Memoir : The Shortcomings Of A Strange Family

I think I could say I have a pretty tight-knit family. Only immediate family though, like my mom and siblings. I grew up in Fairview Heights until I was five with a brother and two sisters. I was the youngest out of all of them and always got picked on, but as we all have grown up we get closer and closer.

Now before you get too comfortable with the simple little title listen up buttercup and allow me to let you in on a little secret. I’m not what you would call a nice guy I might walk the walk, but deep down once you get to know me on a comfortable level I can come off as a dick and often times I don’t think before I talk. It’s good that I’m getting this out of the way because according to Mary Karr in her book titled “The Art of Memoir” she mentions that “the best writers make you feel they’ve disclosed their soft underbellies." Which I believe highly qualifies my memory as a memoir due to the fact that I’m being honest and I’m being myself. I believe that I have given my all into this paper disclosing to you about my personal love life. Now before you read on into my so called “exciting” life allow me to give you a bit of a warning I may or may not say something that might offend you and if you are one of those that gets easily offended, I highly advice you to put this paper down and walk away just pretend you never even laid eyes on it. Now for you brave souls that are still reading this then congratulations, you have passed and you are ready to read about my dysfunctional life.

My family has lived here in Oregon since the before the war between the states, and family tells us stories of the good times before all these japs started taking over. Around the turn of the century or so it started to seem like these people were everywhere. It all started with the building of the railroad. The companies brought in those people to build the railroad, and now that the railroad is completed they will not leave. To make matters even worse there is an effort by their leaders to get them to strike for the same pay as us white people that work for the railroad. There has been extremely little or no effort on their part to become like us Americans. I was walking through town the other day and what did I see, there was a huge Buddha statue in front of a new Buddhist temple. They can't even go to church like regular people.

Final minutes of the first half winding down, my team was marching down the field with a purpose. Across the gridiron was our rival team, Mayfield, who we had beat the previous year in the state championship game. It was a cold November night and the stage was set, playing on their home field, “The Field of Dreams,” in Las Cruses, New Mexico in the semi-finals of the state tournament. Up 14-0, we had the ball and were trying to score before going into halftime. I was handed the ball for a running play and then it happened. Falling to the ground as if I had been shot, I had completely torn my hamstring. I was in complete shock as I lay on the ground. As the pain

Tuesday October 7th 2014 Shaneik Smith Professor Williams Writ 101 Wangari Bibliography Maathai, Wangari. Unbowed: A Memoir. New York, Random House, 2006. Print.

One of the substance abuse interventions I recently led, resulted in a very public miraculous healing. I was contacted by the McCracken family early in 2015 to lead a last chance intervention for their son Jeff. Jeff McCracken was barely alive when we got him to treatment. Once he arrived at the facility we had in place, they immediately sent Jeff to the hospital. His medical condition was dire, he was given two months to live and sent to Hospice. In Hospice, Jeff’s parents requested our team to pray over him. Within days of that event, Jeff had an incredible turn around and was released from Hospice and entered a program. I sponsored Jeff throughout the recovery process. God has utterly transformed his life. Dubbed a modern day “Lazarus,”

When my brother rung the door bell, I quickly rushed towards the door opening it to find my brothers eyes blood shot red. He walked in facing towards slowly taking what felt like one hundred paces to our red couch which already contained a few broken springs on the left cushion. Once reaching the target he plopped

We got in my dad’s truck and headed to our house. I still remember this like the day was yesterday my dad turned to me and my brother and said “I hope you boys never have to experience anything like this ever again In your life’s.” We got back to our house and it was perfectly fine. A tree fell across the road which would become our tree house for weeks to come. There was no power what so ever so at night there was no air or lights. My dad pulled a mattress into the living room and me, mom, and my brother laid on it and my dad would sit up all night basically fanning us with a huge piece of card

