A Boy and the Death of His Best Friend

Every night as I put Teagan to bed, after we’ve brushed her teeth, read her my “goodnight moon” we’ve sang our ABCs and you are my sunshine, we pray. Tonight she wanted to say the prayer. She prayed that “Dipstick and Momma and Beaner (herself) and DD (Daley) Uncle bubby (Arden) and Berky (Berkeley) and Casey and Cassidy all had sweet dreams. She then told God, “God, please tell grammy and poppy to have sweet dreams and i hope they are dancing on the clouds in Heaven.” Then she climbs under the covers and snuggles up to dipstick in my bed. I tell her “Mommy will be in bed in just a little bit. I love you.” And I kiss her on the forehead and tuck her in. My parents died in a driveby shooting when i was 20. T was only 3. They were a part of the

Why would you want to move to the Mayan Riviera? The answer is why wouldn’t you? Just look at the cover of this book and the pictures within (which I wish were larger to enjoy the beauty) and you’ll find yourself ready to pack your bags and relocate. However hold on as this is in another country and there are a lot of questions and things to consider. Herein lies all the answers one could ever need to move to Playa de Carmen. Manny has done his research and in turn has given us an outstanding resource covering everything we need to know to move to Mexico. From the joys of living there whether in retirement or working adults with children he covers how to get there, what to expect as well as how to find everything once we are there. I loved

When you first think of a serial killer or you think of a psychopath you realize that they both have something in common even though they have different words to describe similar characteristics of a “monster”. John Wayne Gacy had an abusive childhood and struggled with his sexuality at a very young age, which these factors helped him become the person he did.

Within the memoirs of “This Boy’s Life, “The Other Wes Moore” and “Those Winter Sunday’s, the fathers in the first two stories were abusive to their wives. The mothers were somewhat tolerant at first then decided to find a better way of living for both herself and her child. In the third story, there was only a father, so the parent in that story was portrayed differently. The mothers in the first two stories grew up differently. The first mother was born and raised in the U.S and the second mother was born in Jamaica and came to the U.S at age 3. Although both mothers had different upbringings, and were parents during different times, their values were the same. It was important for them to show their child(ren) right from wrong. It was also

I read Steve Almasy and Carma Hassan “South Carolina school shooting: 6-year-old victim dies” It was written on October 1st and I found it on CNN. In a South Carolina Elementary School shooting a 6-year-old boy wounded has died, his mother said Saturday. The boy's name is Jacob Hall he suffered massive blood loss due to a hit in the femoral artery. The blood loss led to a major brain injury. Jacobs mother Renae announced his death in a Facebook post. The 14-year-old boy suspected of the shooting at Townville Elementary School was charged Friday with three counts of attempted murder. The shooting suspect, a 14 year old boy, on friday was charged with three counts of attempted murder. The boy also is connected with the murder of his father which

It was the late afternoon , still quiet around the house , I felt like I was married to two people who were mad at me . I heard a car pull up , I looked through the window , it was Trever about to come in. I beat him to the door walking outside , hoping for some news. “ Hey Trever.” He had a not so happy look on his face , I told him to come , without

One month later my mom and I are standing in the living room playing with my little brother James when someone knocks on our door. My mom hustles to the door to see who it was. The person standing at the door introduced himself to us and said his name is Ted. Mother asked him why he was here and he said, “I’m sorry to tell you this but we got a report that your husband and son died at war.” At that moment all my hope was lost, and it felt like my life was over and it hasn’t even begun. My mom fell to her knees and started bawling her eyes out. I rushed down there to comfort her, and we just sat there for a little bit in the agony of knowing that part of our lives is gone and we have no choice about it.

