19, 1996 I was at my Aunt and Uncles house in the middle of playing a video game when my Aunt suddenly received a disturbing phone call saying my mom had been shot and killed by my sister’s dad. He then proceeded threats of killing my brother but then killed himself instead. My mom, siblings, and I had just moved because my mom had finally gotten tired of the hurt and pain he caused and wanted to keep us safe from him. I was only 12 years old, my brother was only 9 years old, and my sister was only…

The interpersonal relationship I have chosen to write about is my relationship with my older cousin, there is a great amount of self-disclosure or “the process of revealing something about ourselves unusually revealing information that would normally be hidden”. Jade on my mother 's side. She is about six years older than I am, and is the first of seven children (my other cousins). My cousins and I were very close. I am an only child, so I wanted to spend most of my time with other children…

I was born in Northridge, California and raised in a working class family. My older brother and I grew up on the doctrine of not selling our physical and mental labor for proletariat wages. My parents’ primary motive was to surpass their success. They worked vigorously to make us fearless, determined, and humble individuals; however, we were conditioned to cloak and suppress our emotional deficiencies that may impede our future accomplishments. My then, immigrant father left behind his poverty-stricken…

Today I am going to be talking about the relationship that I have with my sister, Jordan and how she shaped my identity. Jordan and I are three and a half years apart and she is a senior at the University of Missouri. She has made the biggest impact on my life because we are so similar that we live our lives the same and have a very similar thought process. What I have learned in my young years going through middle school and high school and everything outside of that I got from my sister if I did…

I come from a family of readers. My parents and older sisters always had a book, magazine or newspaper in their hands. In my parent’s house, the walls that separated the living room, dining room and family room from all other rooms, wooden bookshelves – floor to ceiling – filled with all types of books, from dictionaries and encyclopedias to novels, cooking, memoirs, short stories, poetry, etc., and on all kind of subjects or topics. As a child, I remember climbing on the shelves trying to reach…

My brother, Cameron, and I have a relationship that can change very quickly. Because we are twins, practically our whole life we have done all of the same things. Whenever I would go to a friends house, he would have to go too. If he had a new toy, I would want it. This got on both of our nerves from time to time. We were seven years old, and it was summer vacation. Not having anything to do, my brother and I just argued all day. Being together too much got to us and we were just…

there are many little moments that stand out. Some, more than others, have shaped you in a way that changed the trajectory of your life. These moments can be anything, walking left may have saved you from being mugged, choosing the wrong car can get you stranded in the middle of nowhere. These little choices and events have a way of forming how we are going to live our lives. There are days that are more important than others, however, for me only one comes to mind. The day my little sister, Emily, was…

I remember the summer my little sister, Alexis who was 16 at the time, came to visit me from South Carolina. I was working on Naval Air Station North Island at a placed called FRC Southwest at the time. The day after she arrived for her visit, she woke up at 5:00 a.m., groomed herself, ate a small breakfast and met me in my car at 6:15 a.m. to go to work with me. She did every day for the first two weeks of her two-month long visit with me. One day while we were in my office I asked her, “Wouldn’t…

Behind closed doors I saw her tears. Behind her back I heard the laughing. I watched her as she never gave up. So much of what makes me who I am today, I learned from her. She is my older sister, Lisa. I had reasons to admire Lisa other than her being my older sister. From the beginning, everything was hard for her. In elementary school, Lisa wore glasses and was constantly teased by the other children. They were unaware of the emotional harm they caused her. Later, Lisa was diagnosed…

Dear teacher, allow me to provide you with some insight on who my little sister, Lizbeth Galarza, truly is. At first glance, she might look like every other Ecuadorian girl with her thick dark brown hair, deep, small brown eyes, and her short legs; but don 't let that fool you her small legs have already taken her so far in life. At 15 years old, she has learned to identify herself as being both Ecuadorian and American and being proud of both parts of her, which wasn 't so easy for her. She has achieved…