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.

I always heard growing up, “ Great things can emerge from small beginnings”. My mom made sure that my 4 sisters and I know that. Being a child of two ministers, my family has experience working with small businesses and ministries, for our church was small. Unfortunately, things did not work for our church, so we had shut down. My family then attended Family Christian Center (FCC) in Munster, Indiana. FCC is a mega church with fancy lighting, a ginormous stage, and large screens. The pastor of the church had great illustrated messages.

I grew up in a small family in India. There are a lot of things that I can learn from my family. I wouldn’t be here without my family. Most important thing in the world is family. The family is the place where you can learn and express what you learn. I’m grateful for my family. But I remember one day my parents told me that we are going to America, the land of dreams. I was thirteen years old. All those years I lived in my own country, and now I’m moving to America. When my parents gave me the shocking news I couldn’t stop thinking about the way of life in America. I never stopped to think about the people I was leaving behind my cousins, grandparents and the only life I had ever known. Days went by, and here we are at the JFK airport. Amidst all the sadness, and fear of my lifestyle I couldn’t feel the excitement. I admit that it was difficult at the beginning. But then it became easy. There is always happy after the bitterness. Now I’m excited to show people and tell them that how important a family is and it is eternal.

This experience has been emotionally demanding for me and a bit awkward. First off, immediate family speaking, we have an implicit norm of not offending people by criticism their actions but also, it’s weird to compliment people on their behaviour. We stick to “thank you”, “I appreciate what you did” and when there is a behaviour we find annoying we don’t say a word. As for my big family, in which I include my immediate family (mom and brother), my boyfriend and my local church, we are “allowed” to give compliment and to share emotions with one another. With this context being placed, it was easier to compliment my church sister C and my boyfriend because we had this pre-establish norm of “it’s acceptable to compliment and receive compliment and criticisms” but a bit harder to throw the first one at my mom.

When I was a young girl my Uncle Brian passed, his death leaving a drastic impact on my family. But the thing that affected my family the most was that his wife took away all we had left of my uncle, my younger cousin. Family relationships have always been a very significant part of my childhood and having one of our own taken from us, added just another hardship to our lives.

Alongside my parents I migrated to the US at only two years old. We had no permanent home which is why we became so close to each other. One year later my sister was born and we spent most of our together since now we moved almost yearly. We became close and during high school it was the same and she is the reason I became passionate about mental health. During her transition into and the first two years of high school she became depressed and self-harming. It took me years to accept and realize this experience affected more than I had thought.

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.

All of my life I had always had plenty of friends. I lived in the same neighborhood for a good part of my childhood, where there were plenty of children my age. I grew up with most of my friends, I knew them so long I could not even remember the first time I met them. When my family moved due to my father’s promotion, I was so excited for a change in scenery that it never occurred to me I would be leaving all my friends behind. Upon arriving in our new home I realized all the people I had grown close to over the years were gone. On social media I felt excluded, I saw them enjoying themselves, while I stayed at home alone. I felt like an alien to my new home and convinced myself, for a time, that I would never be happy there. I was in essence an outsider. After several weeks of wallowing the sorrow of my loneliness, I refused to allow the fear I had of my new environment hold me back from living happily. I resolved to make new friends with whom I would build lasting memories.

I woke up in a sweat breathing heavily as I had awoken from the worst dream my brain could possibly think of. When I sat up I thought it was oddly quiet in my house that rare with my family are family is loud and big I have two sisters and three brothers. When I got out of bed I realized that my twin brother younger by five minutes max was not in the room he is the twin who sleeps in after all. After I got dressed in my usual clothes black basketball shorts and my blue T-shirt that’s from my favorite vacation we have been on also my only vacation I’ve been in out of state and of course my black hoodie. When I went down stairs my siblings were waiting for me; Sophia, Mike, max, Annie, Caleb. When I looked at them they seemed scared, and I made a snarky remark that I regret saying now but I can’t go back and change what I said. After I said what I said my younger sister Annie started crying I was confused usually she runs to are parents telling them then I get sent to my room but this time was different she just sat there crying. My sister comforting her said their gone I was confused because are dogs were spots and rover were lying right there on the ground I looked at them weird then Mike said mom and dad they're gone we called them and no answer no note no nothing, then I said they probably went on a run or to grocery store or something like that. Then mike said no they left their phones why would they do that he said. Maybe dad got sick again you know he hasn’t been

