My Experience Of My Family

The stories from our parents and grandparents always hold a special place in our hearts, for just an instance we get to see what the world was like from a more mature individual’s perspective, we get to live the days they did through the stories they share. My grandma, or what she is to me; my meme, has shared a variety of stories from her childhood that has allowed me to see some of the challenges and opportunities she had faced growing up. My favorite story she has shared with me would be about the time my memes parents decided to move states. The story tells about the trip on the way to move, the short amount of time they stayed, and lastly, the decision to moving back, to where they previously resided.

It was a fine day in Bentonville, Arkansas. I was thinking about all the fun that I would be having this summer with my two best friends, Percy Ross and Warren Drews. It was three o’clock and it was finally summer. This was a great year since I had no major injuries unlike last year when I broke my arm. The following six months were the worst months of my life. To make it even worse, it was during summer. I was injury free for an entire year, until the break occurred.

My family hasn’t had the best luck with dogs. I am 14 years old and I have had 5 dogs in my life. There was Foxy who had a deathly seizure, Jazzy who died of old age and Jitters who passed after 4 months of having her. Things were hard. Now I have two 8 pound pals; a bouncy, bubbly bullet of a dog named Mimsy Moo and a dog-cat hybrid named Kevin Bacon. Kevin is always basking in the sun and taking naps while Mimsy is on the move whenever she can. Mimsy has been in our lives for about a year but we didn’t get her until we went through barrels of trouble. This is the story of how Mimsy Moo became a permanent member of the Kostal family.

Before I migrated to the U.S. I had a lot of friends and family. I used to live in the Philippines with my grandparents, my grandpa is 62 years young, he is a retired policeman, my grandma is a housewife. I lived with them when my parents were abroad. Moving into a foreign country can be difficult, I didn’t know much English. I had to get my grades up so that I can enter middle school in the U.S. I was a troublemaker in elementary and I needed to redeem myself so I can go to school in the U.S. We had a whole summer to get our visa, but before that we had to say our goodbyes to my relatives and friends. We had a party before we went to Manila. I felt sad when I said my goodbyes, I also was happy at the same time.

1:00 AM - I had another dream after sleep beckoned me. There weren't nightmares this time, but my last dream had family drama in it. Why do I keep dreaming about my family when I have nothing playing on my computer? I must have deep-rooted family issues I haven't dealt with yet. My memory of my dream is starting to fade now, so here I go.

Growing up in Brooklyn, New York I had many friends from different cultural backgrounds, and the neighborhood I lived in was a melting pot of families from all over the globe. Among them Kimmie Chang, Gabby Martinez, Bella D'Amato, and Logan O'Neill. The air always smelt of delicious ethnic cuisines, and all of the languages were interesting to listen to. The best part was that each family had children close to my age so I was always experiencing a different lifestyle. Feeling so popular among the community, I was invited to dinner at all of my friend's houses at a certain time of the year. Fascinated by different dialect I found myself analyzing conversation at the dinner table, observing the way each family's lifestyle was so different than mine in every way. During my younger years, my brain was able to process a lot from my friends and their families that I could write a book.

As an adoptive child, there has always been a little part of me that felt missing or incomplete. It was not that my family did not feel or act like family, there just seemed to be a deep-down connection or piece of the puzzle that was absent. This absence established a newly found interested in history and genealogy. I wanted to know where my biological ancestors originated and the historical events they experienced. I faced an engrained desire to obtain my biological connections which so many of my friends and family members felt with their relatives. My initial focus when understanding my family was based on biology, which, as we have studied, was not the only relationship deemed meaningful. Now, after doing DNA tests and discovering my ancestral heritage, I am able to appreciate the need to identify both biological connections and kinship connections.

“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about.” You never really know what is going on in someone's life, no matter how it looks from the outside. Some battle’s people face may be more more traumatic than others, but nonetheless difficult. My family is picture perfect, big house, fancy cars, expensive clothes, all of the friends and parties. My mom had my eldest brother at the age of 16. Her and my father both dropped out of high school to financially support this new found family on their own. The day my brother was born, my mom found a note in my father’s pocket, declaring his love for another girl. That is when the years of cheating and family destruction began.

I didn't think life could get much tougher than living on a reservation until I got sick. In my family everyone works, we have to in order to survive.

While growing up with a sister usually lives in the same home in my case I lived with my mother and my sister lived with her father. I grew up in New York City, and my sister was in Miami two separate locations. The outcome would be, I joined the military and currently attending school for Occupational Therapy Assistant and my sister became a housewife and a Nurse after her separation. How we are raised in two separate locations and one parent a piece can grow up in two different ways. How we turned out is two members of society that paid taxes, both own a home, and live to raise our children.

Every child says their parents are the best.n It is true, parents give us a bed to rest our heads on at night, and make sure we always have food in front of us. Daily poarents sacrefice the smalest thing asto keep their children happy. I could not agree more with that. My parents have made the greatest decisions to keep my brother and I always happy and spoiled.

For twenty years I have lived in my current family of origin.  Since I have not yet left, I have no other family with which to personally compare it.  I was born into a rather small two-parent household with my immediate family consisting of only me and my parents.  While independent, we all have close, personal relationships with each other.  I feel I had a secure attachment style.  I would consider my family to be rather “standard” and “normal” and would certainly describe it as traditional.  Most of my grandparents, aunts, and uncles live in the same community as I do, or within a short drive.  My parents are in their late 40’s and the age range of my entire family unit ranges from twelve to

As Asalamalakim and I were making our way towards my new, old house I began to think of how much I have changed and how it's been years since I last saw my family. Last time I saw my mother, I was on my way to college and leaving this town. Here I am back again, but this time I wanted to be here. Seeing all the traditional things my mother had ,and at the end of the day, I would hopefully be bringing some back with me.

While working on my genogram I found it a bit difficult to put it all onto a page. I have information dating back to my great great, grandparents on both side of my parents. Although I do not have all the information pertaining to my great aunts and uncles etc. I do have most of the information from my great great, grandparents down to my parents. My great grandfather on my mom’s side died of old age at 96 years, while his first wife died of breast cancer sometime in the late 40’s. His second wife Rose died at the age of 94. She had children from her first marriage, but I have never met them. I knew both as a child and remember them fondly, however I do not know about their up brining. This was on my grandfather’s side of the family. My

I remember that when my nana told me my mum had died, I didn’t really believe her. I cried because I missed her, but I was 6 at the time, and my imagination took hold of the fact that my mum wasn’t around. She was travelling across the world, buying my sister and I wonderful presents that she’d give us when she came back. She would be skydiving, swimming with dolphins, scuba diving, and she would tell me all about it when she came back, and she’d show off her tan, which was finally a natural one and she would be more excited about that than anything else. After about a month, I realised she wasn’t coming back, and in hindsight it would have been absolutely awful if my fantasy was true and my dad told me she’d died rather than went