My First And The Last Child Of My Parents Essay

The thought of starting sixth grade terrified me. I didn't have any friends or someone to talk to. I sat alone every day at lunch. Sometimes people would try to talk to me and sit by me, but I always felt uneasy and out of place, so I just smiled and sat through it, waiting for the bell to ring. I wasn't interested in what they were talking about: most of their conversations were comprised of gossip and which teachers they hated. Occasionally I would skip lunch altogether and go sit in the library. My grades were all A's, although I never raised my hand in class-even though I usually knew the answers-because I didn't want to speak out loud in front of thirty other kids. I knew it was unhealthy behavior, but I didn't know what to do.

During the time that I would quietly sit in a classroom, or in a centrum by myself I would question why no one saw what I did in the mirror whenever I looked at myself. A youthful young man is what I saw from the very beginning, one that was intelligent, fit, determined, and honest. However, no one saw what I did instead they criticized how insane I was for not seeing the physical me. No matter how many times I tried to push the negativity out of my mind things only got worse from then on. Depression and anxiety settled in along with a daily dose of bullying from students when I went to school. The physical harassment got worse, I recall days I wanted to give up because I wanted them to feel the pain they dealt me, but refused to hurt them instead I would bottle up my

Since coming to America, I have moved to an ample amount of places because my father’s job concerns. I changed school frequently and in each new school I was never greeted with a warm welcome. With one glance my classmates saw I was different from them. I was often bullied and teased because of my racial difference from my classmates, from these experiences I became a quiet and docile girl. This way I thought I would not get in anyone’s way. I had closed up in the world in front of me; I never expressed my own opinions and always agreed with the majority. However secretly inside of me, I was frustrated not being able to express myself and yet I was unable to change. I craved to be what I was in the inside to be on the outside. Still by

On the 23rd of January in the year 2003, at around 1:00 in the afternoon at Kaiser Permanente San Francisco, I was born into the world. My parents, Frederick Torres Nangca and Rowena Aldana Nangca, and I first settled in my grandparent’s studio as a child. The space was small but open for the most part. From what I remember, the wall that was on the same side as the door had a drawer beneath the television where they kept most of their belongings. Just across from that was a blue couch that they had pushed up against the ten windowed wall. Next to the couch was a smaller beige dresser that held my grandfather’s extra clothes along with a few of my grandmother’s accessories. My grandmother and grandfather often held novenas and parties in honor of God.

I was one of the tallest people in my grade, and was super skinny. With my mild Cerebral Palsy, I had speech problems for a long time. Due to all of this, I didn’t exactly fit in. Every day as I walked in the doors, I would completely shut down. My grades fell, and I blocked most of the world out. I could here the “popular” groups whispering and giggling every time I walked in the hall and notes would be passed around in class. I sat at a table in the corner by myself, I didn’t have any friends in

During my younger years I was very insecure about myself and unsociable. In part, this was probably due to being at home by myself for numerous years while my Mom took the night shift at HyVee. In fact, I was bullied because I was different from the general population in Blue Springs, Missouri. I didn’t have the newest gadget nor was I able to create a connection with my peers. Due to my

As a young child, I was timid towards participating in class activities, and I would not seek help if I was struggling because I was terrified of judgement from both my teacher and my peers. I was so insecure about myself, that I became obsessed with the idea that I was obligated to complete any task anyone gave me because I was a burden on them and their life. I would go out of my way to help someone on their homework to my own grade’s deficit, or I would knowingly place myself into the middle of social drama I was not involved in simply because I could not say no. This eventually resulted in me becoming both emotionally and physically exasperated. I began to isolate myself from both friends and family. This way, I could not be held accountable for

As a seventh grader, I was extremely timid towards participating in class discussions or activities, and I would never seek help due to my incapacitating fear of judgement. I worried my teachers and peers would view me as unintelligent or incapable because I did not understand the information we were learning. This fear of judgement eventually transferred into my social life, and I became submissive and felt inclined to do whatever my peers instructed me to. For example, I would willingly help someone with a project or homework despite the fact that my own grades may suffer by doing so. This willingness to place the needs and wellbeing of my peers above my own ultimately led me to emotional and physical exasperation. I began to isolate myself

