Ethnography of the “Blue House”: Plano Day Labor Center While making the drive on my way to school, my father decides to take a short detour to go pay his worker. It is early in the morning and still very grey outside which facilitated my usual slumber. This detour meant nothing more to me than simply that of a detour, but it wasn 't until I was suddenly awaken by the car being strangely rocked like that of a small raft in the sea. Being nearly eight years old, I 'm instantly on high alert and very confused. There is a man in the passenger seat saying hello to me as my dad pays him for a honest day 's worth in a moving job the day before, but surrounding the car are about 25 men eagerly trying to speak with my father. Not only was my early morning routine nap disrupted, I truly believed I woke up to a nightmare. As we drove away, my dad laughed telling me to say goodbye to the blue house. After this experience, I simply stated to my dad that I would never return to this place ever again. I was legitimately horrified and pledged to never return. As a kid, I could simply decide to ignore and choose to not care for what I had witnessed, but as I grew up, curiosity and acquired knowledge promoted awareness. I simply became intrigued, and decided to confront a childhood fear. I was not expecting for this fear to then transform into compassion, but while gaining exceedingly more information, I have grown a profound interest that I believe needs to be exposed to in our society.
Why should you choose the Blue Party to represent your needs as citizens of the United
We get back into the car. I breathe deeply. Through puffs of smoke, Thomas says, “That guy sounds like a dick.” We merge onto a different highway. The sun is rising. I think only of the Pacific Ocean, of the light on the water, of the sound of waves crashing over my feet. I remember kayaking on the ocean with my father and his friend. I was young, nine or ten. On top of the waves, my father told me that we were going to roll the kayak. He said that while we were under the water, I couldn’t let go of him. He said that I had to make him proud, that I would be in trouble if I embarrassed him in front of his friend. He said that my sister was too afraid to roll the kayak, but I was different, I was brave. Once we got under the water, dad kept flailing around. He tried to push me off of him, but my legs were locked around his chest. He was testing me, but I wouldn’t let go. My lungs burned. I told myself that I just needed to hang on ten more seconds, ten more seconds. I thought I could hear my dad’s voice under the waves. Someone was under the waves with us. Arms pulled me away from dad, but I fought them. The arms were too strong, they pulled me into the air and held me above the waves. I thought that dad would be furious that I had let go, but once he rolled the kayak back up, dad looked afraid. His friend asked him what had happened. Dad said he wasn’t strong enough to roll us back up, that he couldn’t breathe, that he
“Baby, I am not thrilled about you going to Oklahoma especially by yourself” my mother says dramatically. “They’ve been having all those really bad tornadoes lately and I’m worried.” She looked so woeful. “Mom, I will be fine. Pray about it.” She laughed and said “Have a great flight and call me as soon as you land”. See she was worried about the tornadoes, but I was more worried about the flight since this was my very first flight. Not only that, but also I have a terrible fear of falling coupled with extremely high anxiety. So I was sure I was in for an interestingly traumatic trip. Boarding the plane was intensely confusing, but I managed to find my seat without too much trouble. Of course I requested a window seat. The logic I used to support this decision was that if the plane was crashing I needed to see it, I do not know exactly how this would help but it made me feel a little better. When the flight took off I was shaking so hard the passenger next to me noticed. He was an older Caucasian man with a friendly smile conjoined with a strong southern accent. “Lil’ missy, is this your first time flying?” “Yes Sir it is.” He looks at me with a smile and says “You’ll be fine. You should enjoy the view. I see you have your Bible with you.” I said “yes sir I do.” He placed his hand on my shoulder and said “believe that He is going to take care of you and enjoy his creation.” The word
It’s morning now and I woke up my little brother. He knew what was coming but I knew he wasn’t ready. We were eating our small breakfast and then we heard the diesel engines of the trucks. I grabbed our coats and outside we went. Forced to leave our home because of something stupid. My brother noticed that there were
Many numbers and maps relate to American History- the events can cause the area to have some interesting background information. An example is the states that are bordering Mexico (Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California) because they have a greater chance of demographics showing a major amount of hispanic/latino people because they can easily cross the border. Is in the Northeast (New York, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Rhode Island) tend to have bigger populations because that where Columbus first located. As a result less people live in the Midwest, South, and the Northeast. Many U.S. states specialize in agriculture, as result in places like Idaho and Oklahoma where farming is big, less people find a need to attend school.
