My Traumatic Experience

As a senior at Red Cloud High School, I’m a member of National Honor Society, captain of the cheer squad, lifeguard, swimming instructor, and part-time employee at the local grocery store. I’ve come to learn from a young age that money doesn’t grow on trees. When growing up, it was just my mother and I. While living on her single parent income, I learned money doesn’t grow on trees. My mother worked a minimum wage job, facing financial struggles at times. Her willpower drove her to get the job she has today. My mother married, and I have a little brother now. As his big sister, I always wanted to be someone he could look up to. At the age of fifteen I became a lifeguard at the community pool. The next year I took classes to be a certified Water Safety Instructor, so I could teach swimming lessons to local children. That same year I applied at the local grocery store, to have a job during the school year.

Throughout life I’ve experienced a rather unpleasant childhood with the absence of my guiding figures: my parents. Seeing them rush in and out of the house to go to the hospital with my younger brother shaped me in a way nothing else could have. It made me who I am today, as well as aspired me towards what I want to be one day.

Divorce is typically a very painful and emotional experience for all parties involved. Two divorces have occurred in my life, only one of which was recent enough for me to remember. Steven Mintz, the author of “American Childhood As a Social and Cultural Construct,” mentions, “Children today grow up under different circumstances than their immediate predecessors. They are more likely to experience their parents’ divorce” (2009:53). My mother and father divorced when I was two years old. Due to my age at the time of the divorce, I do not know anything about the divorce from experience. I only know what I have been told about the divorce because I was too young to remember it happening. Over time, my mother became unhappy with my father’s “workaholic” attitude. He averaged

Ever since I was a young child, my parents always told me to try my best in school, they always told me this for the reason that they never had the opportunity to have a good job because they never finished school. This event is shaping me to care a lot regarding my education. In addition to that, another event that has shaped me to become the person I am today is that since my parents don’t have good paying jobs they have to work hard to take care of me and my siblings this event has caused me to become a hard working person and to seize all opportunities to live a good life because I don’t want to struggle like my parents.

Traumatizing events are happening all over the world, and are being caused by pitiless gang

During these formative years, I learned and accepted hard work and determination as essential components of life. Having to walk miles to my father’s farm after school; planting and harvesting crops all year round; helping my mother make “soya milk” to sell at the market; tending to the household chores; caring for my younger siblings; were all accomplished while studying to make good grades in school. Soon discipline,

Exposure to traumatic experiences has always been a part of human life. From back hundreds of years ago till now, for example, attacks by saber tooth tigers or twenty-first century terrorists have likely led to similar psychological responses in survivors of such violence. Literary accounts offer the first descriptions of what we now call posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). For example, authors including Homer (The Iliad), William Shakespeare (Henry IV), and Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities) wrote about traumatic experiences and the symptoms that followed such events. The PTSD diagnosis has filled an important gap in psychiatry in that its cause was the result of an event the individual suffered, rather than a personal weakness. PTSD became a diagnosis with influence from several social movements, such as Veteran, feminist, and Holocaust survivor advocacy groups. Research about Veterans returning from combat was a critical piece to the creation of the diagnosis. War takes a physical and emotional toll on service members, families, and their communities. So, the history of what

From an early age, I felt as if my parents were never there for me, and I had to raise myself. I used to have difficulty in interpreting whether my unconventional upbringing should be appreciated or dreaded, but ultimately it has benefitted me in ways I have just recently realized. Without the intensified emphasis on my self-reliant upbringing, I would not be the sophisticated and independent young adult I am today.

(AGG)Since the beginning of time, humans have fought for food, shelter or land, and there have always been consequences, sometimes good sometimes bad. (BS-1)War has many physical outcomes, whether it be from shootings, bombings, etc; people can be drastically changed. (BS-2)War and traumatic experiences can emotionally scar someone, which can lead to depression and anxiety. (BS-3) War can bring people together and can give people hope and opportunity in the middle of war and tragedy. (TS)War can physically and mentally change people for the worse or the better.

Through out my life I struggle with academics, I had no one to guide me. Everything I do is from learning from my mistakes. It was a struggle, but with each struggle there’s a lesson to learn. Despite struggling academically, due to environmental circumstances, my parent’s struggle and instilled values empowered me to work hard to my best abilities. As I sit here writing this statement, I planned to write about my academics. But honestly, I wanted to take a detour from the traditional paper talking about my academic abilities. I want to write about the journey that I took to get where I am, and how it crafts my characteristics.

Growing up in a family of eight wasn't always fun and games. I've seen and experienced things people in their adult life couldn't even imagine. The most traumatic event kick-started when I was ten; I observed as anorexia, bulimia, and depression brought my sister Madison close to death. Madison and I shared a room so I had a front row seat to the nights where she would cry herself to sleep and wake in the middle of the night to make herself throw up in the bathroom and leave the house to go run off extra calories. I remember wondering if I should tell my parents about the things I read in her diary. Page after page were graphic entries about how much she hated her body and how badly she desired to be skinny. There was a point in her diary when things transitioned

At the age of ten, I witnessed my father dying from a gunshot wound after a tragic robbery. The emotions that stirred inside after the traumatic event led me to mature much quicker than my peers. It might be strange to mention such a traumatic event in my life, but the fear and anxiety I felt as a child compelled me to seek a creative outlet. Through this creative outlet, I learned to truly feel like a child again.

On July 21, 2001 my mother was in an accident at work and she had to have her leg amputated. I was just three years old, and my older brother was four. It took roughly 2 years, and more than 16 surgeries for her to have the ability to walk again. As a child this situation impacted my life traumatically and ever since I was old enough to understand what happened to her I have been inspired to help people who suffer from similar circumstances. Due to poor judgment and amateur choices made by my mothers’ doctors, she still to this day continuously has problems with her leg, which could have easily been avoided. If my mother would have had access to extraordinary or even adequate doctors she would have been able to return to my brother and I much

One of the most traumatizing experiences in my life, was when I was nine years old. I was sitting in my room, then heard a really loud knocking on the door. I heard sirens coming from outside, so I looked out the window and saw nothing but flashing lights. I try to run into the living room to see what was going on, but my mom was trying to block the view. Then seeing Police flood into my house, jerking my older brother off of the cough. They put him into the back of the cruiser and took him to the Police Station. My parents confused, why he was being arrested. They found out that he had gotten into trouble with drugs and theft.

To begin the overall design of my life, my parents have created a layer that family and education must always come first. Despite having numerous trials and tribulations thrusted upon us, we have always been able to overcome and grow not only as individuals but as a whole; numerous roadblocks such as cancer, and alcoholism has had a profound impact on my transition into adulthood. The building blocks in my transition from adolescence to old age, have created in me a sensibility and craving to be nothing less than perfect.