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My childhood memories
Childhood Memories
Overcoming adversity personal essays
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Since the age of 12, I have struggled to remember what my childhood was like; from time to time I regained a little memory about my life. I was brought up by my grandparents, who worked hard every day to make ends meet for me. However, my life changed on May 25, 1995, when I received a call from Belinda, a friend of the family, saying that my grandparents were in a bad car accident, and that they did not make it out alive. It seemed as though the world around me had come crashing down. Then my aunt Joyce, a mother of three children and a postal worker stepped up as my care giver. She eventually became a person that I looked up to as a great role model in my life. Joyce is a hard worker, generous, and a supporting person who gives good advice. By 13, I was being raised in a second household my aunt Joyce was a single mother of three children. Joyce was a generous person to me; she went out of her way to give me extra attention when no one was there to console me late at night when I had bad dreams about the tragic loss of my grandparents. Even though my aunt had expenses for three children, she still found ways to earn extra money, to give me the experience of attending gymnastics and other activities. In her career as a postal worker, she has a reputation as a hard worker. She progressed from a mail carrier to working inside the Post Office serving the public as a mail clerk. There were times when she had worked long hours on holidays so that she could buy me nice gifts. I must say, Joyce is a team player. She has patience to take the extra time to explain to the new employees how the job operates. In addition, to being a hard worker my aunt is an excellent role model to me. She told me in order to be successful in life you must set goals to accomplish. The one goal I chose to accomplish was finishing high school with a 3.5 grade average. When I had a minor setback my 12th grade year, and got pregnant with my son, my aunt told me never to give up; one setback is not a life lasting ordeal but a hurdle to overcome.
The older adult interviewed for the purpose of this assignment was Alice Margaret Cox, the interviewers grandmother. Alice was born on February 17th, 1932 in Brown County, Minnesota. Alice was the daughter of Rose Veldman and had three brothers and three sisters. In 1942, Hikel Veldman, after marrying Rose, legally adopted Alice and her six siblings. He brought four children of his own, making a family of 13. After the family was adopted, the majority of their childhood to early adult life was spent living in Hollandale, Minnesota. Alice spent the majority of her life farming and now helps out part time at a family owned thrift store. Alice currently resides in Lake City Minnesota, in her home of twenty plus years. Only four of the eleven
Just about anybody can be a good role model. One may ask what a good role model is, and how a good role model dif...
She would mostly be alone and sit by herself being buried in books or watching cartoons. In high school she attended a program for troubled adolescents and from there she received a wide range of support from helping her get braces to helping her get information to attend community college. (59) Even with this she was already too emotionally unstable due to her family issues and felt like she couldn’t go through with her dreams to travel and even go into the art of culinary. She suffers from psychological problems such as depression and worries constantly about almost every aspect in her life from work to family to her boyfriend and just hopes that her life won’t go downhill. (60) Overall Kayla’s family structure shows how different is it now from it was in the 1950’s as divorce rates have risen and while before Kayla’s type of family structure was rare now it is becoming more common. This story helps illustrate the contributions of stress that children possess growing up in difficult homes in which they can’t put their own futures first they must, in some cases, take care of their guardian’s futures first or others around them. Again, this adds into the inequality that many face when it comes to being able to climb up the ladder and become successful regardless of where one
The majority of families were once considered perfect. The father went to work everyday, while the mother stayed at home and cared for her two children, “Henry” and “Sue”. The children never fought and the parents were involved in all the community events. Our society has grown to accept that there is no such thing as a perfect family. Eleven-year-old Ellen from the book Ellen Foster, by Kaye Gibbons, grows up in a household where her father is an abusive alcoholic and her mother is too sick to complete everyday tasks. By using her positive assets, and learning from her negative assets, Ellen was able to overcome a lot of challenges throughout the book.
It was August 8th of 2013 when my dad got a call from my Aunt Theresa. She urged him to come over to her house because she had devastating news. The car ride to her house was quiet. The weather was gloomy, the sky was filled with dark cumulus clouds.When we pulled up to my Aunt’s house, the adults were organized into a small circle. My uncles were supporting my grandma, however, I thought nothing of it. My parents had told me to go inside because they had a matter to attend to. I went inside to hang out with my cousins. I saw them a couple days before, but the feeling of happiness never subsides when I see them.
I have always grown up around the influence of hard work. My mother and father’s life together began off to a rough start. My mother got pregnant at the age of 20 with my brother. Her family was not very supportive of it; therefore, she was on her own. She used to tell me about how she would sit and cry in a one bedroom apartment that she lived in with my brother wondering what she was going to do. Although she had to grow up faster than she
When I was younger, I remember feeling as though I lived in a bubble; my life was perfect. I had an extremely caring and compassionate mother, two older siblings to look out for me, a loving grandmother who would bake never ending sweets and more toys than any child could ever realistically play with. But as I grew up my world started to change. My sister developed asthma, my mother became sick with cancer and at the age of five, my disabled brother developed ear tumors and became deaf. As more and more problems were piled upon my single mother’s plate, I, the sweet, quiet, perfectly healthy child, was placed on the back burner. It was not as though my family did not love me; it was just that I was simply, not a priority.
