Darmonte Golli Day

My story isn't quite special really, although I have lived under some unique circumstances. My mother was a single parent raising my little sister and I until she married my Stepdad in 2007. I was five at the time and had no father figure until then. From that time on he became my dad. Our new family moved twice before living in a small city where we stayed for 6 years. This is where I made close friends, achieved academic excellence, went to church regularly, life was great or so I thought. What seemed to be our perfect life was turned upside down as hard times fell upon us. I was now the oldest of five younger siblings, my mom wasn't healthy, and my dad had to struggle to keep things going.

I lived in a small trailer home with my mom, dad, older brother and younger brother. I loved that little trailer, even if it was not the best, I still called it home. Even though I loved that place, there were times when I noticed that my parents would struggle financially and they wanted us to have more than a little home, they wanted the best for us. There were also personal difficult obstacles we had to overcome as a family. As a result, my mom went back into college to study for a Registered Nurse. I didn’t spend as much time with my mom as one child wishes they could, but I knew she was working lots of hours and going to class just to be able to give us the life she thought we deserved. The same applies for my dad, I knew he would come home from work in pain, exhausted, but he was doing it all for his kids. As I was growing up and noticing these things about them, I began to admire them and loved how

Hello everybody my name is Yolanda Page. I am a thirty-five year stay at home mom. My whole world revolves around my family. My fiancée and I have eight children in the age ranges of two to eighteen years old. I thank God for blessing me with such a wonderful family. It takes a whole lot of hard work to maintain such a large family. We are maintaining by the grace of God. My fiancée and I recently moved our family from our hometown in Memphis, Tennessee to Atlanta, Georgia. We chose to move to Georgia because we felt that needed start over somewhere else after experience so much loss at home. In the last three years we lost both sets of our parents and I was diagnosed with chronic congestive heart failure. Through it all I thank God

As a child, I was quiet and withdrawn. I taught myself to read when I was three, and spent most of my time reading instead of playing with other children. I understood very early that I was different from others at school. I didn’t have to pay for lunch, something I found (and to be honest, still find) completely mortifying. My father was almost never home, always trucking all over the country in an effort to keep our family afloat. When other kids talked about their dads in school, I often found myself feeling jealous. I, too, wanted a dad who could teach me how to ride a bike or throw a ball. I also understood that it was impossible for me to have that, because my father worked around the clock to keep my family from going hungry. I realized that in order to achieve the things that I wanted to, i would have to take the initiative and do it myself. I borrowed my sister’s bike (although it was much too tall for me to use comfortably), and I practiced riding it until i knew i was better at it than any other 7 year

A very painful and enduring time in my life was when I was fifteen years old and my father told me that I would never succeed in school or college. Ever since then, I have always felt that I could never be smart enough for college and that I would probably just fail all of my courses that I had planned to study. If it was not for my mom, who highly supports me with going to college, I probably would not be attending college this year. I think having other positive family members has really helped me to overcome my fears of failing my classes in college and that I am smart enough to succeed in college and my life.

I have overcome many obstacles within my life and I am proud of where I am today. To start, my full name is Samantha Heart LeClair. I was brought into this world on December 21st 1995, in Kingston. I moved to Sydenham for four years at which time my family returned to Kingston. I have attended three elementary schools, two high schools and now two colleges. I am currently taking the Community Service Worker (CSW) program at Trillium College. In elementary school, I played soccer and basketball, and was involved with the track team. For extracurricular activities, I tried hip-hop dance classes, ballet classes and piano classes. My family is limited, but the ones who are an active part of my life mean the world to me. I was raised to believe family comes first and in the end, family will be there. Throughout my life journey, I have come to realize this is very accurate. My family consists of my mom, brother, stepdad and son. My mother is my best friend. She has always been there to support every decision and bring light on my dark days. My brother is three years older than I; we have had many falling outs, but he is still one of my closest friends. My stepdad (Dan) isn’t just a stepdad; he is my dad. Dan has been a better father figure than my biological father, which is why I consider him my actual father. It takes more than just creating a life to be a father; it takes good parenting, patience and love to be one. My son, Noah, is an amazing blessing. He is what

Being raised by a single mother has taught me to be responsible as well as owning up to my mistakes and dealing with the consequences maturely. My mother prepared me for life by teaching me how to cook and clean.This type of lifestyle calls for more stressful situations and disappointments, but this has only taught me to turn these situations into life changing lessons to shape a better future. Growing up in a single parent household increased my maturity level by teaching me to be more responsible, independent, and helped me solve specific problems in handle tough situations i believe this will shape me to become a better stronger person for my

Being raised by a single father was hard, especially since I was oldest child and only girl. My mother left when I was three years old. This left me with a lot of responsibility. I had to grow up fast.