We were walking for a few hours. My feet throbbed and my ears were ringing from Taylor’s whining. Finally I could see it, the old abandoned house I discovered one day while riding my bike. The door was barely hanging onto its hinges, and there were several windows missing or broken. I pried open the splintering oak door. In the house there was two rooms. One, the one you first enter, was most likely a kitchen and living room. There was a sofa with faded fabric and springs popping out everywhere. An old furnace sat in the corner with rotting charcoal inside. The door of the furnace was missing rendering the whole thing useless. The other room was much smaller. It was a bedroom. There was a twin sized bed. The frame was rusty and missing a leg. I pulled the mattress off of it, so we could sleep on it. There were springs and stuffing sticking out of the mattress. It wasn’t too dirty to sleep on because I pulled off the moldy sheets. We laid down on the mattress. Taylor started snoring within minutes. I was worried about Mom. She had had a seizure before. It was because of her failing liver. Last time, social services took me and my sisters to a girl’s home. They served cooked vegetables that smelled like rotten seafood and chicken noodle soup with frozen chicken. After Mom got out of the hospital she got custody of us, but the judge told her if it happened again she wouldn’t get us back. My older sister, Becca, was eighteen so she didn’t have to

My dad always slept with his shoes off.But tonight, tonight was different. Probably because the town was being evacuated. Gun shots so close you can trace the sound back to the weapon. People running, screaming and dying. It was amazing, well to me it was it was the first time i seen everyone outside at once i wish it was on this occasion but it was good to see people care about each other. Back to the store though. My mom came running into the house screaming,”they’re here,they’re”. My dad jump from the bed, like he was waiting for this moment all his life, “grab the begs” he says to me and my 3 brothers. They were place in the corner of the living room next to the back door. I didn't pick up nothing being the youngest in the

I awoke the next morning happy, reminiscing about the night before and the fun had by all. Suddenly my daughter, mother and sister were at the door. I knew something was wrong because

It all started when one morning, when there was something under the carpet. I was the one who fixed the problem, but instead of a pat on the back, the ending turned out otherwise. Me and my seven siblings were all asleep. My mom and dad were downstairs running around, jumping from couch, to couch, this was not just any old night. I was then woke up, by a loud ear piercing screech, from the living room.

The memoir begins on her thoughts on the mental hospitalization and illness and she recounts on her past and asks herself: how did she end up in there? She notices that people are curious about her hospitalization and even wonder if they would find themselves in the same situation. She explains that actually “it’s easy” to find themselves in a “parallel universe” of mental illness. The majority of people with mental illnesses do not enter this ‘parallel universe’ easily, as Kaysen reveals; alternately they encounter blunt impressions of a divergent universe in which differentiates with ours, along with time, the laws of Physics, and the perception of everyday objects. In the course of time, the fascination to pass over is completely

I am startled awake by a loud bang. I am still tucked neatly under the sheets just as mommy left me before I went to bed, but Big Brother is no longer by my side. I turn to find my bedroom door wide open. I quietly climb out of bed and make my way to the hallway. As I make it to the door there is a sudden scream from downstairs and I know that it is Mommy. I fall to my hands and knees and begin to crawl to the stairs that would lead me to where Mommy was. I am halfway down when I hear Mommy scream, “Don’t you touch him!” I can not see them, but I could hear them. Mommy and Big Brother were screaming while he yelled at them angrily.

I don’t remember much about that day. That day led to a lot of bad things and dark days. I was in middle school, 14 or 15. I was feeling a little bit better after i woke up. I had already been gone for a week or more. It start out as a normal morning. I ate breakfast, got dressed, and did all of the essential things to get ready for school. My sister was already ready. She was going to highschool at that time. My brother was isolated in his room, my father was asleep. My mom is always up when we get ready to go to school. That was no surprise. Smokie one of our cats at the time was really old. My mom was was sitting on our couch using her computer. The smell of freshly brewed coffee was in the air. The sun was just coming up, but it was