true achievement that Maria fought her whole life for. If there was ever a simple and ideal representation of the American Dream, for me, this would be it.
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