My Personal Experience : My Experience In My Life

We are interested in learning more about you and the context in which you have grown up, formed your aspirations, and accomplished your academic successes. Please describe the factors and challenges that have most shaped your personal life and aspirations. How have these factors helped you to grow? (800)

When i was 6 years old my whole life changed completely my life became a living nightmare.

When I was younger, I frequently found myself with a pencil and paper in my hand. I would leave a multitude of marks on the paper in some form or fashion, whether it be scribbles, repetitive words and sentences, my name, or the names of family members. Growing older, I would find myself writing more than enough when it came to essays. I could never bring myself to leave out any details and I rarely used simple sentences. Originally, I thought it was because I wanted the validation of my parents and teachers, but it was something else I had yet to realize. I liked writing and it hit me one day when I was in my room, listening to music.

It was a beautifully clear day, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky when I received that green and gold folder in the mail. I thought coming to college would be the answer to everything. However, that feeling of being a strong independent black woman only lasted so long. My first year was just fine, I thought that I'd adjusted fine. I made plenty of friends on campus and joined numerous cubs! I even got my first real job working at Busch Gardens. Everything was going great, that was until August of my second year.

A look into my life usually has people running for the hills. I am an eighteen-year-old girl that hasn’t experienced many things in her life, but has experienced discipline, heartbreak and recovery. I haven’t experienced death of a loved one yet or had a very traumatic experience, but I have experienced a few tough times in my life. The things I have experienced have helped mold me into who I am today. For example, when I wrecked my car in the rain, I was scared to drive in the rain for a long time afterward. That is a learned fear. I would sit and wait for the rain to stop or not leave my house at all on rainy days. This example shows that fear is learned and can be called fear conditioning (psychcentral.com). My example is a psychological experience, but not a deep one. Everything we do in life has a psychological aspect to it, just like my experiences.

Imagine being in a family that always had so much going on, so many people running around going places, doing things, coming over, basically just always busy. Being the youngest it was never easy, always feeling like no one had time for me, not understand that I am not the only kid that has to be taken care of.

Throughout life, incidents will always occur. No matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey. Through these incidents you are given the opportunity to learn about yourself and others. I have found that sometimes the worst things in life can teach me the most about my strengths, weaknesses, as well as about how to live life. For instance, when my father (papa) passed away in October, 2010 from a weak heart.

When I was seven years of age my family and I lived in Los Angeles, California, approximately thirty-five miles from the city of Reseda, the epicenter of the now infamous 1994 Northridge earthquake. Many memories from my childhood are a blur, but the morning of January seventeenth is crystal clear. I recall being awakened roughly at 4:30 in the morning when my bed began trembling uncontrollably beneath me. An unexplainable fear took over me, which kept me from jumping out of my bed and running out of my room, so I laid on my bed, paralyzed, waiting for my father to save me. However, before my father was able to find his way to my room, the shaking stopped.

All throughout my life I was just an average kid who did average normal activities. I was never very sociable or outgoing, but I still had a close group of friends. I wasn’t very confident in myself nor was I very disciplined. My life basically centered around video games with friends and sports. I participated multiple sports such as cross country, nordic skiing, baseball, and track. As I grew older I naturally became more confident, disciplined, and outspoken but not as much as I would've like to have been. In junior high, I looked up to the varsity runners on the cross country team. It was a goal of mine to be on that team and to do well, I never thought it would actually happen. In my senior year it did, and we were great. We had a great season and even made it to state, but doing well wasn’t the most important acquisition of the year. In my final season I became the hardworking, confident, disciplined, and outspoken person I am today. This is due mainly to the team atmosphere, the coaches, and daily practice.

My mother perpetually advises me by stating “সর্বদা আপনার সেরা করা,” which translates from Bengali to English as “always do your best.” Taking heed of my mother’s advice has led me to always try to be the best possible version of myself, in school and outside of it. Knowing myself, junior year was going to be arduous as is; I would be studying profusely for my SATs and ACTs, going nights with minimal sleep as I would be taking nine total classes, eight of which were Advanced Placement classes, and further pursuing ways to aid others through my will to volunteer. None of this was going to be facilitated by the added stress of finding out my father had just been diagnosed with having an “enlarged prostate,” meaning less and less time would

It is difficult to write about my life—not because I do not know what to say, but because I am often fearful of sharing my experiences and having them impact how people view me. My identity and upbringing are not necessarily unique, but I have been in situations that society tends to be uncomfortable with. Repeated sexual assaults, psychological abuse, neglect, and financial hardships are factors in my life that I tried to forget when I started college. Now that I am at the end of my undergraduate education, I realize that the obstacles I faced in my early life will never be forgotten. Consequently, I feel that it is important to share this information, even though it is painful to do so, because the last four years have opened my eyes.

I remember when I was younger, looking in the mirror and daydreaming. My reflection showed a young girl with a big ambition, one so big that it would wow the world. She was wearing the colours of her favourite football team with her thick, worn through socks pulled up high thinking that nothing could stop her. I would put on my dad’s frayed and oversized football guernsey reminiscing about the special and inspirational moments it had been worn through, thinking of ways I could recreate them for myself. Thinking one day this will be me creating endless possibilities and unforgettable memories for myself and the football world. Hoping one day I will get the opportunity like the rest of my family to play this great game. However, I was soon to discover this were not to be the case.

I remember my own engagement session back in 2010. At the time, I was even sure that we needed one given that we had our wedding just a few weeks away. I didn't know many other people who had experienced one either so wondered why our photographers had offered us the opportunity to have one. Boy, am I glad we did.

I was 16 when it happened. It was a surprisingly warm December day in 1994 in Bangladesh. It was already past dinnertime. My dad ran a little bit late from work, since so many people were out enjoying the nice weather. My dad owned a tailoring shop downtown, and it was always pretty busy, since most Bengali stores at the time didn’t sell stitched clothes. My mom and my three siblings went ahead and ate, but I waited for Dad to come home. We always ate dinner together, no matter how late he came back. When he finally came back, it was almost 9:00, so we decided that we were going to eat dinner while watching TV. We watched Looney Toons together. I asked him if he had any wacky customers at the shop. He jokingly tried to convince me to switch from pursuing biology to English. It was running gag between us. Anyone who knew me knew I sucked at English. After he finished eating, he got up to take his plate to the kitchen. I was finishing up my food when I heard a crash come from the kitchen. I ran to the kitchen and I saw my dad collapsed on the floor. I yelled for my mom. We quickly rushed him to the hospital. The quickest way to the hospital was by rickshaw. My mom, my brother, and I kept yelling at the rider to go faster. We finally got to the hospital only to realize that he was gone. He had died of an ischemic stroke on the way there.

Through my entire life, I have been through difficult times that made me reflected on it and depressed. Situations that make your days hard and always they have a big impact on your life. Probably never forget them. I was not born in this country, I have over three years living in Hollister. During the first two years, my life was not easy, especially the first year in town. I was born in Guatemala, a country in Central America. That’s where my life began. Been in a different country is hard, learn its language is difficult, its culture and try to belong to it.