My Family In My Life

“Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations” (Deuteronomy 7:9). Through all generations of my family leading up to today, my family, on my mother and father’s sides, all practice the same faith. All of my family is Catholic, most of my friends growing up were catholic, and everywhere I looked, my faith was an important part of my life. I went to private school for nine years; the same one many of my cousins and my siblings attended. All of the people around me when I was a child prayed and worshiped like I was taught to do. They were the ones that influenced me to go deeper into my faith. Through the daily religion classes and weekly masses, to the teachers and priest that influenced my morals and values, I look back on those days as times I cherish. I had learned to open my heart and let others in to take a part in my life. I set boundaries for myself to be a respectful person and keep my faith. And most importantly, I am a life worth living as we are all made from the same image of God. Private school is the reason I am the person I have grown to be today and I will become tomorrow.

In the beginning there was a happy family with two sweet kids. This family is my family.

My parents were teenagers when they got married. It was puppy love, and they felt forced to be married before I enter the world so that they wouldn’t embarrass my grandparents. My mother, Heather, was twenty-one years old when she gave birth to me in 1991. I had no issues as an infant, and I was a healthy baby. However, at two months old, I got salmonella poisoning because my father cleaned my bottles near raw chicken. I spent some time in the hospital until I was healthy. I came home from the hospital, and my mom and dad were getting adapted to taking care of a new infant. At three months old, my mother decided that she and my father were no longer meant to be together and had rushed into marriage to soon. She decided to get a divorce, and it was finalized by the time I was the age of one year old. Shortly after the divorce, my mother met Stephen, and my dad met Dawn. These two people were introduced into my life at a young age, and eventually played the stepparents role in my life. I resided in Buzzards Bay at my grandparent’s house after the divorce. I lived with my grandparents, my mother, and my aunt. My grandparents played a huge role in raising me. Nana helped raise me. She would watch me most of the time as my mother worked two jobs as a young single parent to make sure she took care of my needs and me. From ages 0-7, I was an only child. I was an advanced toddler because my playmates were primarily adults. At one year old, I was talking in complete sentences and I

John F. Kennedy once said, ”Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.” This quote explains how much of a support my grandparents, family, and a safe country mean to me. I am very thankful for my grandparents who support me all the time and come to sporting events and love to hear about school when they call at night. I am also thankful for my amazing family, who always stand by me everyday and love to hear about my school day and come to baseball games even when they don’t really want to. Some of the other things that I am also thankful for are that we can live safe happy lives, we don’t have to be drafted into the Army, etc. Lastly, I am thankful for a safe country that has a great armed forces, leaders, and is very generous. Moreover, I am thankful for a safe country, family, and my amazing grandparents.

My family growing up was very connected with the community. My dad was on the police man for the town of Sleepy Hollow and served as a board member for the town of West Dundee. My brothers and I learned how to care for and about others from the example our dad set. My grandfather died when I was quite young so I cannot say if he was an example for my dad, his brother and two sisters. For this paper, I will discuss my father and his family in parallel with myself and my brothers. I and my father, are the youngest. My father had three siblings and I have two. The relationship between my father and his two older siblings was very strong. My father’s relationship with the sister just a couple of years older than him has been strained since the death of my grandmother in 1983. I have a strained relationship with my eldest brother. The relationship I have with my brother who is just two years older is better, but still strained. I grew up in a strict catholic family that went to catholic school and attended whichever church my father was a deacon at. This is important because back in the 1970’s and 1980’s families did not talk about things that happened. My family was not any different. Everything, bad was swept under the table never to be spoken of.

I was born and grew up in Ethiopia, moving to America three years ago. Ethiopia is one of the traditional country where most of the population and the economy rely on agriculture. I was born in small rural town called Akaki in the southern part of Addis Ababa City. My family depends on agriculture, my parents grow crops like teff, barley, hard wheat and sorghum, which is the common ingredients for our day to day meal. The production of these crops takes place in traditional farming. I am the youngest kid in my family, that means I am free from any responsibilities in my culture my older siblings do most of the things in our family. I spent most of the time playing with my friends. Everyone in my family loves me. If something happens with in our family, the oldest one are accountable and responsible, even I am a young and grown guy, this thing makes me lazy and spoiled person.

