Throughout my life, I experienced many events that would make most people unable to function socially, emotionally, or academically. These events include two divorces, five house relocations, and a transfer to a new high school during senior year. I consistently failed assignments and could not stay focused during class as my . Most teenagers would have given up here as the disappointment from both their parents and teachers would have destroyed their hopes for a successful future. However, this anguish became a catalyst for what would become a significant restructuring in both my demeanor towards schoolwork and my perspective on the future. Against all odds I was able to bounce back from the discouragement I had faced. I believe that this…
My mother struggled as a child. After she had turned 5 years old, she had begun helping around the house along with her two sisters and two brothers. Li started off by raking leaves to fuel the fire, pulling weeds, feeding the ducks, and simply just helping around the house in the morning before school and after school. In addition to the work, the education that she got wasn’t the greatest, but young Li continued to study and work hard. When my mother was a child, her days were so difficult and she never really had time to play or have fun with friends. However, even with all the work she and her family did, they could barely have enough clothes to wear and food to consume, and they only had a few beds! That’s simply the beginning. As she became a young adult, her workpile had increased.…
During school when 7th period rolls around we stare at that clock waiting for the bell to go off. High school is a fun time and part of your life that you won’t want to let go. Not only do you want to leave, but the fear of graduation is holding you back. In the movies the seniors can’t wait to graduate, but in life it’s not like that we don’t want to graduate as it may seem. It just means that we have to grow up and not be so childish and immature. We will have to get real jobs and not stay out till 4 O’clock on a Friday night because you will have to take everything seriously.…
From a very young age, Liz has had so many responsibilities. Not that she always did what was required of her, but just the fact that she had so many responsibilities as a young child. Her parents relied on her for so much. Among other tasks, she cleaned up after her mother (Murray 164), helped her father sneak out of the house (Murray 53). She was also responsible for getting herself to school because neither of her parents knew that she was not going and really were just indifferent. Although she was responsible for it, she never based her actions on that responsibility. Nonetheless, Liz had a lot of responsibility thrust upon her at a really young age. On the other hand, I have never really been responsible for much more than my school work, which may have come from the huge emphasis that my parents put on academics. My parents took care of me; they fed me, took me to school, and pretty much did anything that was needed for me. I never had to worry about anything, except for school work. These different levels of responsibility have caused Liz and I’s lives to manifest themselves differently. When Liz finally took charge her responsibility for school, she was able to handle it fairly easily because she was so used to handling different kinds of responsibility. When I finally was forced to be independent in coming to college, I had to make some adjustments because I had to accept responsibilities that I never had to worry about at home. Liz’s excessive amount of responsibility prepared her for the life that she is living now while my lack of responsibility at home required a significant lifestyle change. In this case, Liz is motivated to be responsible for her life because she has always been responsible for it. On the other hand, I am motivated to be responsible to show that I can be, but I have to work at it because of my…
According to Michelle Akers, “I think the challenge is, to take difficult and painful times and turn them into something beneficial, something that makes you grow.” Just like every human being, I have had my fair share of challenges to face. My parents were born and raised in Mexico. Being from the type of family both my parents had, education was not an option and no importance was taken toward it. They both dropped out of high school and began to work in factories to help their families with financial problems. They realized how hard it was to earn a living and to maintain a family without a proper education. When I was four years old and my sister was nine, my parents made the decision to send us to Brownsville, TX for a proper American education.…
I was born in the suburbs of the Bronx and raised in the Brooklyn, New York. At a young age, I never understood the amount of hard work my parents had gone through to raise me and give me a great life I have today. They emigrated from South Korea to this country in hopes of the American dream. They had their definition of the American dream as working hard to become successful. They were strong believers in that hard work would result in great results and rewards. My parents took huge sacrifices in order to make it to this great nation. They had left their families, their jobs, and their culture to start a new life. My father went from being a chemical engineer to making a small living as a delivery man for a clothing company while my mother worked as nurse in a small clinic in downtown Brooklyn. We didn’t live in the best of neighborhoods, but it was sufficient enough to provide shelter and food. It took a lot of pain and long hours for my parents to provide for me and they have taught me the most crucial life lessons. They told me that the most important lesson is life is to always put other people before you. They explained how if you are always there to help others and be there for another person, they will return the favor to you. This helped shaped my identity as to be a caring person who is always willing to help out those in need. Throughout the rest of my life, I would encounter this life lessons…
My wife and I moved out of my parents when I had just turned 18, and she was 19. Everyone told us that it would be too hard and that we should just wait. It’s been over a year and yes we struggle daily, sometimes it seems like even when we get back on our feet we fall another twenty yards but you just have to keep pushing on and continuing the path you want to live and if you are happy that’s all that matters. I think that is the message that I’d portray would be that, “yeah life’s hard, it has some downs but it also has some ups, it’s how you handle the bumpy road that will lead to the…
Growing up in a world that feels unwelcoming at such a young age, shapes a person in a way that makes her become more open with how she views the world. I believe that people who take things for granted and without having that restriction or worry become spoiled in the world. I didn't realize then, as a six year old, that I should have been grateful and lucky to be bilingual, that being different wasn’t bad, but special. Even today I have times when I feel that uneasy emotion of not being part of the group. I can’t change the person I was born as, where I was born, who I was going to live with or even have that decision to move across the world. Being different at a young age made me more aware and intrigued to learn. I was shy, introverted, and truly outcast from my classes. Through the years, I taught myself to learn something new each day and set small goals to try to talk to people, to get to know someone. Today, with telling myself to talk to classmates and teachers, I’ve gained long lasting friends who I can always go to with my…
