How Englewood Changed My Life

On Wednesday, November 26, 2014, I was coming out of a very hectic day at work, when I received the news that had me breaking down in tears. “Odette your mother is in the emergency room.” I could not believe the words that were coming out of my father's mouth in that instinct. So many thoughts came rushing through my mind. “Why, my mom?” I kept on asking myself, but I knew that I could not show my depression to my two younger siblings. The reason for that was that I did not want to scare them nor make them feel the horrible feeling that I was feeling inside. Even though I appeared to look fine in the outside, my precious soul was dying in sorrows in the inside. The scariest thought of knowing your mother is in danger and that you cannot do anything to save her is very traumatizing. I honestly felt like my hands were tied behind my back while I saw her drowning in pain.

On a Sunday morning of March 15 1998, we woke up super early to the phone ringing on the other side was my dad. My grandmother answered the phone her face paled as she heard the words “mom I shot myself.” After talking to him for a bit my grandmother rushed out of her room to get my uncle up and they rushed to the house to see him up walking around with a hole in his stomach. Ambulance came to get him then rushed him to meet life force. He flat lined once on the helicopter. They were able to bring him back and stabilized him, and kept him stabled till they got to the hospital. They rushed him immediately into the OR, it was around 15 to 20 minutes into surgery that he had passed away, they were unable to bring him back due to the major loss of blood. My mom soon remarried and I gained two annoying step brothers and a step dad. One step brother didn’t bother me to bad, the other one poked and picked on me trying to pick fights. My step dad had episodes where he was violent and threw things at me and my mom. I withdrew more and more until a few of my friends literally grabbed me by my arm and told me to wake up that they were not going to let me push them away

I was panicking I didn’t know what I did I thought I was in some kind of trouble, but when I got to the principal’s office, there were 2-3 police officers there waiting for me. They sat me down with a concerned look and told me some terrible news. These few words that I could never get out of my head. It’s as if there locked in a prison. They told me that my father was in an accident at first I thought that they were just talking about a car accident. I had no idea what to expect. Then they told me that my father had passed away I started balling my eyes out I didn’t know what to do. They soon drove me back to my house where I saw my brother and a few neighbors and friends. There were a few cop cars and an ambulance. I later found out that he had committed suicide. My aunt and uncle came and picked us up from my house and brought us to their house where they tried to cheer us up a bit it was my cousins birthday so we tried to have a

While I was growing up in Haiti with a happy family. I was a happy child, bad at home but I was a smart girl in school. My family was there for me when I need them, whether in a bad or good situation, they never let me go. Also, my family always found a way to keep a big smile in my face. They always knew what was wrong and right when I maked a bad decision. One day, all the happiness went away. My life became harder, I was scared, and sad. On March 20, 2005, I thought I was going to die. I became ill and had malaria symptoms. I missed school for two months. I could not sleep, eat or enjoy my childhood. The only thing I was able to do was stay in bed all day. It was good that I did not have to do my chores, but I realized it was boring and

Inglewood, CA is the city that helped shape me into the young man that I am today. Through everyday life I was surrounded by examples whether they were bad or good, but I feel they shaped me for the better. Although growing up I was not as privileged as others I learned how valuable love and loyalty really is. I did not always have all of the “wants” but I had everything that I needed to grow. There was a choice in every situation growing up and there was also consequences for each action. I learned at an early age that wrong choices can have tremendous and detrimental consequences ranging from jail or an early funeral. Luckily I have family that loved me enough to help me stay away from these horrid actions. Knowing that life can be cut short at any moment has helped me take advantage of the time I have and

After doing my research I could finally see how my family were trying to cope with our family’s loss. My sister’s signs were mostly withdrawl. She would into her world of music or go walking by herself to help ease the pain of her grief. With my mother, grandmother, uncle, and aunts, they were having isolated mental breakdowns where no one could see them, turnings towards cigarettes and alcohol, or bottling up their emotions inside them rather than accepting the reality and seeking help. All of this was due to to my grandfather’s death. He was a huge part in all of our lives and he seem to touch everyone of family member somehow and someway. My grandfather was seen by my family’s household daily but realizing that we won’t see him anymore was taking its toll on

I could feel the tears forming in my eyes. It was getting hard to breathe. The only thing I wanted to do right then and there in that moment is leave that room. I tried speaking, words wouldn’t form. I turned and looked at my brother and sister who just set there, no emotion on their faces. How could they just set there? At this point I was furious and found myself running to my room. Once to my room, I immediately began asking God why. Why my parents? What did I do to deserve such a thing? My pillow soon became saturated in tears.