Our parents are very hard-working people. Our parents both work day and nights. They embody the “American Dream”. .My father was always hustling and bustling whether it was in the states or overseas. So, he was not as much a part of my brother and I’s childhood as we had hoped. My mother, on the other hand, took the role of dual-parenting and took care of us at home. Though, she was also busy clocking in and out. We made the most of our time together and they were the most memorable moments. At the end of the day, life treated my brother and I really well. With that, our parents could not leave us to fend for ourselves at home alone--me being three years old with a younger brother and all. But,. growing up, my brother and I spent our childhood with one of our close cousin, ‘tina’s, grandmother. She had a special nickname, “Meema”, that everyone knew her by.

For me, having a big family is a lifetime full of love, happiness, and struggles. One out of the three most magnificent moments of my life, my kids and I were playing at the park and that's when I experienced love at first sight with a man named Paul. He had three daughters with him that were instant friends with my two sons. This was the day where my family grew from three to seven. I remember the very certain day in January since it is going to be our first anniversary this upcoming year of 2018. After a break up with my kid's father, I thought I'd never find a man that would love my two kids and I. Every day, I asked my grandmother, who I called Nana, up in heaven if she could send a good man my way to love and cherish my kid's and I, and then one day my she answered my prayer. When my spouse and his daughters came into my life, they filled the hole that was missing from my heart when my Nana passed away and my life felt like I was back to normal. His daughters are the little girls I always had wanted because I tied my tubes after my second son was born so I am not able to have any more children. My family of seven started in 2012 with my firstborn son, Shane.

I decided to do this over family because we all know at one point in time we have taken for granted the parents we have or the happy moments of family. Family is very important to me because I got experience so much because of them. My brother is a big part of my life, he helped me be the person I am. He coming into my life made it so I could see the world differently.

My family is really amazing. They are very special and unique too. Everyday my family supports us to do the best we can each day, and I admire that. Every day when I am with my parents, I feel safe and and overjoyed with happiness. They care about me, and I care about them. That’s what basically makes us a fantastic family. When I am with my brother, I know that there is someone always there beside me, no matter where I go. When I have my pets, and I see them exactly where I left them before I left, I know they love us because they didn’t try to escape. That way, I know they don’t want to leave. In summary, my pets, parents, and my brother all make me happy and support me in a way. Day by day, no matter what, I know that my family has got my back. They said it themselves. I am sure of it.

I would be the first out of my family to graduate college and I was the first to graduate high school out of 3 generations. My father was a Marine for 10 years, he choose a different path instead of going to college or finishing high school. He joined the war overseas to serve his country and I am proud of him. He always told me to never join any branch because he saw a future for me that he wanted me to invest in an education and better myself in everything I do. My brothers and sister choose horrible paths and yet I was different than the rest of the family. I wanted my mother and father proud of me and I wanted my country to be proud of me. Instead of doing drugs, drinking and partying. I was the odd kid growing up that invested myself into books and dreamed of the endless possibilities that I can became. I thought different jobs of what I can do to help my community and not fall into the evil path as my brothers and sister did. Dad always told me that I was his shining star, I didn’t really understand what was going on with family until I got out of high school. Drugs and alcohol can really screw up people lives. I am living proof that you can choose the right path to become a better citizen.

Most people think that their lives would be perfect if only certain conditions were met, or circumstances would turn in their favor. I know many of my friends would choose to be rich and famous. Others may choose simple things, like a new house or a car, even a better job. For me, my life would be perfect with these three things. To have more time with my family, have more love and less hate in the world.

The most important thing for me in my life is my family. Although we are separated during the week, we would hardly see each other. Deep down they are the reason why I look forward to Fridays and Sundays. These days are not just any ordinary day of the week for me and my family. My two beloved aunts Maria and Luz come to visit me and my mother, most of the time we go out of town, which makes the rest of the day go by very fast. Then what we usually do during the week.

Every year me and my dearest family and beloved friends would embark on a journey to my long deceased Uncle’s manor.My uncle died in the year 1867 at the age of eighty, the doctors never quite understood how he died but when he was found the maid said that he was holding a picture of tree which stood in the house gardens.However this picture was never seen after the maid put it on the mantelpiece after his death, nor the tree.

I remember my mother and my aunties saying when I was growing up that our generation was too much premature in certain domain of life and that their times it was different. It goes without saying that I started paying attention to the environment and the people around me and noticed that the phenomenon of boyfriend and girlfriend is so vividly emphasize by the TV, in cartoon that every 12 years old girls were discussing about the last night they passed with their love one. Adding to that, the idea of Globalization that advocates a interdependent world, contribute to the share and the spread of behaviors that normally did not exist in some countries. Nowadays, having a boyfriend and a girlfriend is totally normal and for the one who are not