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

I have always been close to my family of five. My family is what made me strive for greatness and what made life joyful. I felt like everything was perfect and that I was on top of the world. However, this all changed when I entered an unfamiliar apartment that had all my belongings. I was only eleven when my parents split up, and the age where I had to grow up fast. My parent’s separation is something that holds me back till this day. For two years, I felt like I was on my own because my parents were never home. It seemed like my sisters and I were the ones being punished. There were countless nights where my sisters and I cried because of this sense of emptiness. My parents did not think we had to depend on them anymore, but they did not

On a Sunday morning of March 15 1998, we woke up super early to the phone ringing on the other side was my dad. My grandmother answered the phone her face paled as she heard the words “mom I shot myself.” After talking to him for a bit my grandmother rushed out of her room to get my uncle up and they rushed to the house to see him up walking around with a hole in his stomach. Ambulance came to get him then rushed him to meet life force. He flat lined once on the helicopter. They were able to bring him back and stabilized him, and kept him stabled till they got to the hospital. They rushed him immediately into the OR, it was around 15 to 20 minutes into surgery that he had passed away, they were unable to bring him back due to the major loss of blood. My mom soon remarried and I gained two annoying step brothers and a step dad. One step brother didn’t bother me to bad, the other one poked and picked on me trying to pick fights. My step dad had episodes where he was violent and threw things at me and my mom. I withdrew more and more until a few of my friends literally grabbed me by my arm and told me to wake up that they were not going to let me push them away

I longed to spend time with my father. One night after school, I went up to my Dad nervously not knowing how he would react and ask him if he would like to play checkers with me, like we normally did. Following this, he screamed at me, told me to go to my room, and told me to leave him alone. I went to my room full of sadness and emotional pain feeling betrayed by

It was on a Tuesday and we were in the car alone as he was the one driving. He asked me about school and before he had finished talking, I rolled my eyes and responded: “it’s none of your business”. I continued without looking at him “you don’t always have to ask me about my day, you’re just my dad”. It was terrifying, but I did it. It was the most horrifying thing I have ever done, in fact, I almost chickened out. I did the same thing to my mom an hour later. I was only able to do this because my mom had no idea of what had happened, my dad had just dropped me off and went to work. I was kind of nervous and scared about doing it again because of how my dad had reacted. She said hi to me and chatted for a while. She told me to go freshen and come help her clean. I Interrupted and told her no and as she was about to speak again, I rolled my eyes and went upstairs. She was shook and didn’t react until a minute

I sat on my bed with my arms wrapped tightly around my pillow swaying back and forth. My mom lightly knocked on my door and asked if she could come in. I tried to wipe away the stains left by my long stream of tears, but I felt my skin sting and eyes swell instead. She asked if I wanted to talk about it, but my response got stuck in my throat, so all I could do was shake my head and shove my head deep inside my pillow. Her bare feet smacked on the concrete as she made her way over to my bed. Her weight made an indent in the corner of my mattress as she sat down and laid a hand on my back.

Before my mom sent me and my dad off to find help, she was on the phone with the roadside assistance which seemed like forever. All of a sudden we then realized the gas station wasn’t that far down the road, at least that is what we thought. We started to walk to the gas station, our foots sinking in the mud, the cold mud rises to our ankles. We immediately turn around knowing that this wasn’t the right decision. The gas station was longer than we thought, it was not even visible. Trudging back to the car we come to find my mom on speakerphone with the phone ringing. It goes straight to

I was around 12 years old when i heard my mother yell my name from the kitchen. Alarmed, i ran to the kitchen and saw her holding my step-father back. I was very confused, it must have been very serious if she called me into one of their argument. While still holding him back trying to keep him away from me, she told me to call the police,”Call 911!”,she said. I ran to the first phone i could find; they were all ripped from the cord. I didn’t know what to do, i couldn’t go back to the kitchen where i was exposed to my step-father. I ran outside to our next door neighbor; knowing they had their huge pitbull unleashed i hesitated to take another step. What was i going to do? Go back to the kitchen and tell my mom i can’t call the police because

