My family of orientation is pretty blended, but stayed the same throughout most of my childhood. My family of orientation consisted of my mother, step father (who I call my dad), my half brother, and half sister. My mother married by step father when I was five years old and he was married to my mom until I was about seventeen years old. I took the Family of origin expressive atmosphere scale test and my score was very high, but that confuses me just a little bit. I feel like my family wasn’t as expressive as I wanted them to be growing up. If they were expressive though, it was only because they were angry at one another. If my siblings and I disagreed with my parents, we would be told we were wrong. My mom, at least, has gotten better at…
The field of substance abuse counseling is growing exponentially. With the opioid epidemic booming and synthetic drugs flooding the market, there is a dire need for counselors with education, training, and strong work ethics. But that is not why I am choosing to become a Substance Abuse Counselor, there is a little more to it. They say those that have lived it are the ones who can help others during their struggles. I am 45 years old, a mother to 3 beautiful children, one with special needs. I am also a granny to a beautiful little girl, and a wife to an amazing husband. All that has happened in the last 14 years of my life. However, the first half of my life was made up of abuse and addictions.…
Have you ever had a reoccurring challenge in your life? The one that sticks out the most is my challenge to still get on and ride with my knee. Every time I ride it could be my last. I still get back on every time though.…
I lived in Hollywood, FL for nine years to long. It was circumstantial how I wound up there. It was not a pleasant experience. I went to Florida niave. I thought that the blacks from different parts of the world got along. I was in for a rude awakening. My family goes back to be an American every since colonization. I felt like an outsider in America an I’m a veteran. I experienced prejudice and stereo typing from both the men an the women. I t would pain me to see how other black Americans were treated. Most of the black americans families migrated from Mississippi, Alabama and the Carolins. The majority of the Islanders lived in their own commities like Mirramor, Little Hatti and…
I am sure you find many letters coming across your desk from parents who have taken the opportunity to ‘brag’ about their child. I know mine won’t be the best, but I hope that I do my daughter justice at the end. As most parents do, especially with their first child, they keep a folder of milestones their child has reached throughout their years; a folder filled with report cards, love letters, photos, school projects, etc. When I look back at one of Morgan’s Kindergarten project “All about Me”, I couldn’t agree more with the saying on the front of her book exclaiming, ”There is nobody in the world exactly like me!”. It’s exactly how I feel about Morgan.…
My mother’s parents would always share stories with us about how their parents came to America from Italy and Germany. They would bring out old photo albums and tell us all about how different life was for them and how they held on to family cooking recipes and every Christmas we make the same dishes that their parents would make. My father’s parents would also share stories about Ireland and my grandpa would talk about what he experienced when he was in the war. Unlike the family I interviewed, I was brought up in a Christian household. Every Sunday the whole family would attend church together and then go out to eat after to talk about what we had learned. We would also pray every night before bed and were always told to give thanks throughout the day for the life we have been blessed with.…
All of my aunts and uncles just showed up. Nobody has said anything about Teddy, so I am thinking that he is at the other hospital with Willow (pg63). When I walk in the hallway I see Kim (pg 63).I am so happy to see Kim, but her mother came with her. Kim’s mother is very emotional, Kim says it’s just being a drama queen. Kim finally couldn’t take her mother's crying any longer, she yells at her mother to get her to stop crying. After Kim’s outburst she leaves her mother in the waiting room while she walks around the hallways. When Kim yelled at her mom, it reminded me of when i became her friend. When we were younger we hated each other, now she is my best…
The person i chose to interview was my mother, and the topic we chose was how her and my dad met. My parents were born in california, not anywhere out of california or america. It was a nice sunny day where my mom was dying of boredom, so the best thing she thought of was to go outside and explore nature.…
My family environment has influenced me a lot especially when my siblings were born. I am the oldest out of five, so I'm always look up to. I always had to make a good example and never show that I was scared. When my mom and stepdad had to work, I would take care of them until they came back while getting my schoolwork and practicing my instrument done too. I never really had a chance to be a kid, I always had to be a mother to my siblings. I would always wish for more time in the day for myself, Although watching them grow up from when they were small and started school for the first time made up for that loss time. I live up to a quote, "Be the master of your future, not the slave of your problems." My senior year I had to stop being…
This is an informal essay giving readers an insight on my support system as a child. The things that helped me feel safe as a child. Resources in the neighborhood that helped me grow and blossom. Insight on why I may think the way I do. The focus is to analyze me so I can put aside anything that may hinder me as a Social Worker.…
An addiction counselor has many roles; counselor is only one of them. Others include interventionist, mediator, advocate, change agent, adviser, and facilitator (Lecture Module 4, 2013). While treating a client those roles are constantly changing and are necessary to help a client to overcome addiction. In addition the counselor must be able to maintain a balance of ethical, moral, and legal behavior while treating their clients. This may seem easy; however there are often blurred professional boundaries present that the counselor is forced to navigate flawlessly or risk upsetting the balance between helping and hurting their client.…
Before i had a family, i dreamed of my "made up family", having a joyous time. Well that sure made me understand perception can alter your true life experiences when you go thru real situations. My point being, it was June of 2015 last year, and my small family and my mother planned to take a trip. My mother resides in New Mexico and we live in Las Vegas, so the demand for togetherness was of a longing feeling. One could say even mutual. When all the plans went thru we were on our way to Las Cruces,N.M. We were initially going to pick up my baby daughter. She had been with my mother for a few months and daddy was missing her. At this time i had'nt seen my family in 16 years and they were interested in meeting my wife and kids for the first…
Growing up with my mother, who was white and Peruvian, and her side of the family was damaging when it came to understanding my Black heritage and also understanding how to take care of my Black body. My mother always had my hair in braids because she didn’t know how to take care of it, whenever it was out my white family members would always play with it and call me a lion, my cousins called my braids ghetto, and I just remember laughing along with them, pretending like their words didn’t effect how I saw myself. When I started going natural it was a difficult process, instead of my once luscious curls I had dried damage ends which looked horrible to me, I often was depressed my freshman year because of my hair and my lack of knowledge and…
Personal background starts off small, it changes and grows over time into something big, it grows into an identity. Walking down the hallway at school, seeing someone standing alone, my first instinct is to make conversation, compliment, or even just smile at him or her. This instinct came from someone once telling me an act so small could turn a person's entire life around. As a kid, reading encyclopedias about random topics, consumed my time. Many days were spent coming home to find an injured wild animal in my dad's arms waiting to be saved. My dad would sit outside and draw animals, trees, and anything else he saw. Nothing excited me more than trying to draw whatever my dad drew, and as good as he did. Any assignment that was handed to…
Each and everyday people walk the halls of this school. You see people walking on the streets in their neighborhood. They are all walking forward. Why? That is what is normal. We have been doing it this “normal” way since humans could walk. Baby's first learning to walk don't walk backwards do they? No, they are biologically programmed to move forward. I wanted the breaking of my norm to be obvious. What better way than to walk backwards and go “against the crowd”.…