Growing up, I was raised by a single mom who gave birth to me while attending college which meant we didn’t have a lot. I still remember being woken up early in the morning by her and driven to my grandparents where they would watch me while she took on 2 shifts each day. Because of the amount of hours, she would work my grandparents took on the role of taking me to my school functions and sporting events. Although it was hard not always having my biggest fan there to cheer me on I knew inside that she would give anything to be there watching but someone had to put food on the table. We had to move quite often due to my mom’s job constantly relocating her to different branches. By the time, I had entered the 1st grade my mother and I were moving into our 5th residence in the Houston area. I was still in my adolescence so moving never seemed to bother me as long as I had my toys and a TV I was pretty content.
Growing up with such admirable as my grandmother, I was able to develop many of her qualities. Not only did I develop her eagerness to learn but to also grasp that idea and put it into use in the real world. Everything in my grandmother is special: the way she dresses, the way she speaks, the way she behaves, the way she moves, etc. Sometimes, I just think that it could be great if I could at least be half of what she is.
While in school, Mom didn’t have it easy. Not only did she raise a daughter and take care of a husband, she had to deal with numerous setbacks. These included such things as my father suffering a heart attack and going on to have a triple by-pass, she herself went through an emergency surgery, which sat her a semester behind, and her father also suffered a heart attack. Mom not only dealt with these setbacks, but she had the everyday task of things like cooking dinner, cleaning the house and raising a family. I don’t know how she managed it all, but somehow she did.
My mother was taking care of me, and my three other siblings all alone by herself. When my father was living my mother only had one job, but now she had to work more. She had a massive impact on our lives by making sure we had everything we needed. Because I was the oldest of my siblings, I felt like I was a parent. At just eight years old, I had to skip school just to make sure my siblings had someone to look after them while my mother worked. I was obligated to feed them, give them baths, and put clothes on them. It was very difficult, but I knew my mother had to pay bills, and take care of us and herself, so I knew she couldn’t afford a babysitter. When times got very tough, my mom would get stressed out and take it out on us by throwing tantrums, hollering at us and beating on us. I didn’t have a choice but to encourage my mother, and be the one to push her to not give
My grandma is my role model because she has accomplished so much and been through so much in her life. She is a very beautiful person, but very stubborn in what she believes and wants. Its almost impossible to get her to change her mind. She is always telling me how proud she is of me and has pretty high expectations of me. My mom is also a role model for me because she had a rough childhood and after she started a family she went back to college she is still attending college now, she gives me motivation to never give up and reminds my of how good my life is
Some memories are best forgotten, but it takes courage to go through them. Often, I wish to forget the day when I almost lost my parents in a tragic car accident. As my world came crumbling down, I prayed and hoped that the nightmare would soon end. I endlessly fought the sense of helplessness, isolation and fear of the uncertainty. I was 19 and clueless. Nevertheless, I sailed through these dreadful days and welcomed my parents home after six long months. In the months that followed my parent’s return, I juggled between taking care of my parents, graduating college and adjusting to my new job. Almost 10 years later, this dark phase still has a phenomenal impact on me. Perhaps, because this specific experience transformed me into a grateful,
Many of us have role models in our lives and to most people role models are athletes and movie stars, but to me a role model is much more. To me a role model is a person who has positively influenced someone in life, and is not a person filled with selfishness and greed. They help shape someone’s personality, and characteristics. They are people who someone can look up to for advice in a hard situation, and know that they will give those words of wisdom. They will never judge our past actions, instead only look to help because they really care. A role model is someone who we should never feel awkward talking to about our problems. A perfect role model for me is my mother. She is a wonderful human being. She’s smart, wise, ambitious, patient and such a loving person. There are no words that can describe my gratitude towards her, but through this essay I will describe some of her characteristics that makes her my role model.
It was on a Friday morning at 4:30 A.M. that happiness and joy filled the hearts of both my parents. I was born on November 29, 1996 at Broward General Hospital in Fort Lauderdale Florida. My parents had five children, and among the five children that they had, I was the third (or middle) child from them. It started off as two boys, then I came along as the first girl, after it was another boy, then finally, another baby girl; so total was three boys and two girls. The way that my parents lived and treated each other was the same as if any other married couple that loved each other so much. They’ve gone through a lot to get to where they are now today, but they made it and along the way had us five children. They have been really strong with each other which made them only have the five of us and no other step children. My mom is a great cook and enjoy cooking for us; this is probably where my passion for culinary comes from. My dad is an amazing tailor, he is very good at making our clothes, and my passion for fashion probably came from him. My dad is also a teacher, one of the best math teacher I know, he is passionate about his job and his family is the center of his universe. I cannot finish this chapter without mentioning my grandmother, I was lucky enough to have ever met. I had spent part of my life time with her, like the rest of the family she is sweet, my grandmother Abelus,