My Brothers, And Brothers And Sisters

My little sister Anita was born at the time and having a baby sibling around made me feel like a big kid or a parent. I loved holding her and feeding her with a bottle my mom taught me to do while she worked at a night shift (maturation). My fourth grade year is probably the time I went through the most out of my elementary school years. I found out things were getting hectic between my parents. I would see them fight almost every day about money, cheating, and where did they go in their free time. One night when my mom came home from grocery shopping they were verbally fighting and yelling at each other. I heard it from the living room and I went into the kitchen to see them. All of a sudden, I just saw my dad pushed her into the ground and started beating her. She eventually escaped from his grip and ran into my sister’s room. She called the police and they came and arrested him for assault. I couldn’t do much because I just stood there witnessing in shock. They divorced in October while it was the beginning of my fifth grade year. I started to go through depression since the whole thing happened. I grew bitter, unmotivated for school, and even crueler towards my family and animals. I had terrible grades in my report card and I tend to get embarrassed with my teacher yelling at me. I cried over the smallest things that would happen in class. People started giving me sympathy but then got tired of it because it happened often. Around the winter time my mom started to

Although I may not have known what it was like to drop out of school at a young age, I did see my mom's miserable life and I knew everything she was going through because of her decision of dropping out of school. Being raised by two young adults was harsh. My parents did not get along well. As I grew up, my brother and I witnessed my mom

When I went to high school, I went to a private school. My parents were always active in our lives. They went to our school activities and always took an interest in our lives. We were not rich, by any means. My father had to quit grade school to help his mother take care of his 7 brothers and sisters. His father was an alcoholic and never cared for any of the children. I believe for everything my dad did for his mother carried over to his adult hood by not wanting to repeat any of his father’s actions.

There was a crucial period in my life when I felt dependent on my parents: preschool. At that time, my mom quit her job to become a full time mom and my dad

I had two hard working parents who went above and beyond to ensure that my sister and I had a good childhood by trying to grant as many requests that they could. They always stressed the importance of hard work to achieve anything and everything we set our minds to and education, but I was very young so education wasn't that high on my priority list. I wanted to become a truck driver or a construction worker, but after my dad suffered a back injury at his job I knew that I wanted to fix his

My parents grew up in families with little parental direction. Attending school, overcoming adversity, getting a job and becoming successful were up to their own making. Although my parents did not go to college, they took advantage of other opportunities to better their lives so that my siblings and I would be able to attend universities. They worked hard to get jobs even without college degrees, and then worked harder to maintain those jobs; subsequently, this furthered their positions in their workplaces. By setting an example of making the most of what life has to offer, they influenced me to seize every opportunity that crosses my path. Going to college was not an opportunity my parents could take advantage of, but it is one that I can.

It was a beautiful, sunny day in South Florida. I was six years old, playing by the pool with my new puppy. I loved swimming in the pool almost every day after school. I also enjoyed going out on our boat after school or crossing the street and going to the beach. My father came home one evening with some interesting news. Now, I do not remember exactly how I felt about the news at that time, but it seemed like I did not mind that much. He had announced that we were going to move back to my birth country, Belgium. I had been living in Florida for five years and it was basically all I had known so I did not know what to expect. I had to live with my mom at first, and then my sister would join us after she graduated high school and my father

My mother immigrated to the United States from the Dominican Republic at the age of 16, all by herself! I can barely imagine being in college next year, nonetheless, moving to a new country and beginning a new life. As my older brother by 6 years and I would walk past those expensive Jordans in the mall, or stroll by the shiny Mercedes Benz parked on the corner of the street, my mother would promise that good grades and an education could one day afford us these extra facets to life. So believe me, before baseball practice, homework would be done, done

My mother grew up to parents who never graduated from elementary school and this influenced her life in profound ways. She saw how her parents were living and wanted to create a better life not only for herself but also

Through many life obstacles I was not very fortunate or goal driven to attempt to go to college after high school. Grew up in a military family so my family was stricter about keeping their children

After living in three different foster care homes in the middle of South Dallas, I was adopted into a low income household. My adopted parents drilled in me the importance of having a college degree, father a middle school drop-out and mother just a high school graduate. I became the first-generation college graduate in 2014, just to show my siblings that your background does not predict the level of education you can receive. My mother taught me that repetitive style of learning in a simplified form was best in my early ages of school. Growing up with a learning disability, I was behind other students that was five years old; since I did not start talking until I was five. My parents were patience with me when it came to my education, making

When I was about 14 months old, my parents separated which then led to a divorce. Since I was extremely young, I cannot remember how it affected me. But once I got into grade school, I was in great knowledge that something was different. I then started to understand the affects my parents’ divorce had on me such as anger, resentment, feeling of loneliness, and prob-lems with communication. Now that I am a young adult, I still feel like I am being affected by those same problems except now I am able to control myself when I start to feel the symptoms. Divorce has had a huge impact on my life.

7th grade was the year I woke up. My mom called me into her bedroom late one afternoon and was still sitting on her bed, wearing her pajamas. The bright and cheerful sunshine that lit up the room gave a false ambiance of the tension that clouded the air. I already knew what she was going to say, but I did not want to believe it as the truth. I had noticed that my mom and dad's relationship with one another was growing apart just by the way they acted around each other. The conversations between them became shorter and their affection for one another began to fade. My dad spent his nights falling asleep watching TV on the couch, while my mom slowly disappeared back into her bedroom, alone. This had been happening for a while now, so I do not know why I was even surprised when my mom said to me that, “Your dad and I are getting a divorce”. I should have seen it coming. The clues were all in front of me, but I was too afraid to put them together. I was scared because, for the first time in my life, the image of my "perfect" family was crumbling before me. I knew inside that my family was falling apart, but I was desperately holding onto the fibers that I thought were keeping us together. It is hard to believe that one encounter can change the course of one's life forever. In this instance, I was awoken from the dream that I had been living in for so long.

Devastated, I ran to my room gushing my eyes out. All these emotions going through my head of how my life would be without my parents in the same room or even house. From what I remember it all started about mid-June, the weeks before that were crucial. My parents would always argue over how to deal with a situation between me and my brother, Skyler. They hardly spoke to one another, but when they did they would just start bickering. I remember, one night after dinner they both went into ''their'' room with the door locked yelling at one another. Skyler and I didn’t know what to do, so we went downstairs and tried to figure out what was going to happen. With a scared tone I asked if mom and dad were going to get a divorce?" He answered back '' No, they love each other, they wouldn’t do that to us." That following night, was a school night everything was quiet except for my crying. I couldn’t sleep; all I was thinking about how it's going to affect my family.

When I was eight years old my parents separated, and they got officially divorced when I was twelve. After my parents separated, my mother took on being a single-parent. My father gave up all his rights to my sister and I. Prior to my parents separating, my family was considered upper-middle class. My dad worked as a computer engineer, and my mom was a stay at home mother. After my parents split, my sister and I went from having everything to nothing in a day. My mom had to move back in with her parents until she could find a full-time job and a place for us to live. Because I have seen my mother struggle as a single-mother, I matured a lot faster than most children my age. Even though we struggled with money growing up, my mother always made it a point to go on vacation yearly with my sister and I; I have been to over 30 states because my mom loves to road trip. Additionally, it has always been a family tradition of ours to go to the state fair every year. Because of my family experience growing up, I am very independent. I also learned to appreciate the little things in life. My mom always taught my sister and I that time spent with family is far more valuable than materialistic things. My mother and I are very close to this day, and I will forever be grateful for everything she has done for my sister and me.