Welcome to the front cover and introduction of my story, “I’m ‘That’ or I Get That Because I’m ‘This.’”. I grew up in a family where average wasn’t enough because my parents embodied the life lesson of hard work ethic and how much higher it gets you up the ladder than playing with the crowd on ground level. When I was younger, I used to get so frustrated when my parents said “You can do better” because I was so celebratory at where I was, I never wanted to go any higher. But as I’ve grown and took a look around, I see why my parents emphasized the word “better” all these years. My mom has been a religious minister for majority of my life, while also taking on the role as a personal banker full-time.…
“I didn’t think I could do it, but then I looked at what you were doing and I realized I could,” a friend sheepishly told me as she showed me her acceptance letter to a local college. My heart swelled with pride for her. I engulfed her in a bone crushing hug as the weight of her words washed over me. I could list a lot of moments the relate to my future goals. I could talk about awards won and accomplishments gained. It isn’t pieces of paper that tell me how smart I am that I am proud of. It isn’t statistics like being president of our senior class or one of the largest service clubs in my school that I hold onto. It is moments like the one with my friend. It is moments like the year before when I many days and late nights helping a friend with his scholarship essays because we knew that if he wanted to go to the big university he had his heart set on, he had to find a way to pay for it. His hug on graduation night, after he knew that his dream was becoming a reality, is one I will never forget.…
If it weren’t for those days in second grade I truly doubt that I would be where I am at academically. Without her I would I would not have had the drive to pursue things out of my comfort zone. And anyone who knows me know would say that there aren’t many legal things that I wouldn’t try. I am lucky to have a sister that was such a good role model for if Megan was not, I may have been lead down a path of corruption. Through all my years of growing up and becoming who I am today Megan has taught me how to be a scholar, an athlete, and an individual. She has gone unrecognized for all of these years, but I owe a lot to her. Though she would call me a nerd for it, but it's her fault that I love…
So when one becomes a teenager life becomes troublesome, . you You have this mixed feelings and thoughts inside you, and on top of that school is hell. You basically have a test every week and presentation and the schools has this weird system where if someone even said as much as a word or does something that’s not as planed they who’d get something like a strike and if one had to many strikes one who’d get something even worse, and it’s so easy to get a strike these days. So maybe teens can’t drive or work but they learn and can more than the average grown up, every teen I thought math 4 days a week and ever teen learns about religion in other country’s while the grownups learn more about how to do a specific thing in their line of duty. So teens know more about other culture and stuff like that, so I think teens are being thought so one day they might become good or even perfect at what they are doing, so in a way yeah teens are Amazing for being there every morning waking up early taking the bus or walking or even taking a taxi, taking every test and presentation and having these weird rules but anyways every one of us has gone through such a proses no matter how hard life as a teen is hard. But Sometimes one just has to do it for…
Not all of us are privileged, not all of us have to go through the same experiences that others do, and not all of us have the same way of approaching these issues. My parents divorce was one of the most significant challenges that I had to face. Some tend to focus more on the current situation than they would on their education, but I was able to overcome this. The first step was accepting the fact that not everyone will be a constant in your life because people tend to put their own desires and needs ahead of your own. It was also knowing that I will always have my father's support, even though it was difficult to remember this when I’m only able to see him on rare occasions and not every passing day. It didn’t affect me in the beginning…
“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.” By Carl Sagan. I want to be that known person, I want to be heard and I want to be successful and I will. All my life I have dedicated my time to succeed in school and make everybody proud. The most important person by having them proud of my achievements is my mom and I. All through elementary school, junior high, and just one more year of high school I have received many awards and always the best grades I could get. Making me and my mom happy and proud is truly one of the best achievements I have accomplished. My mom has always been there for me and always supports my decisions no matter what; she’s a single mom raising three kids on her own, putting food on the table and a roof over our head. I believe God blessed me with a great mom, I’m only seventeen years old with no job but I thank her for everything she does by helping around the house and taking care of the kids while I’m still maintaining excellent grades. She goes to school and goes to work and by me helping her with the house and the kids bring her a great deal of joy, but what really makes her day are my school achievements. I bring home good report cards, getting a gold card for having a 3.5 or higher GPA and being involved in the school, like sports, clubs, and leadership. Her knowing that I’m doing my best in school and being proud of me motivates me to keep doing what I’m doing.…
“There may be days when you get up in the morning and things aren’t the way you had hoped they would be. That’s when you have to tell yourself that things will get better. There are times when people disappoint you and let you down. But those are the times when you must remind yourself to trust your own judgments and opinions, to keep your life focused on believing in yourself. There will be challenges to face and changes to make in your life, and it is up to you to accept them. Constantly keep yourself headed in the right direction for you. It may not be easy at times, but in those times of struggle you will find a stronger sense of who you are. So when the days come that are filled with frustration and unexpected responsibilities, remember to believe in yourself and all you want your life to be. Because the challenges and changes will only help you to find the goals that you know are meant to come true for you.”…