My Family Story

For the past seventeen years of my life minus a few months, I have lived in the United States. I grew up skiing and bicycling in Grand Rapids, Michigan, until my family decided to move all the way out west to Flagstaff, Arizona. Many eleven-year-olds might become stubborn and defensive in response to such a massive, life-changing move, but I remember embracing it because I was with my family, and I was ready to face any obstacle that unveiled itself to me because I knew that my late comedic father, my worrisome mother, and my troublesome brother would be right by my side. As we made the two-day drive from Michigan to Arizona in our SUV together, we watched the numbers on the odometer crawl up more and more until there were 2,000 more miles on the car than there were when we started, and we

My personal narrative has to do with my journey alongside my family in an event that we all faced. When I was in fourth grade my father got cancer. I am not over protective of the fact that he did, in fact I am quite open on the subject. If they haven’t forgotten, then my friends know, and classmates at the time did know. In this way it is very personal, but also a shared story. As I stated earlier, my father got cancer when I was in fourth grade. This can certainly be considered an unusual childhood. I do not think that many children have had their parents go through cancer when they were around this age. My family spent lots of time in this situation. We were open with this fact, and people had helped us. My fourth grade class

My grandmother’s parents immigrated to Johnstown, Pennsylvania from a small town in Poland close to Warsaw. As a young child she spoke two languages Polish at home and English when she went to school or with friends. Life started out very difficult and never really got any easier.. Her life continued to get worse when she lost her husband in a mining accident and her eldest son to a car accident. My grandma used to tell me the stories of their deaths, and how it taught her how strong she really is. She turned the hardships in her life into something beautiful, something joyous, and something sentimental. These moments shaped her into who she is, but they do not define her. These moments that she shares allow me to move on and find something joyful about every situation even if they are not be ideal. When my grandfather passed away my grandmother gave me the strength to look on the brighter side of the situation instead of the sad side.

Getting to interview my Mammam has given me a different look on how she lived as kid. For social studies this year I got to interview my Mammam and learning about her town and how she grew up was so interesting. My grandma, Maureen, grew up in Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania in a middleclass family. She had eight kids in her family including herself, and this affected how she grew up because the older kids had to help the younger kids. Everyone had to chip in. It’s the same today because I’m the youngest in my family and my older siblings help me all the time. Mount Carmel was a small town with a population of 5,000 people, so everyone knew everyone in her town. She lived close to family too. It affected her life because she was always surrounded by family. She had aunts and uncles that lived just down the street from her.

At that time it was the most logical decision that one could have made. If it were you, would you have done the same? To protect his family and to give them the opportunity of a lifetime was one thing that he, my father Yong X. Vang, would never regret doing. He is a man who for the sake of the Americans, fought in the Secret War which then led him through many hardships and guided him and his family to where they are today.

Hi my names Karlee Haase and I'm going to tell you about my crazy family.In my family I have a mom and dad a brother named Jarrod and a sister named Sophie, Jarrod's 16 and Sophie's 10. I'm going to tell you a story about when my siblings,cousins and I had a sleepover at our

My family heritage starts back when the greek gods had just been made. Prometheus was creating humans and their attributes now he didn’t get it first try. He made like 5 then he made my great ancestor on his 6th try, his 7th was the best one he used, now everything was right with my ancestors but one thing. He pushed my ancestor to the side and didn’t use them. Later the Celtic gods found them and used them in there big group. Now since they had sat there so long they changed to live longer but faced bad late blooming and late life cycle attributes. So they put in my ancestor on earth and he was named Piner Jamieson, why Jamieson you might ask, well Pine is a tree and Celts loved their plants and nature. But Jamieson is a Scottish word for overtaking government, but as

During the period of 2008 -2011 my family went through a strong period of turmoil. My father was working in a city that was declared by the United Nations the “most dangerous city in the world, not officially declared under war.” This had many effects on us, in terms of loss from loved ones to the danger my father was in at a daily basis. This relentless violence was the sole reason why we relocated. Further, switching colleges several times as we finally settled in Tennessee. This rollercoaster of emotions and events is what affected me, I struggled with depression from the situation. This period of hardship most definitely was an obstacle to my learning. The initial part of my college career was cluttered with distractions, which took away

My life is very common with the story I tracked my phone my dad’s phone my mom’s phone and my sisters phone. Some of the story is very similar and some of it is not similar at all.

Moving to a different place taught me that home doesn’t have to be a place, it can be a person. On a humid day in the Philippines at my great grandma’s house, I had just finished watching my favorite TV show, Tom and Jerry, sitting on the couch with my feet raised up on a stool. My great grandma called me in to eat dinner amid watching my show. She also called my younger brother, Kurt, who was playing with his Beyblade toys on the floor. I told my brother to clean up his beyblades that were scattered throughout the floor before he could go eat dinner. After he finished cleaning, we both walked to the dining room, pulled each of our seats out, and sat on them waiting for our food. It was only my younger brother, my great grandma, and I. During that time I realized something was missing: my mother.

Have you ever lost a close one, friends, family? Once you experience a loss, everything changes. It’s a life changing experience, it’s the worst feeling in the world. When losing someone, you look back and have so many regrets. You start to think “Could I have been a better person for them?”. It’s permanent, once they are gone, they are gone.

My family's experience and cultural history have presented me with multiple challenges in pursuing my educational goals. My parents suffered many hardships, they worked long shifts at night in terrible job conditions just because they didn’t have the education to get a better job. Those obstacles forged my characters and taught my family to embrace challenges, and not try to dodge it or complain about it. By observing the struggles of my parents, I learned the role of education in success at early age. Having parents who were not college educated and had little idea of how American schools worked was hard at times. I was presented with challenges in accomplishing my school obligations such homework and planning out to increase my education

My family legacy all started when my dad decided to immigrate to the United States. Life was tough back in China during the 1980’s. The government was corrupt and all the ideologies from the government failed resulting in a mass famine that was widespread throughout the country. Both of my grandparents died when my dad was only fifteen years old and was forced to work with his siblings to support the family. They worked for twelve hours a day with no sleep and barely any wage. Finally, my dad had enough of it and was ready to move to the land of opportunity. He was ready to bring his hard work and determination to the United States.

In the beginning, the loss of my Pa was hard to process. I was in total shock. In my mind, " there was no way Pa was dead". Two days before I had just visited him. Once reality hit, the emotional issues emerged. Feelings of anger, sadness, disbelief, crying, you name it I experienced it. By the grace of The Most High being in a close-knit family assisted me with pulling together in that trying moment. My Mother, Siblings, Cousins, extended family, ectera, were instrumental in how I handled the grief. At first, I participated in unhealthy forms of coping with Pa's transition. For example, when my family wanted to drink in excess in remembrance of Pa, I was there. Alcohol allowed me a way to numb the pain. Another unhealthy way I coped was oversleeping

I interviewed my dad Greg Kivlahan, Greg had a very fun but hard life. His dad owned a company called Kivlahan & Sons Construction, Greg worked there when he was fifteen. He was born on December 20, 1966 in Dubuque, Iowa. Greg, grew up in Dubuque and has lived in Dubuque all his life. Greg was born, at Finley hospital.