Examples Of Autoethnography

Something in my stomach was telling me I would not see him. I did not tell anyone this though just in case I was wrong. But I was right I always have a way of knowing these things. He heard a knock on the door. A feeling of relief washed over everyone except me. The person at the door was the only policeman in town and Frank the town leader. My mom could not keep it together. It is a hard sight to see when your mom is sad. The person you look up to when you are a kid is crying. That can mess a 6 year old kid up. The time that would take place next went from 0 to 100 so fast. We cremated my dad's body and moved. My mom picked texas because it had good schools. We did not have any family though and sometimes I felt as if that was a bad decision. My mother would not tell me how my dad died until I was 16. Not living without a dad can be hard. When it is at the crucial age of 6. You need a good role model. My brother became my dad if he liked it or not. Everything that happened in my life seemed like a blurr. The fact my dad was dead never really hit me. But it hit me so hard and so fast. It was like a brick wall. I started almost failing my classes, sleeping all the time, eating a lot, not exercising, moping all the time. I still suffer from it today. Back then though I wanted to die. But it is so much better. I learned that I held my mom accountable and my dad for

I was only 6 at the time and didn’t have any money of my own, but this year I had the opportunity to buy everyone gifts. For my mom, I got her something I know she would love because it was from me. Everyone has opened their gifts and we’re finally down to my moms. She picks up my gift and shouts “Woohoo” in excitement. “Thank you ladybug, I love it so much, we’re going to go there today” she says to me. It was an Old Navy gift card.

My great-grandmother was the matriarch of my family. When I was in seventh grade, around thirteen years old, she passed away due to breast cancer. This misfortune created an extremely difficult time for me because, not only was I adjusting to the environment of junior high, but many other issues were occurring in my life; this was the third death that I was having to deal with. Unfortunately, one of the previous deaths (that I was still trying to hurdle through and come to terms with), had occurred almost exactly a year before the passing of my great-grandmother. The second death that I had gone through occurred only one or two months before my great-grandma has passed. All of this turmoil created numerous internal conflicts for me, but also taught me a key lesson to keep note of, for the rest of my life.

Losing a grandparent at the age of 11 and younger was hard enough but losing one at the age of thirty-five hurt just as much. My grandmother is still living, I wasn't as close to them as I was to my other grandparents but there was still a relationship that was built throughout my lifetime. I had the chance to visit my grandfather while he was in the hospital. Regretfully when I went to see him he was too ill to have a conversation with, but my grandmother reassured me that it was ok because he knew I was there. My grandfather was cremated, this was the first time I attended a funeral where I saw a box of ashes holding someone who I loved. His funeral consisted our close family members and my grandfather's remains were placed in a mausoleum. His death affected all of us in one way or another, this was the first time I saw my dad cry. It makes me sad that he is no longer with us but glad he is no longer

My maternal aunt gathered us together and we all sat on the couch. She turned to my mother and told us she had cancer. I looked at my aunt and I did not know what to say or how to respond. Three months later, my father received a phone call from his sister telling him that my pregnant cousin, Elizabeth, was diagnosed with leukemia and had to give birth to her premature baby. She and I grew up in the same house in Arizona and what hurt me the most was not being able to be with her during this difficult time. When we went to visit her in Arizona, my dad told us before entering the hospital room that he did not want us to cry in front of her. I was scared to enter. I did not know what to say to her but I knew I had to be strong. We stayed there for the holiday season but we never celebrated the holidays, that was too

There is one loss in my life that affected many aspects of my life for many years, the divorce of my parents. I was in barley entering the first grade and the tender age of five, soon to turn six, when my parents spent their last night as a married couple. I do not have many memories of my parents as a couple but I do remember the day my Daddy left. He was a policeman and I watched as his cruiser drove away from our family home. I remember my mom crying and not being willing to console me or explain to me what was happening. All I knew is there was a fight, my dad left, it seemed different than other times when he left, and my mom was crying. Everything about my life changed in the blink of a five year old’s eyes which is what makes this loss so significant in my life.

I have lost my grandpa and have not gotten over the idea of it. When I was in the sixth grade, my grandfather was very sick; he could barely walk. While my grandmother and some other family members went uptown for some household things, food, and medication, I was told to take care of him. Yet, I wanted to play with my friends outside. He told me to go ahead and play, but for some reason I just got mad and slammed the door and left. Around nighttime, I seen an ambulance pull up to my grandparents’ house.

It was not sudden; she had been suffering for a little less than a year. I kind of remember the “chain of reactions’ that led up to the diagnosis. It was around the fourth of July and we went to my grandparent’s house to celebrate. Shortly after arriving, everyone migrated to the pool area, where my Dad noticed that half of my grandma’s face was “melting” and her arm wasn’t through one sleeve of her shirt. After pointing that out, my grandpa proceeds to inform us that a few days prior, she had fallen on the ground while outside as a result of a medical issue and has been off ever since. Surprised to hear this, my dad told my grandpa to take her to the doctor. This day was the beginning of the end.

