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.

For many, their formative years have a large influence on who they become as adults. This can happen in many different ways including new experiences, discovering a new sport or hobby, and uncovering what they are passionate about. For me, this was falling in love with a new language from a very young age and becoming very interested in the culture that was associated with it.

I am forty four years old with three children and a wonderful husband. I grew up in Oklahoma and later moved to Kansas, and then Arizona where I finished my degree is Political Science at Arizona State University. My career goals were to attend law school after undergrad, so that I could be an advocate for children that were suffering serious injustices back then, and sadly they still seem to be suffering those injustices today.

Failure is truly negative if we choose to not learn from it. When we face setbacks and difficulties, we are given golden opportunities to grow as people. Learning from our shortcomings makes us wiser, stronger, and unveils a chance to turn an undesirable outcome into a building block of character. My hockey career has been a sinusoidal trail of highs and lows, but I always learned from the downturns.

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.

Me just like any other human being make mistakes we’re not perfect, but we’re all special in our own ways. Something I feel makes me special is that at a very young age i started playing sports. I now consider myself an athlete. That makes me feel special because not everyone is capable of having to do school work and play sports during school. Sports have also showed me discipline. Another thing that it showed me was how to take leadership and help others.

Everyone will experience a death in their life at least once whether it’s a family member or friend, they will react to it differently and has to grieve in their own way. Death isn't something that someone looks forward too, so watching someone go from healthy, to where they can barely walk or talk on their own isn’t easy. But getting a lesson out of someones death takes away some of the pain, and helps you move on.

I have always loved school, from my first day of kindergarden to my first day of high school and almost everyday in between. I always excelled in school, even though I moved around a lot. I had already been to four different elementary schools by the time I was in the fourth grade, and one more for half a year in sixth grade. I had a rough childhood aside from all of the moving. Growing up my life was never really normal. I had two moms, which nowadays isn’t that big of a deal, but 15 years ago it was. My life was fairly good until I was about five or six when my moms got a divorce. At the time I didn't know it but it was at that point that my life started to change forever. After the divorce my parents went to court for custody and one of

Experiencing something for the first time can give lead to different emotions depending on what the encounter is. One can feel really happy if the scenario turns out the way they want it to. For example, when I was six years old, I remember telling my parents about how I wanted a dog. Everyday I would show them a picture of a dog on the internet, and ask if I could have one. My parents never really gave me a complete answer when I asked. They would usually respond with, “ I am not sure”, or “let me think about it”. However, one day when I came home from school, my parents told me to close my eyes. Once I closed my eyes, they lead me to the backyard. I could hear a high pitched bark coming from a distance. My heart started to pound, and it felt like it was going to burst out of my chest. As I open my eyes, I first see the bright sunlight coming in, which was blocking most of my vision. Once my eyes finally became adjusted, I see a little puppy right in front of

Back when I still wore pigtails, I remember always feeling like an afterthought by my parents. I understood why, and it was justifiable. Since I was the eldest, and my younger brother was put on the autism spectrum, I knew I had to grow up extra quick, for Father always worked and Mother had her plate full, trying to raise us. I would do my chores without being asked and do my homework without needing help, just so Mother could have one less child to worry about. My brother, however, had to have everything done for him. He even needed Mother to brush his pearly whites for him. It was just one more duty to add to the infinite list of responsibilities Mother had to do for my brother.

Days after I graduated eighth grade, I woke up in the middle of the night with the worst pain of my life: a stabbing in my stomach. I reluctantly woke up my parents, and they decided we should drive to the emergency room. The stabbing feeling persisted as I curled up in the back seat trying to block out the pain. We finally arrived at the hospital, and I somehow staggered to the entrance. Right outside, I threw up and then began to panic realizing that whatever was happening was more serious than a simple stomach ache. After this point most of what occurred was a blur; the only thing I remember is being transferred to Stanford Children’s Hospital.

Traditional wisdom and modern science both argue for a full sleep schedule for all ages, but, more importantly, a sleep schedule of approximately nine hours for teenagers. Even rest outside of sleep is held as being of utmost importance, since “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” However, there are points in a person’s life, especially for the modern teen seeking advanced placement after secondary school, where it is considered reasonable to trade some amounts of rest for extra work. But I, the idealistic teenager I am, rejected the word “some” as being too compatibilist for my taste and, instead, challenged Jack for the position as dullest, yet highest graded, boy.

Some of my first memories usually involve school in some way. School is a huge part of my life. Growing up in my family, I was always pushed to try really hard in school. That was never a problem because I had an internal driving force pushing me to try harder than expected of me. As I grew older, I was expected to preform well in order to get into college. However, this was a new thing asked of someone in my family. Neither one of my parents went to college, my sister and one of my older brothers didn’t get to finish high school, and my other older brother got into college but ended up not attending. When I ended up getting accepted into Columbus State for post secondary, it was a big deal to everyone in my family.

When I first read our topic for this journal, I started to get nervous. I immediately tried to think of times when I had misinterpreted someone or something and I couldn’t seem to think of any. I was clearly overthinking it a little too much, especially because I misinterpreted something just last week. I have a couple of friends who enjoy going bowling as much as I do and last Thursday my friend Courtney asked if I wanted to go bowling on Friday. When we have gone bowling several times in the past, we have usually gone around 6 or 7. We usually choose to go around that time because everybody is off from work and it gives my daughter Brooklyn the opportunity to go with us. So, with much excitement I responded back, “yeah, that sounds great!”