When arriving, I had to park some blocks away from the school. I’m getting closer when I realize that there is a huge crowd of people outside the entrance of the school. I was confused. I see officers with their Colt M4 Carbine and their Glock 22 out. I notice Officer Johnson. I ask what’s going on? Johnson replies “the school nurse called dispatch and said that there were shots being fired in the office but we have lost contact with her, the first gun shot was at 9:34 AM”. I start to drift away and Officer Johnson notices that, he says “keep your mind clear and force right now. I see more back up coming. Officer Johnson and I start to head where all the officers are meeting at.…
When I was 13, I had to go through a transition that tested my character tremendously. Let’s rewind to my seventh grade year, which was four years ago. Talk was going around the little private school I attended in Ardmore, Oklahoma that my family was moving away. I had not heard anything about this, I had no idea what anyone was talking about, and I was definitely not happy with being the subject of everyone’s gossip. I heard stories about where and why my family was moving that you would not believe. I recall one girl who said that my family of five was moving to Australia because my dad was a Mexican immigrant who was running from the government. If you knew anything about me, you would know that story was completely bologna; my dad was not Mexican, he was the whitest white boy you could ever lay eyes upon, we were not running from the government, and we were definitely not moving to Australia. Eventually, I found out the rumors of us moving were true. We were moving to Durant, Oklahoma at the end of my seventh grade year.…
For every teenager a drastic change to their form of life like moving schools can be catastrophic. For me it became a challenge, new school, friends, teachers, and a new environment. Life as I knew it was about to change and I could not assimilate it.…
When I was sitting in the mcdonald's near my house, I observed all my surrounding and people. I sew a young man sitting there to do his homework, and he was working so hard to finish his assignment. While I was trying to shoes myself over someone, I feel that it’s uncomfortable because I hadn’t done this before. If I were him, I would feel exhausted since I could see him having a lot of homework. In addition, I would use my tablet to help me to do my homework because I could get faster solution for my homework. While he was focusing on his homework, I sew people that surrounding him was talking loudly. If I were him, I would rather to do my homework at home since I could get better environment to work and better internet speed. After I sew…
I didn't grow up in the most conventional household. My parents both worked and we consistently had babysitters and nannies taking care of us most of my childhood. My mom was the “breadwinner” she had always made significantly more than my dad and there was really no reason for my dad to work in the first place, he really just did it because he loved it. As my 4 brothers and I got older it got progressively harder on my parents being away from home so much. When a job opportunity with less hours and a sizable amount of money came to my mom she was quick to consider it. She eventually made her decision, consulting my dad very little, she made the decision to move across the country to a place we all had never been to.…
I remember when they kicked us out. It was only a couple of weeks ago. We Indians were minding our own business when the troops first came. They dragged us out of our tents and sent us walking with only the clothes on our back. My family decided to go to the Oklahoma region along with our tribe. And so here we are, walking through forests, woods, and plains on The Trail of Tears, looking for our destination. We have been walking since, and our clothing can do nothing against the harsh rain, snow, and coldness.…
The memory of my first big move is still fresh in my mind. I remember rushing to school, excited to tell my friends the news: I was moving from New Jersey to Phoenix, Arizona! After I brought my friends up to date, I proudly displayed my new disposable camera. Together we took many pictures, some of them meaningful and some comical. There were pictures of myself smiling and giggling with my friends and some of my teacher’s feet. As the moving date was slowly approaching, I began to feel resentment. I started hating the idea of moving to a new unknown place where I would have no friends. As it turned out, making new friends was not as hard as I thought because I was younger and I chose my friends superficially. However, I did have to learn to adapt to a new school and curriculum. I was not…
Shouts and laughter echo throughout the kitchen as my grandparents recount stories of growing up in Mexico as young adults. Everyone’s eyes light up with animation as family members contribute to the conversation while eating homemade tamales and menudo. At each of my family holiday gatherings, the dinner goes beyond the consumption of a home cooked meal. These family gatherings are very important to me and have contributed to who I am today.…
There have been several occasions where I’ve felt my body respond to an emotionally charged situation, but most recently, I would have to say is going back to school. I am a 34 year old, single mother of two. I didn’t graduate from a typical high school due to issues at home but did wind up obtaining my H.S. Diploma from an adult high school. My family does not play much of a role in mine or my children’s lives. My ex was abusive towards me for ten years before I finally had enough and left, taking my kids to a domestic violence shelter until re-gaining my independence, currently providing them with a beautiful home. Although this is typical for many, I am the only person in my family to make an attempt at college and hopefully will be…
Next stop, onion picking! Samantha planted close to a hundred onions, we pulled them out of the ground and it made you cry like a baby. They smelled so strong even though they were not yet fully grown. The farm used to have an apple tree but it had so many apples on it that it split in half. I learned that when you pick onions you should pick one with the biggest top and also use a shovel because they do not like being pulled out of the ground. Samantha screamed when she pulled her onion out of the ground, a bunch of worms accompanied the onion. While Samantha was struggling her grandpa said to her…
I furiously ripped a sheet of paper out of my notebook and glared at the blank lines I had to fill. My mom assigned a creative writing paper to my daily schoolwork load. Up until seventh grade all I had known was the public school system. In public school, I had acquired an unhealthy habit of getting away with the least amount of work while still maintaining an above average grade. I had the assumption that school would be even easier, having my mom as my teacher. To my surprise, my mom actually expected more effort from me than any of my other teachers in public school. My mom rudely awakened me to the fact that true success did not come without struggle.…
I was born and raised in a small town in northern Minnesota called Isle. We had a rounded population of about 700 people, and everybody knew one another. The school I had gone to was very small. Each graduating class was probably around 50 students, and every class was fit into one small building located in the heart of Isle. I attended there till 6th grade, when my mom and dad approached my brother and I with the news that we were going to be moving to Iowa to be closer to most of our family. The news was frightening to me, the fact of knowing that i was going to have to leave all of my close friends and basically start my social life over.…
My proudest moment would have to be when I passed the two-STAAR tests that allow me to move on to high school. My history with state tests has never been too great. I moved to Texas in fourth grade, I was just starting to get used to everything. I failed my first STAAR tests. For fifth graders, passing was a requirement. Since I was moving on to a new grade level , I had to pass. Unfourtonaly, I failed, causing me to have to retake the tests. By the second try, I passed, barely. In sixth grade, I failed the STAAR tests, again. I had to have an elective removed and replaced with an extra math class. Seventh grade, I finally passed. If I would’ve passed in sixth grade, I could have taken art in seventh grade and would’ve been able to be apart…
The road for my junior year was definitely somewhere in Georgia on a dirt path through the hills, a bump doesn’t really do it justice. To Begin this year was not the greatest at home, my parents and I got into it a few times one of which ended in me attempting to live independently, getting my first job, and having to return home. A few weeks later a night when going out with two of my buddies, we came back to our car getting robbed startling the robbers as we approached they began shooting at us and my friend took a bullet to the stomach luckily missing his main organs, he recovered well and is doing great now. This shook my focus on school and oriented it more to figuring out what life was about and finding peace with it after seeing such terror. These events over that school year effectively killed my academic motivation…
When I was little my parents got divorced. As that happened they said I had to move schools. I would have never thought this would ever happen, but my parents just decided to move where it was halfway from work both ways, so they decided Royalton. Moving to Royalton was very scary, but also a great, fun change. It was scary being the new kid, but I worked my way around it. There was a bunch of different changes I went through. I also had a very fun time living at royalton since fourth grade and to graduating. It was the middle of the school year after Easter break when I started attending Royalton.…