Autoethnography means a way for me to provide meaning of my experiences at a in-depth level and “opportunities to cast a critical eye on aspects of own practice” (Lambrek, 2005, p. 230). As I looked into the research paper which used autoethnography as method people expressed that it offered them a way to expand their knowledge, to achieve reflective insights that would not have happened through other methods of research. During (2009) L. Alwin stated that autoethnography enabled him to “get at another, deeper, level of learning that is, to get at a wholeness, a synthesis of my life lived (self) and my profession field (culture)” (p. 62). By going through the process of writing my stories using personal informations, and describing emotions and events, I am better able to send myself back to those experiences. By doing so, I got to have a better analysis of myself within the social, cultural, institutional and interpersonal context in which they happened as well as consider how they relate to other experiences in my personal life (Young and Meneley, 2005). Since one of my goals in this thesis is to become a better person

When I was a sophomore my mother was diagnosed with cancer and as a result, I have spent most of my college career dealing emotional with the result. She is free of disease as of right now but it was a long and tumultuous journey to get there. I practically spent 2 years without a mother because she was so sick and I had to take her role. I organized family events, cooked them meals when I could, did their shopping all while going to school three hours away and having constant fear that my mother and the love of my life was going to die. That is only my personal struggle with it, not even taking into account her trauma or my fathers or brothers. It almost seems selfish to reflect on this because it was nothing compared to what she was going through. I went through stages where I was horrified and so scared and then I was angry and selfish. I wanted my mother back, I wanted her to make me dinner when I came home from college and send me care packages again. I wanted her to go shopping every weekend like she used to and spend money on things that weren’t hospital bills. I wanted to call her and hear something other than how she couldn’t get chemotherapy that week because she was so weak and was rushed to the hospital for a blood transfusion. I was tired of talking to people about it and people asking if I was okay. I felt like a broken record, “Yes, I’m okay. Yes, school is

Easier said than done was an interesting autoethnography writing piece. It was about a mother who adopted her child, and her decision to write about it using Autoethnographies. The reading says that this approach is ““a highly personalized accounts that draw upon the

I can still remember vividly the day my mother passed away. My mother passed away at a critical point in my life when I was seventeen years old from a short term illness. She was sick for a week and I remember thinking this could be serious, however, my mother declined to go to the hospital because of the distance and financial hardship. I had loss my father when I was three years old, so my mother was a single mother. I have step sisters and brother, but I was not particularly close to them. Losing my mother was a defining moment in my life for it changed my life irrevocably. I was devastated, but I had to become strong, proactive and it spurred me to choose a new career path.

Losing my grandmother was one of the worst things that have happened to me. When she died, I knew my life had changed. I watched her take her last breath in the hospital and it was very heartbreaking. She was like my second mom because she was always with me. I didn’t think it would come so soon. Dealing with her death was one of the hardest thing that I’ve ever had to do. It was very hard because it was my second experience of losing someone very close to me around the same time of the year. I had to learn how to cope with losing her. I let all my emotions out, I didn’t listen to what anyone was saying, and I had to remember to take care of myself. Losing my grandmother changed me because she did everything for me. I had to grow up and be more responsible. I had to learn how

Every morning I still wake up thinking that she is there drinking her tea in her room , watching tv. Then suddenly the truth comes rushing up to me and I realize that it is just a dream hanging around me still, and a cold despair fall upon me. I feel empty inside. My mother’s death was a really sobering experience I’ve passed through. It was the most devastating loss in my life.

From the end of November till the 21 of December my Grandpa was put into Hospice, or a at home nursing home to prepare your loved one for death. At this time I was trying to balance my studies as well as supporting my family morally and emotionally due to the tough times we were going through. During the week of exams, my father was rarely home because of his father nearing death. This led me and my mom to provide each other with dinner and help each other. Knowing about the struggles we were having, my two uncles which were my moms brothers came over to have dinner and help up set up our Christmas tree. It was December 20th when they came over which was the day before my grandpa passed. My mom mistook me for my uncle and said my grandpa was going to die that night or the next morning. I didn't realize she said this and didn't know they were hiding this from me. I came home from my exams the next day to see my father balling due to his death. Because of the mourning process I missed one day of exams and lost complete focus in school for a short time. After I came to the facts that he was dead I started to work harder than I have ever worked before. This led to me getting the best grades I had ever gotten in my high school career and they are still getting better. While getting over death is never fully obtainable, you have to learn to be able to live with the thoughts that run through your head daily about your deceased love one. I