Have you ever smelled the air the day after it rains? It’s an indescribable feeling that has the power to make a person reminisce. I immediately think back to my first home in the year of 2006, where my mind seems to limit its recollection of childhood. As a 10 year old, while attending my last year at Port Richmond Elementary School, my family and I were evicted because I lived with two addicts who were constantly in conflict. Consequently, I moved in with my grandmother and attended Fulton Elementary School. I hated waking up for school, found the homework and teachers to be insufferable, and I found myself worrying more about the violence and disruption in my home than school. At the start of the next school year, my family and I were evicted …show more content…
My sister and I were sent to live with my aunt who wasn't as stable as she appeared. It took some time to adjust to the new living arrangements and recurrent school changes. Eventually, we moved again a few months later to a foster care home, switching schools again. The home consisted of a foster mom, her daughter, her nephew, her soon to be adopted son, and two other foster kids. The house was loving we all got along, sometimes we had our quarrels but we never stayed mad for long. Religion was forced into my life as the foster mom was a heavy believed christian. We prayed every night, went to church every Sunday, and sometimes on holidays to. Still there I stayed in track and got good grades, and many of my teachers told me I stood out in a positive way. I started to hate it at that house. the baby boy Alex was Ms.Betty's star prize and expected me, my sister, and others to treat him as he were a king. I didn't respect that she put her responsibilities on us to take care of him when she needed rest or just didn't feel like being bothered. She also had roaches, a lot. There were many pros and cons to living …show more content…
My mother entered recovery, and she and my grandmother bought an apartment so my sister and I could have a place to live – a new home and a new school. Because of my experiences, my perspective on people and the world changed. I realized that school was my only way out of my corrupted environment. I became the kid that sat in the front of class and always completed my work with my best effort. My commitment to school prepared me for 8th grade graduation which was one of the most memorable moments of my life. I felt as though all the hard work and sacrifice paid off and it seemed my future would be bright. My freshman year in high school was challenging. My mother relapsed and every other night I was awoken by the sound of sirens, yelling, and fighting. After years of this we got evicted again and me and my sister went to go live with my god mom who was a recovering addict who also lived with another recovering addict. Talk about water and oil. I've always heard two recovering aren't good because when one falls off the other follows soon after. Whoever told me that was right. My god mom's girlfriend went back to the streets and came home high and drunk. She never bothered me or my sister but it just brought back
The orphanage had its up's and downs I remember certain things such as Movie and gave nights. I remember feeling a sense of coldness I had never felt before I was lonely and at times afraid. From there I went to my first foster home I believe her name was Ms. B I think I was about 12 year's old going there. At this time I was use to not being with my mom and being my own man. Yes man at the age of 12, starting off it wasn’t so bad there was another kid there with the same name as mine. He and I use to sit up and talk about what and who we were going to be when you grew up. There were times when Ms. Johnson had her boyfriend come over to the house they would listen to loud music and drink she got so drunk that at times she made Marquise and I stand in the corner all night long for no good reason at all. I remember visiting my mom in rehab telling her all of what she was doing to me how I didn’t want to be there how mean and lonely it was there. I guess I was thinking I was going to go home someday as she was in rehab getting clean from the drugs. The years went by as I still sat in what felt like a prison with its ups and downs. I talked with my case worker about what was going on in the home they later moved me
It was the fall of 2010 and little did I know that my world was about to change drastically. We had moved back to Kenosha, Wisconsin in 2008 after living in Mexico, and I was starting to enjoy my life in the dairy state. My 6th Grade classes had just started at Bullen Middle School. It was right at this time when my world seemingly got flipped upside down. My parents had a family meeting and informed my siblings and me that we were moving to a small Iowa town called Orange City. I had feelings of nervousness, excitement, and sadness all mixed together.
Feeling responsible for situations out of my control was difficult. My grades were awful, it was impossible to focus on anything. I could hardly sleep at night with the amounts of stress I was under. Knowing that my father was an alcoholic with bi-polar disorder opened me up to a new world. I was exposed to so much more than the average kid, especially when he would bring me to the Alcoholic Anonyms meetings. I met so many interesting people threw my father. My entire view of the world and its inhabitants has been altered. Growing up was very difficult but the experiences that I had has shaped the person I am today.