Not only did I lose confidence in myself, but I lost my ability to stick up for myself. I remember countless times I would finally acquire the courage and confidence to say or do something, but as soon as I would take action, someone would wreck my short-lived moment of confidence by deprecating me. People could walk all over me, and I wouldn’t do anything about it. As an easy target, they knew I would never stick up for myself, because I wanted to create peace and please everyone. Never creating conflicts and having everyone’s friendship are all I had concern for. Little did I know, I belittled myself, making myself seem so insignificant, as if I were just a speck, allowing everyone to shine but

When I was in my younger teens, all I could think about was what did people think of me and how can I not attract attention to myself. The goal in every day life was to not embarrass myself, it was a rather unfulfilling lifestyle and goal. Every day I would do my hair, trying to perfect it so I wouldn’t get made fun of. Every day I would worry to no end about embarrassment, I would be so self conscious about the smallest things. I remember one day I was made fun of for the way I did jumping jacks and I got so self conscious. Think about that, I got self conscious over jumping jacks. People don’t realize how tough the early teens are, for both genders. As a boy back then, I was experiencing lots of puberty and a lot of change in my body, this

Once I entered elementary school, I encountered the first major social hurdle in my life-- Alec. Through his influence, my peers stopped treating me like I was even human. Due to constant bullying, I began to despise going to school and my grades began to drop. To this day I can remember how they made me feel about myself; how I made myself feel inadequate by constantly analyzing what I could have done wrong. Whenever I thought of my father it would only get worse. Continually, I thought that I must not be good enough or smart enough for anyone to care about me. I remember trying to sleep at night and replaying every mistake I had ever made. I began to forget who I was and who I wanted to become.

In December of 2008, my wife and I found out we would be having our fourth child. We were living in Sugarloaf Key, FL while I worked in Key West, FL. Due to some unforeseen circumstances with our landlord, we terminated our lease in Sugarloaf early, rather than finding a place for the remaining six months we would be there. We moved the family back home to North Carolina over the Christmas break from school. I still had six months or so remaining before I transferred to my new job in Tybee Island, GA. The military had moved us before, being a military family moving was a bitter-sweet occurrence. The family adjusted well and settled right in. Having family close by to help ease this transition helped out greatly. The fourth addition to our family was developing on schedule, regular doctor visits, and checkups. We decided that he would be born in NC since my wife was comfortable with the doctor she was already seeing. The estimated delivery date also worked with my work schedule and being home for the birth.

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

In early 1977, the world as I knew it was slowly dissolving. My beloved grandfather became gravely ill, and transgressed to the next realm in August of 1981. This was a very dark difficult period for my family. The happiest days of my life were spent with my grandparents. It became extremely difficult to concentrate and control my emotions during this period. On June 6, 1984, the joy of my life was birthed into this world, my son. His birth signaled a new journey for me, setting a solid foundation for the rest of my life. I was a newly minted wife and mother with different responsibilities for the care and lives of two other people. This foundation helped me to deal with the blow of my grandmother transgressing from brain cancer less than one month after the birth of my son. My

At the age of three my parents decided to put me in gymnastics, I excelled immediately and after a couple months I entered into the pre-competitive program. My love for gymnastics continued and I became a provincially ranked, high level gymnast until the age of fourteen when I shattered my ACL and meniscus in my knee which required surgery. However, my years of gymnastics taught me a great deal of skills that I carry with me to this day. Primarily, I learned exceptional self-discipline, time management, and balance (metaphorically and physically). Gymnastics is exhausting on the body and the mind as you need total cohesion of both to excel. During my peak, I was training five hours per practice, upwards of five days a week and during the summer I would train six hours a day, six days a week. Gymnastics taught me that if you want something badly enough you will work as hard and as long as it takes to reach your goals. After shattering my ACL I pushed to continue training and I competed in my final competition and was the provincial champion on the bars event for my age category. I refused to let this surgery end my career. Six months after the surgery, I joined a competitive cheerleading team who I competed with for three years. Cheerleading was very different for me because it required all of the skills I had learned from gymnastics and on top of that I had to learn how to work with a team. I believe gymnastics is a huge part of who I am and has helped me to become the