I had felt like the alien from the moon landing in this wooded, crowded place. That was five years ago, now I still look around and can not fathom this new planet I landed on so long ago. Being young in an unfamiliar environment caused me to sink into a hardened shell were no one could see me and I could not see them making things even harder on myself. On top of social inconvenience, home life was less than satisfactory. Tensions ran very high between my parents. They no longer loved nor even cared for eachother and this diseases of hatred and strain only forced everyone further and further apart. My only refuge was in my head and later that became an even darker place than my physical world. Over a year ago last February would be the month my father travels to Las Vegas to consequently meet his current girlfriend at a hotel bar. Not for another three months will he move out of our house and get a divorce to my mother, then he will move in with his girlfriend in Alabama within the next eight months. Now this is a common story in our current day and age, but everyone feels differently in every situation. Particularly, I was heartbroken and felt unwanted by someone who

I felt so depressed deep down inside, that for about a week I sat in my room and just stared blankly at the wall. I wouldn’t eat or drink anything, the only time that I did leave my room was when I went to the bathroom, other than that I wouldn’t do anything at all. For the longest time after I found out that he had passed away and when I was in my depressive state, I wouldn’t look my family in the eyes when they came to check on me and I wouldn’t even let them into my room some of those

I never realized how the impact of someone’s death could effect me and society. Recently a student from my school died in a tragic accident. The little girl was in 5th grade, about 10 yrs old, and was injured in a horse accident. News of the little girl’s death hit me very hard, due to the fact that my little sister is in the same grade. It has opened my eyes that we don’t know about the future and what it brings. That we need to spend as much time with our families as we can, and that we should never take anything for granted because it might be the last time we get the opportunity.

I was born in the year 1991 in Haiti, I was the first born of a family of five children. The first memory I recall is about my favorite aunt feeding me white rice with carrots when I was about 18 months. After that everything feels like big black hole until before I turned four years old when my fraternal grandmother passed away. I was playing in my crib in my parents room when my dad walked in and announced that his had pass; I was standing and as soon as I heard that I fell on my behind and said "who is going to give me candy" and I started crying. Until today I cannot understand why I reacted like that and what did I understand? After the funeral life went

Most of my family have been stars at the school I attended, my cousins were always nominated as the best students, my mother was the best in her class, they all are winners of the county’s test awards. When I got there everybody expected me to continue the legacy, and at first I was exceling, I skipped my second grade and went to third grade. In my third grade I was by far the best student. My struggle came when the aunt the least like me, out of rage answered my questions. Thus I learned my father was not dead, he just did not wanted to recognize me as a son, and in addition he tried to kill me before I was born along with my older sister. I learned that my mother was not working at the adjacent community, but

I couldn’t bare the idea of losing her. I tiptoed downstairs as silently as possible while frantically scanning the house. I spotted light coming from under the kitchen door which had been left ajar. Hearing hushed screams, I made my way towards it. It sounded like my mother so I peaked inside only to see my father menacingly towering over the kitchen counter and my mother on the other side. I was frozen and just kept looking at them. I shouldn’t have because when I looked closer I saw the hatred in each other’s eyes and something I thought I would never see in my mother’s reddened eyes … tears. My dad’s fists were tightened to the point where his knuckles where white and his face was hard while he spat every single word with venom. I don’t know how my mother managed, but she met his glare and kept her stance while looking equally mad. I couldn’t hear what they where saying at that time because I was so surprised. This scene, I can never unsee. I can’t tell how much time I stayed there watching them, but I deduced that what seemed to be like forever was maybe a few minutes. Thankfully they were so engrossed in their conversation, that they didn’t notice

I was terrified at the result for my grandfather for he was not in the best of health. Everything had happened at once like a bomb had exploded in my mind. My head was spinning at full turbo. So many events were taking place, and I had so many questions. Everything felt like it was going at full speed, and I just sit there blandly in the car, speechless. When we arrived home my uncle showed up about five minutes later to take me and my brother to his house. My Aunt was leaving with my dad to see my ill grandfather. As I arrived at my cousin’s house, I greeted everyone politely and tried to treat everything like a repeated, tedious day. When I made way to bed, I just laid there like a rock, staring with a blank, emotionless face thinking of what is going to happen next. I looked like a dead starfish the way I was in bed thinking of millions of questions I could

My crucible involves my life moving to United States from the Philippines and the hardships I have went through during the time of getting use to everything. I was born in the Philippines and only stayed there only four years, the only language I spoke was Filipino which is the native language. Overall, my time there was satisfactory, had fun with family and only sometime with my father. I received altruism from everybody due to my age and having a caring family. I was playing some of my friends and siblings when my mother walked to me and told my family that we were going to move to the United States to live with my father in five days. Immediately my mother’s sisters ran up to her and started crying and hugging her. They were ambivalent about what they were thinking to say. After everyone hugged and was finished crying, my mom and I started to pack. We finished packing after two days, my mother decided to use the rest of the time to reconcile with everyone and say goodbye to everyone we knew. The difficulty of saying goodbye to everyone for basically forever or next time was almost impossible for my mother. I was too young to understand what was happening. I understood that we were leaving to go and live with my dad. To perpetuate the time we only said goodbyes and stayed up until eleven pm to use up all of our time. The day came in a flash, most of my family went to the airport to wave us goodbye. My mom broke down and cried and told everyone goodbye for the last