After how long I have waited, I did not want to get that trip taken away. I dreadfully got back into the car, realizing I needed to be quiet and not say anything because it made the situation worse. Minutes dripped by slowly slipping through my mind. My phone was taken away so I could not blank everybody out through music. The car ride was long and enduring even though no one had talked so it seemed to move faster. It started off as a whisper and I could tell something was up due to my dad’s facial expression. He started yelling at my mom over the situation and that she should have just left me alone. I agreed with him strongly nonetheless I did not like seeing my mom upset and flustered. Out of nowhere, words slipped from my mouth and passed through the car hitting my dad hard. I was sticking up for my mom because it was instinct. I realized that this whole thing was my fault and our family time had been destroyed speedily over an issue that could have been resolved so easily. My dad pushed his foot on the pedal accelerating the car and made a sharp turn getting onto an

In that time, I never really knew what happened. I would always question my mom but she told that he had business to take care of. But one night, I saw my mom crying and I went to comfort her only to see she was holding a picture of my dad. Then, I connected all the pieces together and finally figured it out. I never got to spend time with him since he was always on business trips, and now I never will. After my dad died, my mom changed. She was more controlling over me than ever and hovering me most of the time. I knew why though, she didn’t want to lose me the way she did with dad. That’s why I don’t complain that much because I know inside she still misses him and I do

Throughout this semester, I constructed several writing prompts that supported me in creating detailed assignments. Although each one of these writing prompts have assisted me in producing a solid final product, writing prompt six inspired me to elaborate as thoroughly as possible for my ‘Family Tree Project’. Through interviews and online resources, I have been able to discover a substantial amount of information about generations before me. I learned about my older relatives, the significance my family had in their community, and the diversity of my ethnicity. When discussing with my distant cousin Lonnie Melton about my great grandparents, I discovered my great grandmother was a Cherokee Indian. As I constructed writing prompt six, I dove

They were screaming loudly at each other and I could make out every word even though I was in a separate room. This had been way worse than any of the other fights I had been around to see or hear. My parents threatened divorce quite often and my dad had moved out for months at a time but it never occurred to me that the threats had truths lying underneath them. This night in particular was a changing moment in my life. After what seemed like forever of my parents bickering, I heard some banging noises, my moms scream, and then utter silence. I was terrified for my safety and theirs. My dad did have a problem with his anger and I prayed that he had not done what I thought. I heard my mom rush out of the room and then downstairs. About 5 minutes after, 3 police cars arrived at my house and arrested my dad. I looked at him when they were putting the handcuffs on with tears in my eyes and he wouldn't look at me. He was ashamed, and I was ashamed of him. My dad and I were always very close and this took a huge toll on our relationship. After he was taken away in a police car, my siblings and I were questioned and my parents room was investigated. The situation was hard for me to grasp at my early age and I only understood the general idea of what had happened. My mom was taken to the hospital and she had a black eye and a broken nose. I was so disgusted that my

Having my dad around all the time wasn’t my everyday routine. I’d see him once or twice a week so I wasn’t very much used to see him every day. One day I came home after school and he and my mom were on the balcony talking, the notice I was staring, they both looked at me and called for a family meeting by the tone of their voices I could tell there was

It was May 17th, 2011, it was a normal school day when my brother and I were told that my mom called to say that she was picking us up early. I was anxious, wondering why we were going home early and breaking our usual routine. When my mom came to get us, the first thing that I noticed was that she didn’t greet us with her usual smile. I was 9 years old, very observant, but not able to sense what was to come. We got into the car, when I asked my mom where we were going hoping

Devastated, I ran to my room gushing my eyes out. All these emotions going through my head of how my life would be without my parents in the same room or even house. From what I remember it all started about mid-June, the weeks before that were crucial. My parents would always argue over how to deal with a situation between me and my brother, Skyler. They hardly spoke to one another, but when they did they would just start bickering. I remember, one night after dinner they both went into ''their'' room with the door locked yelling at one another. Skyler and I didn’t know what to do, so we went downstairs and tried to figure out what was going to happen. With a scared tone I asked if mom and dad were going to get a divorce?" He answered back '' No, they love each other, they wouldn’t do that to us." That following night, was a school night everything was quiet except for my crying. I couldn’t sleep; all I was thinking about how it's going to affect my family.