The second foster home was 5 times better than the first one I was in. I was not used to living in a foster home so I would blame my life on the foster parent. One memory I remember is watching Honey Boo Boo, and just laughing as we were watching it. One of the nice things about that home is that I was never got bored. The weird thing was that I was the only child but yet I was never bored. Two thing that kept me occupied was a computer, and play station three. Since I never grew up with electronics I had to occupy myself by playing outside. The only electronic I got removed from that same home
My household was previously only my dad, mom, two brothers, and myself. However, in 2000 my aunt went to jail for substance abuse and my three cousins were put under the guardianship of my mother. My aunt had been receiving welfare and food stamps before she lost guardianship and when my mother got another three kids my dad and her receive food stamps, a monthly stipend, and daycare support. At that time my father was the only one working and gaining an income so thanks to those social services we wouldn’t have had the resources to care for them. Without the help my parents would have to take care of three pre-teens and three toddlers on one income. Infact, without the help my mom would have had to get a job which would leave the youngest of us in the care of my older brothers since we wouldn’t have been able to afford daycare. And, if we were raised without my mom we wouldn’t have learned all the manners and morals we were raised with. When my cousins’ came to live with us they were used to an environment that contained drugs and gangs so my mom taught them different and better ways. Having them there affected me because that was the time that I learned that there was bad stuff out there in the world. It was then I learned what a cuss word was and that is was bad because my mom would punish my older cousin when he would say them. Having my cousins there taught me what things were bad but if my mom wasn’t there because she
The following years were burdensome as we all tried to adjust to our current lives. We would have visits with our birth parents every now and then. Due to the addictions of my birth parents, they were never incredibly dependable. They would often cancel our visits, or not show up at all. Eventually the visits stopped
My first memories of my father were what I now know as active addiction, I would watch the chaos in my house, the abuse, both mental and physical and at the time I didn’t understand but as time went on it was apparent, at the age of 11, my father hung himself, although he did not die he cut off oxygen to his brain long enough to render him blind and incompetent to care for himself and he was place in a nursing home where he would reside for the next 25 years of my life. I swore I would never do drugs because I saw firsthand the destruction, but my family addiction did not stop there. My aunt was a daily drinker, my uncle was addicted to heroin, another aunt addicted to crack
Unfortunately, not all memorable events are pleasant. Although most people immediately think of a positive experience when asked, "What is your most memorable event?" The typical responses are happy thoughts, however; that is not the case at hand. By definition, bittersweet means both pleasant and painful; two emotions: sadness and happiness, endured at the same time. Hell with a silver lining describes it just as well, I believe.
Throughout my pitch, I made several choices to make sure my pitch targeted reluctant parents. Firstly, I used inclusive language that helped connect my family and experiences to their own. At the beginning of my pitch I tried to immediately address their reason for coming to my booth since they were, “unsure if online English is the best fit for [their] son or daughter”, and I also wanted to make sure them that, “my parents felt the same way before I started this course.” The use of inclusive language is a key persuasive technique to engage the listener since it makes them feel like they are being directly spoken to. In addition, I also directly related my family to theirs which helped to further solidify that I was there to talk directly to
For the first few months, it wasn’t obvious to those around her that she had developed this addiction. When it finally became obvious to my father, he confronted her with treatment options that she continually refused. He turned to alcohol to escape the stresses of living with an addict. By this time I was three and my mother had turned to harder drugs. Life went on with my parents continuing to struggle with their addiction. The stress that this put on both of them slowly turned them both into abusive people. They began abusing each other, which eventually escalated to every night when my father came home from the bar and they would scream, throw dishes, and even hit each other. Just once, I decided that if I came downstairs and asked them to stop they just might realize how much listening to them fighting damaged my life, but instead of being understanding, my mother picked me up by my hair and threw me into our large living room window, I later found out that she was high on heroin that night. In November of 1999, my parents found out they were expecting another child and everything seemed to calm down for a
The skills that will beneficial in enhancing my ability to be other-oriented are as follows:
Bouncing from my grandma to my uncle and aunts was never easy. I bounced back and forth a lot. My family would tell me how much I was not wanted. Having my mom not around to make me know I was different. I kept quiet and moped
It was the second semester of fourth grade year. My parents had recently bought a new house in a nice quite neighborhood. I was ecstatic I always wanted to move to a new house. I was tired of my old home since I had already explored every corner, nook, and cranny. The moment I realized I would have to leave my old friends behind was one of the most devastating moments of my life. I didn’t want to switch schools and make new friends. Yet at the same time was an interesting new experience.
As any one can see I had complete provocation to feel the way I did. I ether had to except it as my room or move out, which I was not financially stable to do at the time. I felt stuck and pissed off that I was put into that kind of position. I had wondered why my parents would want to do this to me, did they know how I felt,sure didn't seem like it.
At a young age I was put into foster care. This was something that I would have to say has both its ups and downs. I saw good days and there are other times that I would not see the day at all. I was subjected to abuse, neglect, and even love while in foster care. The reason I was but here is because my mother had too many children and was very abusive. My mother, Rose Brown, was hit by a car at a young age causing her to have several different mental health issues. By the time I was seven my mother had nineteen children. Because of her lack of ability to take care of her children my mother had to put us all in foster care.