My Extended Family

I closed the door, and I held that piece of jewelry in my hand for twenty-six hours, all the way down to my new home in Florida. I remember stepping out of the truck into the warm, stifling air. I inhaled deeply and thought to myself, this is it, this is where my new life begins. This is where I show my family that I am strong, I’ll show them that nothing can break me down now. I was alone in the beginning part of my new life. It taught me strength I didn’t know I had. People just need to hope and believe that old relationships can kindle back together, which they did when we were able to move back home to CT. Having to change everything so quickly at such a young age made me realize that everything really does happen for a reason and life will fall back into place when you just have a little hope and understanding. I grew up to be the woman I am today because of learning what reality can be, having to mature at such a young age, and in being one structure that helped to hold my family together through this difficult time. The hard times were a learning point that created the beautiful and meaningful things I have in my life today and I would not go back and change anything that has

Going through my parent’s divorce was very life changing for me. I went through so many emotions, which until this day is a topic that is hard for me to talk about. It was very sad not seeing my parents together, having no clue where my dad was and seeing my mom sad. I would love to spend time with my parents and brothers. For example, our Sunday’s mornings, seeing my mom cook breakfast, watching my dad drink his cup of coffee, watching TV with my brothers, then playing Latin music seeing my parents dance. I loved that so much. So not having that out of

Generations upon generations of people have been thriving in Spanish speaking countries. Cuba is no different, through traditional clothing and special holidays they always are in tune with the past. With flamboyant traditional attire, that rivals the suns bright color and Spring flowers, coupled with fun to watch free flowing up beat music like Guaguancó or Pachanga, the Cuban culture is very exciting. In order to start to describe my family ties with Cuba, I will use an analogy: With every spin of a vibrant dress it seems as if the hands of time slowly turn back time. As the clock goes back so does my family history. In the early 1920's my great grandmother and her family made the trip from Spain to Cuba. Ever since then my family has had bearings

Tears streamed down my face as I said my goodbyes to my parents, getting ready to leave them for the entire summer. It finally hit me that I was essentially stepping out into the “real world” without my parents right by my side to take care of me and look out for me. They couldn’t come with me due to work and it was a scary thought. Granted that I was only 10 years old, I was going to miss my parents. I didn’t know whether or not I was mentally prepared to take a 14-hour plane ride (what felt like forever) half way across the world to visit my relatives in Seoul, Korea.

BUSP program, to me, represents a family that will aid me in order not to fail academically. I want to be part of the BUSP family because I want to be prepared for the Upper division classes.I want to be part of research projects regardless of the topic or of how short or inessential they may be. I need to challenge myself in new areas of the scientific field and gain knowledge needed to succeed as a researcher. In addition, I want to be fully prepared for graduate school and any work-environment I can find after I graduate. I have never had the opportunity to work in a laboratory and I want to experience the process of being a scientist. Participating in BUSP is meaningful to me because it will be a golden opportunity. This program will allow

My family cultural background did not differentiate vastly from a lot of my peers despite the difference in our distinct physical appearance. Nonetheless, while living in a rather diverse area most of the families were completely composed of a singular race. Furthermore, although it is much more common for multiracial families today I still have rarely ever met someone of Filipino descent. As pervious stated my mother’s side of the family is predominately Filipino with a hint of French. My father’s side of the family is majority German with additional roots of Irish and Native American. While it seems like my family was an anomaly in my childhood, my parents were ingrained enough in American culture for me to experience the

My grandmother and her siblings lived near a grocery store with old fashion wooden floor as well as freshly picked fruits and vegetables from the farm. My grandmother stated the rent prices was different compare to her days and her oldest sister had to pay only $6.50 for rent. My grandmother said back in her time a nickel was worth a whole lot and If you had a dime you were considered to have a lot of money. To return to the subject, after losing their mother, another tragedy strikes seven years later when my grandmother finds out her younger sister Veronica got married. My grandmother stated from her days you could get married at the age of fifteen if you had parents ' permission. Everyone was so upset because he or she thinks her sister was too young to get married and did not trust her husband. My grandmother said he kept saying he would kill somebody and go to jail. My grandmother said her sister husband started to give her bad vibes. To change the topic my grandmother also said one day when her sister was in bed trying to go to sleep her husband was in the bathroom taking a bath. She felt something poking at her side and turn around to see what it was. It was a bunch of knives in the bed with her. Fear for her life she left silently while her husband was still in the bathroom. One day my grandmother sister spouse had called her sister to meet him on the track. Hesitant she went to meet him that morning. After my grandmother sister was done talking to him, she turns to