I stood up, looked the jock in the eye and shouted, “Stop it! How would you feel if everyone was making fun you?” Then quickly I ran to the nearest adult and explained all that had happened. They tracked the bully down and let's just say he was in deep trouble. I looked side to side frantically searching for Tommy, and worried for his well being. With the help of some friends, I soon found him in the corner of our library hunched over crying. I myself had never experienced such a traumatic crisis. Calmly I tapped him on the shoulder and lead him to the nurse's office trying to keep my own tears in. With much confusion, he looked up at me and said something I will never forget “Why did you decide to stand up for me, you barely know me? In that moment I looked back at him and responded “I believe in Courage, that when we go out of our comfort zones it can truly impact someone else. I also know that if something like this ever happened to me I too would want someone to stand up for me.” He smiled, dried his bright blue eyes, and simply said: “Thank

I was so scared that my father would come back for another blow up. I then heard the stairs getting louder like my mother was step in down the old wooden steps. My mother walked over to me sat on the window seat with me and held me tight, she was started tell gn me riddles to get my mind off of my father, several long hours later my father walked up to us crying and sobbing over what had happened he said,”I'm sorry about this incident, I've just been so stressed with work and home that I don't know who I am anymore,” I told my father I loved him and forgive him. Ever since this day it has been drilled in my memory and hurts me every time I remember. “ see kid”, said the stranger, I've had some tough times in this house and you are going to go through tough times just like me. After the tour of the house the man had thanked the family for letting him remorse from the house. The father had shut the door and locked it. I thought

“Every year more than 3.6 million referrals are made to child protection agencies involving more than 6.6 million children,” (Child Abuse Statistics, 2017). In This Boy’s Life by Tobias Wolff, we discover the desperate, harsh, and cruel life of a boy named Jack. The novel begins with the young boy acting out negatively to catch his mother’s inattentive eye. He has no one to notice his behavior, either good or bad. He earnestly desires a place in his mother preoccupied life and spends his time jockeying for this spot. In this gut wrenching memoir, a young boy named Jack has experiences a harsh life filled with abuse and no discipline, has a lack of

Death and dying is a natural and unavoidable process that all living creatures will experience at some point in life, whether it is one’s own person death or the death of a close friend or family member. Along with the experience of death comes the process of grieving which is the dealing and coping with the loss of the loved one. Any living thing can grieve and relate to a loss, even children (Shortle, Young, & Williams, 1993). “Childhood grief and mourning of family and friends may have immediate and long-lasting consequences including depression, anxiety, social withdrawal, behavioral disturbances, and school underachievement” (Kaufman & Kaufman, 2006, p. 61). American children today grow up in cultures that attempt to avoid grief and

Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn (1884) presents the conflicting issue between a young boy’s heart and his reaction to the hypocrisy of society around him. The different characters that besiege and envelop Huck’s life act as Twain’s vessels to display his often criticized principles and thoughts about slavery, truth and morals. Through Twain’s complex principles, Huckleberry Finn (1884) suggests to us that Huck’s main conflict is the battle between his deformed conscience and sound heart. Huckleberry Finn shows the reader that this main conflict is formed from the hypocrisy of the truth and lies told by Huck and society, the conflict between civilization and natural life, and the issue of race.

When I turned 11-years-old my whole childhood began to change my life went from being perfect to everything but perfect. One day I came home to hear the news my father, my best friend; my hero was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer. Not knowing the struggle my family was about to take on I just began to cry. I had a million things running through my head what’s going to happen? Will everything be okay? Why him? What is going to happen? With all these things rushing through my head all I could do was cry not knowing this was least worse to come.

My beautiful glowing wife of 20 years. We --- well she --- had always planned to travel in her old age. She had banked on us travelling together. We had planned a lifetime together; we had built a family together. What would happen now? My eyes began to water and my nose stung as I thought of her living to the edge of her life without me to comfort her in times of grief and loneliness. The only cure I found for my pain was oblivion. This time however, instead of more peaceful, the room grew darker as I closed my eyes --- darker and so alone. That night I laid curled up under the sheets of my oh so comforting hospital bed, shivering. Life hits

The phone rang again. Hoping for good news, yet again I was disappointed. It was my mom; she said she was following our pastor to my grandmother’s house. She said, “We are going to tell Grandma he’s gone”. I knew this would be one of the hardest things to do; it was her birthday after all. The three of us jumped in the car. We drove up to Grandma’s house. I remember Tosha running into the house and falling into her arms. Everyone tried to pull themselves together, but how could this be? This had never happened to us before. The wheel was broken.