Allow me to introduce myself. I am Tanequa Cox. Born and raised in Miami, Florida now 30 years of age, I am the older of two children from my loving mother and late father. My mother who is also my best friend sacrificed her life to ensure a contented lifestyle for us, by working hard. She instilled values into her two beautiful children, which lead us to be career oriented individuals, who is obstinate and driven to break generational bondages. In addition, my mother keeps me saintly; believing once I discover my purpose in life, set realistic goals, and pursue them. Goals such as continuing my education, land the career of my choice, travel the world, and form a healthy family.

I have been taught right from wrong at a young age and I was given the option to decide what I want to do with my life. This means that my mom didn’t give me many rules, curfews, or restrictions on anything because she trusts that I will make the right decision. She wants me to experience going out with friends and having fun because if she wouldn’t let me, she knew that I would find a way to go out anyway and she doesn’t want me to end up the way that she did. My mom is my person of influence and the person that I want to be like. I never give up on something that I want, I overcome any challenging obstacles that are sent my way, and I always try to push harder and do the extra work that other people wouldn’t do. I try to get the best grades that I am capable of, be as involved with the school as I can, and make money for myself as well. My mom didn’t choose to have me and she didn’t have to but she did and my ultimate goal in life is for her to be proud of me and see me succeed and go off to college because she

I grew up in Turkey and I had a big family. Family is plays important part in our society. Many people around gave me constant advice all the time. Those advices was about most likely telling me what i should do and why i should do what i am doing. The best advice I received came from my mother. My mother always tells me that if you educate yourself, you will have a prominent place in society and you will gain respect from others. Learning does not have limits, and the more you knowledge that you accumulate the more successful you will be. From the day I started the school, my mother was always there for me. She always supported me. When I failed, she was there to comfort me, and she explain failure and push me to proud on.

If I wasn’t raised by my godparents, I don't know where I would be right now. I would often think where I would be in life if I stayed with my mother. Now, my mother wasn’t a bad person or anything when I was young. She was just a teen mom, unexperienced basically. My mother and my Godmother met at a fair, my godmother saw my mother struggling trying to calm me down. She decided help, they made conversation and later found out that my godmother was my father’s

This obstacle, of seeming to lose a father figure every time I blinked, seemed huge last year. Now that I am about to delve into my senior year I have realized that I have yet to become a horrible kid or have done something to deter the successes I have had in my life. A father has not been necessary to me in order to live a fulfilled life like I have been told by society, all I really needed was a supportive family and that is something I have always had. My mother learned to be both parents, always helping me with my problems while my grandmother helped raise me for a short period of time too. My aunt Avalon, who I always fought with, was there for huge parts of my life also. I did not need a father figure to thrive because I had so many mother figures to help me

When I was young I didn’t have a father figure in my life, it was my mother raising five children all on her own. We lived in a fairly poor housing project which was made up of blacks and whites; there was not much diversity in our neighborhood. My mother worked part time and went to college part time, which left my siblings and me fending for ourselves a lot of the time. My brother who was the oldest treated us as if he were the man of the house and did what he could to keep us safe. I don’t feel as though my mother invested a lot of time or commitment with us, which caused some emotional development issues among us all. One thing I do know is she always took the time to be sure we attended church every Sunday which we all looked forward to. Most of my young childhood days were chaotic and dysfunctional which made me sad and unsure about how I could trust anyone. I have suffered some childhood trauma which later turned into anxiety while in my teenage years.

One day when I was seven years old, my mother gave my sister and I a gift. We were in the living room when my mother told me I got the gift not because I deserved it, but because my sister did well in her exams. I knew I was not getting good grades at school. I did accept it, but I still tried because my mother constantly told me to. I worked hard at school for my mother. As a child, I wanted her to acknowledge I was working hard even if I was not as great as my sister. My mother did not acknowledge me and everyone I met told me to work harder. Consequently, my life became centered on school. I once asked myself if the school fees my mother paid for me was