For the first 9 years of my life I was the youngest of 3 siblings. At the age of 6 my parents separated and that is where some of my life struggles began. Both my mom and dad are extremely loving and nurturing people; however, they had a tendency to triangulate the three of us kids in regards to who gets who, when, and all those fun things that come with divorce. The schedule I was on for most of my childhood was Tuesdays and every other weekend with my dad and the rest with my mom. I grew resentful of this as I got older because I felt that it should be more even and that didn’t change until I was well into high school and made the decision to change the schedule for myself. Then when I was 9 years old my mom had a little baby girl. Long story short, my little sisters father is in her life now but wasn’t for the first year or so. This was hard for me at first because I didn’t fully understand the situation, but regardless of my understanding the love I had/have for my little sister was/is unconditional. Even though there is quite an age gap between my younger sister and us three older siblings, we are all still very close. Before my mom had my little sister she was a paraprofessional at our elementary school, and then after she had her she started doing daycare. My dad finished his degree in business and economics and he has sold insurance my whole life. While my mom always had struggles with money, my dad usually did not. Both of my parents taught me hard work ethics and I

My family, friends, and teachers have all nurtured my character, in one way or another. There are some experiences, however that seem to stand out a little more. They seem to be at the tip of my mind. The memories of a loving grandmother who makes me laugh, the one who keeps me going, one who demonstrates a love like no other. In my years, I have seen her invest in an abundance of people. She has led some to Christ. For others, she has offered her hands and feet, in times of need. As for me, she has given pieces of herself. She has shown me what it is to be a servant, she has given me a sense of adventure, and has taught me to never take what I have for granted.

I grew up in a quiet, middle-class Denver community. Most of my neighbors are either families with multiple kids, or older couples whose kids are already out of the house. Most of my neighbors are also Christian white families. Therefore, my family has always stood out in this neighborhood. My mother is Hispanic and my father is Caucasian, and we are the other interracial family in my neighborhood that I know of. As stated in the Newman textbook, “About 26% of married Latino/as are married to someone of a different ethnic group. My family falls into this 26%. We also differ from the rest of my community because both of my parents work full time jobs, and my mother is the “bread winner.” Most of the women who live around us, either work part time jobs or they don’t work at all. The biggest reason we stand out is our religious beliefs. Both of my parents grew up in Catholic households, and neither of them wanted my brothers and I to grow up the same way. My parents are also divorced, and we are the children in my neighborhood that have divorced families. Most of my neighbors dislike my father because he wanted a divorce, and they have very strong religious beliefs that go against divorce. While learning about families and the set or rules and beliefs that correlate with most families, I began to realize how different my family is compared to the norms that most families follow.

The word community maintains an assortment of meanings for each of us. These meanings are composed from various life experiences within our communities. To me, my communities include my family, friends, schools, work, and the town I live in. My communities have had an influence on who I have become as a person and continue to influence me on a daily basis.

My conflict is family based. It is about my elder sister 's family. My elder sister does not have a sound educational background but she is blessed to have gotten married to a wealthy business tycoon and they are blessed with three children namely; Nelly, Junior and Adolf. They are happily married but just like any other marital home which has got its good and bad moments, theirs is not an exception. My sister 's husband is so self centered, and He also have a greedy altitude. As a wealthy business man He has managed to acquired fleets of luxurious cars for himself (precisely about six cars) but unfortunately none of these cars belongs to his wife. In addition to this, He is in possession of all the car keys and when ever the wife wants to go to the market or on an errand, the wife must first of all informed him then He will call the driver and gave him the key to one of the cars( the less privilege car) and asked him to take his madam to the market or where ever she is going. And my sister is never comfortable with this kind of altitude from the husband but she will just keep her cool, and sometimes she let her husband to understand that she is not comfortable with his altitude. But her husband finds it so difficult to bend or to change from his ugly altitude. After some couple of months, the husband went and bought one small lady 's car for my sister and told her that the car is meant for her to be using each time she wants to go to the market or on an errand. But