My Experience With My Family

My mother’s favorite quote was “work hard for what you want because it will not come to you without a fight.” Growing up in the city of Columbus was pretty easy. The town was pretty decent. I was born to the parents of Termica J. Webber and Paul V. Roland on July 14, 1998. On September 18, 2002 my mother gave birth to my younger sister, Annie Rogina Deanes who is now 13 years old and lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her father. I am the oldest child of my mother and the youngest child of my father. When I turned 6 I instantly moved to a small town of Pheba, MS with my grandmother, Thelma Webber, where times were hard. No one hardly lived in the small town and I was the only child living with my grandmother besides my aunt

Growing up as a child the youngest of five siblings raised by a single mother from the south side of Chicago, Illinois I experienced many obstacles that I had to overcome daily as a child at a very early age. Chicago has one of the highest murder rates in the United States. The environment I grew up in was very detrimental filled with drugs and violence on every corner. My neighbors were drug dealers and drug addicts who were constantly fighting all the time. My mother worked two jobs full time seven days a week to maintain the household and financial responsibilities. At times I would sell chips, candy and juice in front of stores to make money so that I could help my mother pay the bills and I’d often have to take care of my sick grandmother

Growing up in one of the most neglected zip codes of Miami, I have faced challenging obstacles all my life. These challenges were not only limited to financial worries, they included peer issues as well as moral ones. Growing up in a neighborhood where police lights and drug dealing were the norm taught me valuable life lessons that most people could never understand. I believe this upbringing has molded me into the person I am today, a person who sees hardships as a way to grow and excel, a person who sees life through a producer mindset, rather than a consumer one.

Since I was a child, my mother would tell me to try my hardest in school. She told me thought thing because as a child, she never had the opportunity to go to school. She only completed up to 4th grade, because her family couldn’t pay the tuition to attend. She would had to wake up at 4oclock in the morning to sell food, to make a living for her family. We were fortunate enough to be able to come to the United States in 2005, but tragedy happens a year later. She received a phone call, saying that my father was in a serious car accident, on the night of Christmas Eve, he passed away. Since then my mother, became a single mother having to support two children by herself in a new country. There

My mother became depressed, my father became disabled, and my brother was skipping school. I continued going to school from eight until four, which was a big relief in my life because it made me forget the hard times. My grades slowly began to decline, as well as my motivation. I gave up many opportunities such as attending New York’s number one specialized high school. I recognized my mistakes and was able to identify my failure. School was not the only place where I lacked interest in because I also slowly started to push my friends away. As a young teenager, I did not think I would ever make it to college. I became frustrated at my parents because my life was ruined and it was all their fault.

If I was not worrying about my mother, I was worrying about how I would pick up my brothers and sister from daycare/school and still be able to make it to work on time. I began to forget my role as a student and struggled to stay active in extracurricular activities. I did not feel like a nineteen year old, instead I felt forced to grow up and handle responsibilities I never even imagined I would have to handle. Despite my best efforts to do well in my courses, I finished the semester with C’s in my remaining classes. This to me was considered

In my high school years I faced great hardship because of the abuse inflicted by mother. She moved me to different high schools throughout my high school career to isolate me from my peers and from teachers. My mother did not want me to have a relationship with anyone outside the family because she did not want me to divulge the abuse I experienced in the past and present to any of my teachers. My freshmen year I left Dalton high after only a few months and was moved to Southeast High School. Then my sophomore year she moved me to Northwest High School. I stayed at Northwest through Junior year of high school. The summer of Junior year my mom withdrew me from attending classes in person at Northwest Whitfield and she had me take classes online and dual enrolled at Dalton State College. Once again she isolated me from my peers and put me in a in a situation where I did not have a support group or any high school teachers around to seek help from. When I trend 18 years old my mother kicked me out of the house because she did not want me anymore.

My family happens to be deeply religious, conservative and often closed minded about certain aspects of life. In other words, everything that they tend to support and believe in as a family unit, tends to be something I can not personally agree with. As anyone can imagine, this has deeply affected my interpersonal relationship with my family in a negative impact. As an adult, I have come to my own conclusions about my personal beliefs about life and what those entail for myself. These beliefs are usually the exact opposite of what I grew up with, much to the disappointment of my family which has created a deep divide between us. This has probably affected my relationship with my father the most, as he has always been the most outspoken about his disappointment.

Growing up in Baltimore City, in a lower working class family has afforded me more opportunities than one would think. People may consider the problems I have encountered as a child dreadful; however, I was able to use those issues as tools for personal development. My environment shaped me to be who I am today. Facing poverty and homelessness impacted my core self. Nonetheless, instead of letting those factors deter my life, I allowed them to guide my future.

From the time I was born until the age of twelve, my family struggled with the basic necessities of life. My father worked endless hours in a factory, and yet somehow came home with a smile on his face. As a young kid, I never knew we were struggling. The thought had never occurred to me. As I got older I started to realize that my single father was working his life away to care and provide for his two little girls. He completely put aside his well-being because as long as his girls were cared for, nothing else mattered. Life was never easy, but as a young adult today, I have come to accept that my background has been a prerequisite for greatness, for it is our backgrounds that define who we are. The way we are raised, the way we are taught to believe, and the way we are taught to act, make us who we are today.

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.

Subsequently, my mother saw my pain and decided to relocate back to Atlanta. I became acquainted with some children from the wrong side of the tracks and my life began to spiral out of control. I would stay out late on school nights and often missed school because I thought hanging out with my new found family was more important. Soon my grades began to plummet. I saw no way to bring up my grades and decided to drop out of high school in the twelfth grade.

Many people in life have gone through a turning point in their life that either changed their own life or someone else's life. This is mine.

As I step out of my room, it seems to be that everyone is quiet and all the members in the

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.