I was around 12 years old when i heard my mother yell my name from the kitchen. Alarmed, i ran to the kitchen and saw her holding my step-father back. I was very confused, it must have been very serious if she called me into one of their argument. While still holding him back trying to keep him away from me, she told me to call the police,”Call 911!”,she said. I ran to the first phone i could find; they were all ripped from the cord. I didn’t know what to do, i couldn’t go back to the kitchen where i was exposed to my step-father. I ran outside to our next door neighbor; knowing they had their huge pitbull unleashed i hesitated to take another step. What was i going to do? Go back to the kitchen and tell my mom i can’t call the police because
I woke up to the sound of sirens, getting louder and louder each second. A state of panic filled my neighborhood. My heart dropped to my stomach as I watched my neighbor get strapped onto a stretcher and rushed out of the neighborhood to the nearest hospital. As I sat there, holding my neighbor’s two young boys in my arms, I realized that those sirens had awakened me and opened my eyes to a world that a child could not understand. In this single moment, I was maturing and preparing myself for adult-like responsibilities.
Around a year ago I was awake during the night and I wanted to outside. I knew we weren’t allowed to, but I didn’t care. I was done caring about my life and trying to stay alive, I needed to get fresh air. I was hoping that I would get caught and I would get punished, or maybe even kill me. I got up and everyone in my barrack was mostly awake and everyone was telling me not to go. I brushed off what they were saying. I carefully stepped outside. I felt the cold air touch my skin. It felt great. I closed my eyes and pictured I was at home with my family. An arm grabbed me and pulled me to the side of the barrack and interrupted my thoughts. “ Hey!” a man whispered. “ What are you doing out here! You aren’t supposed to be out after dark.” It was too dark to make out the man's face.
On August 16th, 2009, I was in a car accident that was life changing. Earlier that day, my mother, sister, and I were visiting old friends in a neighboring town. In the evening, we drove back and the calm car ride lulled me to sleep. Suddenly, I was thrown against my seatbelt and opened my eyes to see the white mass of airbags in the front seat and smelt smoke filling the air. For a split second, my mother had fallen asleep. In that moment, our car had gone off the road and into a ditch where train tracks ran parallel to the street. She frantically unbuckled her seatbelt and shouted at my sister and me to get out of the car. I could feel the gravel shifting beneath us as the car slowly descended onto tracks. Still disoriented, we
If you’ve read this far, you will now learn a bit about me. In retrospect, this reading has brought new knowledge and clarity to a very stressful situation I was in. I had left home in 1990 and was in a shelter. I remember bits and pieces of the shelters, but there was an… uncertainty about the location, almost a fear. As I was young, and naïve, I was not aware of the
Have you ever entered a gas station expecting to walk out with a Kit Kat bar, but actually end up walking out with the image of a bloody man stuck in your head? Obviously this is not a situation that most people are put in, let alone a twelve-year-old, as I was at the time of this occurrence. It is safe to say that this was not one of the better nights of my life, but it certainly was one of the most shocking. It was that night, that I believe was my “rite of passage”, due to what I had witnessed. Although I was only twelve years old at the time, I feel like I had to force myself to grow up that night, just so that I would not get overwhelmed by the bloody man, with a missing ear, repeatedly screaming “call 9-1-1!” The reason why I feel like that was my “rite of passage” is because I saw a man who appeared to be on the verge of death, my parents were not with me when this occurred, and for the first time in my life, I
A few days ago, I was walking to my car after class by myself. It was dark outside and I couldn’t really see much except for what the parking lot lights lit up. I saw a man walking towards the same parking lot as I was and I began worry. I started thinking to myself that I should have waited for my friend that was in my class; that way there would be at least two of us. It turns out that the man’s car was in the same parking lot as mine but, I had nothing to worry about. His main concern was probably just to go home.
It was five o’clock in the morning and dark; the sun had not yet risen over the horizon. We had just gotten in the car because it was finally time to leave for Kissimmee, Florida. It’s a sixteen hour drive from our house to Kissimmee and I decided I wanted the first driving shift to Nashville, Tennessee. After making sure everyone was in the car and ready, I put the key in the ignition and turned it to start the car, but instead of starting the car made a horrific shuddering noise. With a perplexed look, I turned around and ask my mom what to do. She told me to “Try it again.” So, I did and once again the car made the same shuddering noise and failed to start. Our summer vacation was already not going as planned, but thirty minutes later we
It was a brisk cold morning in Alaska. Three of my cousin and I woke up to the birds chirping. It was a little before church services began. My cousins and I asked our parents if we could ride our bikes and scooter down to the Metro Cafe to get hot chocolate topped with whip cream and sprinkles. They said, ” yes just watch for cars.” Then we left the house, we could hear the faint sounds of the children playing at the park that was across the street from the church. Once we got moving one of my cousins had to pee so we stopped in at the church where her mother volunteered, so she could use the bathroom. While she was in the bathroom my other cousins and I traded what we were riding. I, unfortunately, was stuck with
They pulled me and my father all the way from our house to the outside, then throw us into their 7 seats van. They forced us to sit on the ground in the van. There was one driver, one sat next to him. One on our roll and two watched us at the back of the van. About 45 minutes drove, we arrived at a farmland with two shabby rooms isolated on the other side. That was a remote area and I could not see anybody, neither any voice of car driving. It was badly silent.