Personal Narrative Analysis

Throughout the past year I went through a great deal of undertakings that caused me to become more experienced with my skills and how to overcome various challenges. These really built up my character and the way I am today. In all aspects, this past year consisted of going to Killington, Vermont, my brother going into the Air Force, meeting him in Texas for his graduation of basic training, completing a double backflip on a trampoline, landing a front flip on flat ground, accomplishment of a 2 ½ front flip on a diving board, getting 2nd at leagues, and competing in districts. All of these activities have advanced me in a skill or challenged me to an extent.

Kevin and I stepped into a whole new world in the fall of 2009. We began our degree program at Emmanuel School of Religion, which is now called Emmanuel Christian Seminary. We were working on our Masters of Arts and Religion. I was excited and nervous about going back to college. Our first day was terrifying. Kevin and I attended orientation the week prior to classes starting. There was a definite realization this academic program was going to be a challenge. However, I wanted a challenge. On the first day of class, we started with Greek. Our professor was Dr. Marwede. He opened the class with a test. He came over to my chair first and handed me a paper with a list of Greek words on it. My immediate reaction was shock, which Dr. Marwede realized I was overwhelmed by the look on my face. He told the class we could take it home as homework. Many of the students in the Greek class had previous experience with Greek; however, Kevin and I had no knowledge at all. We were overwhelmed. We were assigned five chapters and told to return the next day for a quiz with our homework.

Growing up, my parents and I always took the time to read stories together. Before bed, before school, while playing with dolls in the bathtub. Fiction and nonfiction stories alike taught me about both the physical, literal world around me, and the world I could create in my own mind when I needed to find comfort. It was through the works of fiction, however, that I learned despite the hardships of life, I could disappear into a world I could mold however I pleased.

In a world centered around the present and the prospects of the future, it is difficult to remember that there exists something arguably more important: the past, and more importantly, childhood - the days of what seems like a life-time ago. But our childhood is actually probably closer to us than anything else. With a little provocation, the dam constructed of our current burdens is breached and all the childhood memories flood us with nostalgia. And that is precisely what childhood is: a constant reminder of the past and its everlasting impact on us.

Essentially anyone with influence in the region who had a stake in security was encouraged to attend, and we know of course that the insurgency is included in anyone with influence. Of course, the type of target that presents is monumental, but naturally we would not make it easy for the enemy. It would still be nowhere near easy to target the District Center just by our application of basic techniques; blocking positions, perimeter defenses, access control, observation and vigilance. It would have been easy to feel less than confident going into such a patrol, but we were the opposite. We had left no stone unturned and our Platoon was confident.

As a child my life was picture perfect, or at least that how it seemed. I remember the days waking up to a breakfast that perfumed the house with scents of baking biscuits, omelets and hot buttered grits.Everyone at the table eating,

When some people look back on their childhood they see happy times full of family memories, traditions, love, and encouragement. When I look back on my childhood I remember drug abuse, visiting my step father in jail, going without utilities, and playing the role of a mother at the age of eight. I knew I was different from other children. I knew that my parents depended on me to play the role of an adult. They depended on me to get up every morning and get my brother and sister on the school bus. I knew they depended on me to go straight home from school every day so I could babysit. I would wake my mom

My first memories include crawling around that old claw footed table. I remember we used to have a kid’s picnic table In the kitchen for when we had more kids than we knew how to deal with. There is no badge of honor and no expression of joy, that could sufficiently say how it felt to finally move to the big table. My five-year-old self knew that now I could take pride in my fancy adult life.

Everybody has grown up differently. Everybody has different stories, different memories, and different hardships that have shaped who they are as a person. When most people think of their childhood they think of family night board games. They think of running off to the park with their best friends, laughing on swingsets and hopping scotch until they were out of breath. They have memories of vacations, funny stories at family gatherings, or that one time they fell of their bike and their dad carried them home and put on a bandaid and made all the pain go away.

Times have been continuously changing as we grow older which creates memories no one else can tell. The most memorable memories lie within someone’s childhood from a different period in time. For example, stories my mawmaw would say to me were mainly about her childhood in 1948. I was born in 2000, so when she would talk to me about her childhood, it was like a history lesson. Reflecting back on my childhood, and her stories, I realize there are many differences as well as similarities between the way my mawmaw and I grew up as the world started to modernize more.

I don’t remember much about when I was a kid. One memory slips through the fog and caresses my mind with the comforting aura that was once my childhood. It was my first day at Mrs. Joyce’s Daycare, little did I know that this place would forever hold a special place in my heart and in my mind. On the way there, from my house in Terra Alta, it was about a 5-minute ride which was just long enough to think about all the things that my little mind could think about. Namely how I was going to get along with the other kids and whether I would make any friends.

My childhood memories are saturated with magic and intrigue, and fantastical fabrications of my imagination that felt so vivid that I can hardly remember them as anything but real. Childhood was full of exciting adventures; bounding around the garden as a magnificent dragon, roaring with arms outstretched; sitting cross-legged on the floor of a friend's room as she educated me on the variety of aliens secretly inhabiting our world; roaming across the schoolyard in search of ghosts. These are the experiences that formed my childhood.

Childhood is the best days of human life. We get love from everyone. Our needs and wants are fulfilled at any cost by our loved ones. But as we grow, we remember a very few things that had happened in our childhood. So, when I got to do this assignment, I hurried to call my mom to know how I was in my childhood.

childhood becomes a long string of memories and stories that are bound to be retold as a learning tool for the

There are a lot of people who seem to think of their childhood as one of the best. And I’m not an exception. Childhood is one of the greatest things in life. You get to be yourself and not stress or think over all the cruel stuff that is going to happen later in life. Childhood is definitely extra good if you have a childhood friend to share things with. And that is what Jackie Kay has narrated in her short story “Owl”.