My Family: Life in Rural America Essay examples

I leaned my head against the car window watching the leaves blowing around, just trying to distract myself from a slight feeling of emptiness inside of me. This feeling seemed all too familiar to me. My family and I had all of our possessions packed into boxes yet again. We were moving to a new state. At this point, up rooting our lives and starting over almost seemed more like a hobby than anything more significant. However, I have just now come to realize that what seemed like constant inconveniences in the past, have actually taught me how to be the best me with influences all around the country. Living in three different states and five homes may have been a challenge, but it provided me with memories that I wouldn’t trade for anything because those moments created the person I am today.

Growing up in a small town can lead to one having a very narrow-minded attitude. In a place where almost everyone is the same skin-color, has the same socioeconomic status, and follows the same way of thinking, anyone who fails to conform to the standard can be viewed as an outcast, subject to judgment from those who are looking in. I was someone who fell into this trap. I looked down upon people who were different from me, people who had vastly different ideas, dressed differently, or never tried to perform well in school. I failed to understand or welcome the distinctions between people, and never tried to get to know those who were so different from me.

The PBS Frontline documentary “Two American Families”, produced by Bill Moyers, follows two middle class families in Milwaukie, one black and one white, for over a decade as they struggle to achieve the “American Dream”. This documentary mirrors the struggle of so many American families who work hard and play by the rules, yet fall victim in a struggling economy to a series of policy decisions made. The hand of policy ineffectively steered the lives of the two families featured, the Neumann’s and Stanley’s, despite their hard work ethic and sincere determination to succeed. Many policy implications played a role in the documentary, including those around education, institutional racism, taxation, overseas jobs

Family seems to be a big topic in manys books but even bigger on the web and through cyberspace. Perry Patetic in his excerpt argues that our highly mobile and growing society is creating a lack of relationship with family and friends. The author supports his argument by first explaining how easy it is to just move away. He continues by explaining how far we do travel when we do move away and by what mode of transportation. The authors purpose is to persuade the audience to not travel far from family and stay relatively close so that relationships can be kept, preserved, and maintained. The author establishes a sincere tone for families. The authors argument is invalid because we are in the age of online technology and services that allow us to see family from afar and cherish the few moments that we get in person.

Living in a less populated town, I formulated close tied friends, in which my parents grew up with their parents. Since everyone knows each other and builds one’s security,

In the mid the seventeenth century, the Amish movement was founded in Europe at the time of the Protestant Reformation. They are derived from a group impatient with the pace of reform in the existing churches. One of the main issues is baptism. A group of Anabaptists practise adult baptism. Religion is the basis of Amish life. They believe they must obey God at all times.

Family is a basic unit in every society. However, the makeup of a family is more complex to define. There are so many types of families that it is impossible to have one distinct definition in trying to explain how a true family is defined. For example, there are married couples with or without children, single-parent families, and even families headed by gay men or lesbians. These may not have been considered families not too long ago, but now must be recognized because we live in such a diverse society. What I want to focus on is the African-American family, in terms of what they had to go through before, during, and after slavery. As well as, where they are now and where it’s going in the future.

Growing up I believed that the three bears in the tale of Goldilocks were a family because they lived under the same roof and ate at the same table. I also believed that Barbie and her little sister, Skipper, were family because they looked alike, and that Mr. Potato Head and Mrs. Potato Head were family because they were married. Now that I am grown, my understanding of family has matured, and many sources have helped shape my belief. Carol Shields points out in her article, “Family Is One of the Few Certainties We Will Take with Us Far into the Future,” that all around us there are different definitions and symbols of family (Shields 558). In short, a family does not have to conform to

I shared a home with my sister, brother, mother, our grandfather, and our great-grandmother in a small community outside of Holly Springs, MS, named Chulahoma. At the age of six I began attending a one-room school three miles away from my home. I made the long trek there every morning, accompanied by my teacher and my two siblings. Our family raised a farm, which we helped with the upkeep of. We were fortunate enough that we didn’t have to live in poverty. On the farm, we raised chickens, cows, and hogs, which we used for food, so we had all the meat we needed. There was also a pond nearby where we fished, my mother especially loved fishing.

Picture your average neighborhood. A neighborhood in which families get together for one or two barbecues a year, but they solely consist of awkward silences because finding the time to get together throughout the year is too difficult. A neighborhood in which cards of sympathy are sent to the family down the street who recently lost a loved one. Now if you picture a neighborhood in which neighbors took the time to develop deep, trusting relationships, you would be picturing my neighborhood. We would gather several times a year and there was never a dull moment because kids would be playing intense games of capture the flag and adults would be laughing about who would win the next round of Euchre. If a family lost a loved one, all of the other neighbors would immediately get together and organize who would bring lasagna on certain days and what type of flowers everyone would pitch in for. No matter the circumstance, the families in my neighborhood continue to be committed to long lasting relationships; however, these relationships are often challenged. With the recent passings of neighbors, Karen Fought and Michael Young, and the moving of my family and I, I found it hard to reconnect with my old neighbors. When I did, however, it opened my eyes to the significance of commitment in a Community and in

My family is in the middle class, along with an estimated 33.9% of the population of St. Cloud (US Census Bureau). My social class has altered over the years as the situation in my household, such as children moving out and parents switching jobs, has changed. Eleven children in one household has played a significant role in whether my parents’ income was actually substantial. The average household in America has 2.63 people living in it (US Census Bureau).

The year I was born, my parents left the educational woes of Buffalo City Schools and fled to the rolling hills and small town life in our tiny village of East Aurora, New York. The only house I have any recollection of is situated on a few acres of forest with a trickling stream meandering its way around the property. This setting was my first classroom and nature was my first teacher.

Everything was about to change, we wouldn’t order take-out on Sundays, it was a big deal, I was losing my best friend, the only father figure I have ever had so far. I watched him taking all of his stuff out of the apartment, I was getting more and more mad. Wasn’t our beautiful relationship enough to make him stay? I even blame myself I thought I had done something wrong, maybe wearing his clothes and leaving them all messy, I apologize and swear not to do it again, but it didn’t matter the decision was already made.

I would have never thought that I would grow up to love the country life. I went from growing up in a big, busy, and hectic city, to a small, slow-paced, and simple town. I was so used to having neighbors, and walking and biking on a side-walk. Now I live on a gravel road with almost no neighbors. A change in environment really influences a person's personality. I now love the silence and hearing the birds chirp and coyete’s howl. The corn fields go on for miles and the sunsets are breathtaking.

No one can’t meet a family like mine’s. My family is well diversified. Every family member plays an important role in all my family’s lives. In my family, there are four people: my father, my mother, my little brother and me. My father is one who brings money home and is also responsible for organizing and planning family trips. My mother is the one who is in charge for making meals and makes sure everyone eats at the appropriate times. My little brother is the pet of the family. He actually doesn’t have any responsibilities, for he’s the pet. I am the rock of support in my family. I always go beyond my parents’ expectations. I also support my younger cousins and little brother, by being a role model that they can look up to. Another