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I Am The Oldest Of Five Children Essay

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Merriam-Webster defines survival as the continuation of life. To me, my experience of survival is much more profound than merely making it through. My childhood presented me with a choice: to perpetuate the misery of my early existence or accept it, own it, and grow from it. I am the oldest of five children. I was born in 1961 to Tom and Nancy. I have no memories before the age of four. The first home I can remember was a duplex on Long Street in Elizabeth, PA. An older Polish woman lived in the other side of the duplex and our house always smelled of onions from her cooking. By December, 1965, I had three younger siblings. My earliest memory is from that year. One of my uncles, I can’t remember which, dressed up as St. Nicholas and came to our house on Christmas Eve. Each one of us kids was so excited and trying to get on to St. Nick’s lap and tell him what we hoped to find under the tree the next morning. My brother Tommy was just a baby at the time and as the rest of us were vying for St. Nick’s attention, Tommy was screaming. My Dad started yelling at my Mom to, “Shut that baby up!” or something to that effect. If you have children, you know that yelling is not helpful when you’re trying to quiet a baby. My brother kept screaming, my Dad kept yelling and my Mom started crying. I came to find that throughout my childhood, my Mom would try to placate my Dad by saying, “Oh, Tom, it’s okay.” On this particular day, and as happened so many times afterward, my Dad just

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