As a kid our parents have always told us to never talk to strangers. Not because they are bad people or dangerous, but instead because you simply do not know anything about them. When I was younger my dad always use to tell me, “Noah if you ever find yourself around a lot of strangers turn around and go back to where you came from.” It may be a cliché but every parent has said that to their children before, at least once. Let me first say that my family only consists of 6 people. Now, you may be thinking that is too small; there is definitely more than six people in his family. By blood, yes you would be correct. I count a real family as people who would give their shirt off their backs for you. Those people in my life are my mom, dad, sister, grandpa, and grandma. The rest of my blood relatives are what you could say, “hypocrites”- they say one thing to you and then their actions speak a completely different language. It’s like that one friend that says, “Bro, I’m outside.” but when you look out the window he isn’t within a mile from your house. At first it’s kind of funny, you joke around about it; but come that third and fourth time they do it you start losing trust in them and start taking everything they say with a grain of salt. Trust within my family is a huge characteristic for me and I believe that quality should be very important to everyone. Ontop of trust comes the momma rule that everybody should follow. The momma rule is, “I can talk back to my mom but if

I grew up in a household slightly different from the average household. This abnormal household showed me that no matter the family unit someone can have a positive influence in their life that will push them to achieve their goals. We lived in Maryland so the cost of living was high my parents had to work multiple jobs. This means my brother and I really had little to none parental or supervision growing up. I am only four years younger than my brother so I would hang with his crowd of friends rather than mine. In my household, my mother’s niece, Monet lived with us she is about ten years older than my brother. When my brother and I would wake up and I would be the only person in the house. I can remember waking up and smelling the freshly cooked waffles and bacon downstairs. Monet was my mother’s brother, daughter. Monet became so close to my brother Avery and I she was almost as if she was our sister. I can remember growing up and she would always say, “You don't have to take the route I took, its many more exits on the highway.” Even though I was young I was not blind to the fact of Monet role in the community and her neighborhood job I never judged her, she did what she had to do to make ends meet. It was an experience every day, or anytime being with Monet. She was so popular around Maryland it was almost like everywhere we went we received respect love. Now that I look back at the past, I see that Monet has taught me a lot that I know and live by today. I could

Last summer, I was at the Ohio State Fair. It was a beautiful, sunny day. The wind was blowing and out of the corner of my eye, I recognized a longtime friend from secondary school. We embraced each other in friendship. I introduced him to my two beautiful children. He was with his two children also. When I asked what he was doing there, he announced he had only come from Kentucky to attend the Ohio State Fair. After the introductions, we decided to stay together as a group. It was a happy time and we talked about our relationships. I told him about my beautiful wife of eight years. My friend could not say the same. He had experienced a divorce with the mother of his children. We took a time to look at the different animals, which then made us reflect back to Sierra Leone. At this moment, I remembered had it not been for summer I would not have had enough time to process such a thought. We watched our children ride roller coasters and simultaneously conversed about life and back home.

Families have played a crucial role in the formation of civilization since the beginning of time. Although the definition of what a family consists of has constantly changed and evolved, the main idea behind the raising and continuation of the human race has always been the primary goal. As different individuals and groups have risen to power- and fallen from it- there have been different political and economic shifts that have impacted the ideals behind family. Oftentimes, people would be highly impacted by such worldly changes and it would create personal problems leading to emigration as well as other hardships. Mills discusses the way that personal troubles are often contrasted with public issues even though they typically intertwine or relate in one way or another.

would hurt me so much seeing my friend’s dads be there for them while mine was nowhere around. The question of why was I not good enough popped up into my head multiple times. My mom would always tell me that it was my dad’s loss. He was missing out on my life.

As a little kid I have always saw my family come together at the dinner table at the end of the day and really get together and talk about all the gossip and what things still have to be done. That was the routine and I thought it was something we were always going to do till we die but I was wrong. As sad it is to admit that good things never last it seems like this was something I came to realize was slowly but surely dying off in tradition. So who is to blame the parents, children, or the industries and society because fast food easy and quick didn’t require a homemade meal so there is less time spent at home, in the kitchen, and at the dining table with your family.

There are things more important than money in life. As the days pass by, someone dies or is born. There are some who live their lives with nowhere to call home.Dreaming of having a place to sleep and eat and be comfortable at. There are some who live their lives, knowing that the next day they won’t be able to wake up. Hoping that they get to stay alive another day to feel the warmth of the sunshine on their face, to smell the freshly made breakfast, and to be healthy again. And there are those who live their lives with no family, dying to know how it feels to be embraced by your parents. Some people never experienced having a family. Some people, including kids were never able to stay healthy. And some people never experienced what a roof on top of their heads would be like. I am thankful to have a home where I feel secure. I am thankful to be in a healthy condition. I am thankful to have a family.

In the beginning, I only knew the life of the spoiled baby in the family. Then five years down the road, came a nine pound bundle of sickness. As a baby my little brother Matthew was in and out of hospitals. The sickly baby was not the only thing my parents made, along with the baby came jealousy and competition. So from going to getting most of mom and dad’s attention, to getting virtually none, my life began to get pretty difficult as a five year old. Instead of spending the weekends at home with my family, I spent them wondering when I would get to see my mom and dad again. Getting bossed around by my older sister, Hannah and my older brother, Jacob, made me miss them even more. After seeing Matthew in the hospital I felt guilty for being jealous of all of the attention he was getting. But I was 5,and dumb. At this time, everything I knew about my family was changing. I had to learn to be a little more independent and at the same time be someone people could depend on.