Personal Narrative: Getting Out Of San Tan Valley

I was born in Modesto ,CA on August 17, 2003 in Modesto hospital . I lived in Atwater ,CA most of my life ,but then I moved to Merced this year. Places that I have visited that feel like home is Watsonville and Santa Cruz. I have been in the same school for 8 years . Also, I have had a separate year in preschool. When I was in preschool I went to a school near Winton ,CA. During my magical 8 years I stayed in Bellevue since kindergarden through 8th grade.

Growing up in Southern California, I was surrounded by coastal culture, which has influenced me in many ways. No matter whether I lived in San Diego or Ventura county, I was never more than ten minutes away from the beach. Every weekend, it seemed, my dad would take us to the beach as family so we could play in the water, build sandcastles, catch hermit crabs, see the tide pools, and most of all, spend time together. I was enchanted by all the beach had to offer. Every sandcastle built was a palace for a hermit crab and every tide pool a thriving community. Whenever I stepped into the water, my imagination would run wild. Despite how often we went, I always enjoyed our days at the beach.

It was April of 1999. My family was at home. Children were running outside. The asphalt was burning. Cars rolled up to the entrance of the apartments and BANG. I grew up in Stockton, California. Surprisingly, as a minority, I wasn’t really a minority. There were, in fact, a large and diverse population of Asian-Americans. But, Stockton is not the ideal place to live. It was hot and dry, almost to the point of a drought. Stockton was also ranked as the one of the top 5 most dangerous cities in California. So, having a nice and safe family is kind of difficult. Eventually, my family decided to move to Crescent City, California when my dad retired. It was a world of difference. There were trees, plentiful water, and a nice cool temperature. This

Every summer I look forward to sitting on a large, warm cabana under the Texas sun. My feet buried in the sand as I welcome the lukewarm waves against my legs. Being a beach bum in South Padre Island, Texas is a great way to bring on the summer. This island isn’t short of attractions, from the beautiful ocean, to tasty restaurants, to fireworks over the ocean you will never get bored on your vacation! Last summer I was joined by a few of my closest friends. We made so many memories as we all went parasailing for the first time. Our relationship grew stronger as we were able to share a new experience together. Spending a few weeks in South Padre Island with family and close friends is a great way to make memories that will last a lifetime.

San Luis, Colorado is the oldest town in Colorado. The Rio Culebra winds through the valley, surrounded by majestic mountains. It is one of the most beautiful scenes I have ever seen. My family along with many others have been here for generations. The beauty of the land is only accentuated by the beauty of our tight-knit families and culture. To counteract of all the physical and cultural beauty, there is social and economic strife everywhere around me. I live in the poorest county in Colorado and being impoverished is a challenge my community faces because of a lack of education and job deficit. As I have delved into community and family history, I have better understanding that the fact the that while many things like our support and love for family and culture have remain unchanged and untainted, so has the fact that our community struggles

I hope you will remember when we met in California, I was visiting Becky Palacios in Glendale. I heard Jackie Porter is working at the Texas Education Agency, recently named the Early Childhood Executive Director. I applied at TEA, hoping for the manager's position in the Early Childhood Department. Jackie and I met while working at Pearson Publishers, with Gloria Horner, the Texas Manager, nevertheless, I don't think if it's appropriate for an applicant to communicate with her. Recently my husband, works for AARP in San Antonio, had a change in his job position, which means he might be working out of Austin again. If an occasion arises, you happen to see or talk to Jackie, I would appreciate a kind word regarding my interest.

I don’t remember much, I just remember not wanting to leave. The place I would be spending the rest of my life I had only visited a few times. I, only being two at the time, was absolutely terrified of moving. Moving. It seemed like the worst possible thing that could’ve happened then. At first, when we left, it felt the same as the last time I had gone there. Then the realization that I would be gone forever kicked in, and the fact that this time, my dad wasn’t coming with us. Just my mom and I.

Many people believe that Orange County, California is the best place to live for its great location, community and economic strong hold. But what those people forget to take into account is the people that make up this community. Living in Mission Viejo, an overwhelming amount of people think that this a place of Eden, that has the greatest neighborhoods to raise children. Well they are wrong. Our self-inflicting wounds are done by teenagers who choose to poison themselves. I was once one of them.

It was mid-winter of 1848, I was doing my daily chores when my neighbor brought news that two days earlier, on January 24, James W. Marshall made a discovery of gold on his piece of land in California. At first, I didn’t think that this would affect me in any way, but then I realized I could start a new life in California filled with gold and fortune, away from my small farm in Missouri. I decided to pack up my things and start on my long journey to California, I packed enough food, water, and supplies to last me a few months. The next morning I was surprised to see that not many others from my town were seeking gold, I knew it was unsafe for me to travel alone, but I was sure I’d meet others along the way.

In 1978, when I was 14, my family moved from Phoenix, AZ to Cerritos, CA; a small city in the heart of the greater Los Angeles area. Phoenix was mainly White, Barry Goldwater conservatives trying their best to hold onto 1950’s Americana, but Los Angeles in the late 1970s was different; it was alive, vibrating to frequencies of the differing cultures that called the L.A. basin home. Looking back it still fills me with excitement, but truth be told I was scared to death. When I first arrived I had no friends, no experience to prepare me for the full on culture shock I found myself facing, nor any thought of how special that area would be to me. No other place than Southern California could have provided a better backdrop to develop the foundation

The summer of 2012 took me for a whirlpool of a surprise. My parents introduced me to the thought of moving from my little town of Woolwich in New Jersey, all the way to southern New Hampshire. My family owns a little cabin on a lake on the Maine- New Hampshire border and it became unsafe for my mother to drive eight hours up to the lake after working those long hours at her job. So, my family decided it was either time to sell our little cabin or to move, and my parents did not want to part with that 14 by 30 structure on a lake. Within the next few weeks, our house was on the market and we already had our realtor up in New Hampshire finding dozens of houses to go look at, in the hopes of finding my house today.

The United States has always been “home” to me because I feel that I am a bit of the quintessential American story. I was born to immigrants hoping for a better opportunity than what was offered from their third world home country. I was raised and went to school here, which blended many of my parent’s home culture and the new American culture. As I have matured, I have noticed how much my life has been influenced by society’s opportunities and issues. The American character is the crossroads of opportunity, struggle, and hopefulness because the it is not only a reflection of the founding father’s ideas, but also a reflection of minorities who have interjected their experiences that shaped my American journey.

The first time I saw you, your smile mesmerized me and your laugh practically incapacitate my organism. Your mysterious eyes so profound that no conceivable mean to decipher the schema that your emotion unveil. The thought of you laughing right now can moisten the Mojave Desert; the echo of your voice is a manifestation equivalent to billions of neurotransmitters flushing into my hypothalamus at the speed of light. It enrages all the serotonin within my anatomy that I didn't know has existed. Now you know. And with silence, you have stolen my heart and every endogenous elements in my body. The thought of you has organically saturate the dopamine which will soon speed to my nuclei--everlastingly in my raphe core. The thought of you like testosterone

Born in Palm Springs, I grew up wishing I lived at the beach. At age 5 I got that wish when my family and I moved to Carlsbad, CA. My parents, Lee and Steve, had me at an older age; so all three of my siblings are older than me by a significant amount. This put me into the category as an only child. As a kid I was involved in musical theater and dance where I made some lifelong friendships. After getting comfortable in the city of Carlsbad my parents decided it was time to move back to Palm Springs. The move was not too hard for me because I did have some friends in the area. One of my biggest regrets is not continuing musical theater when I moved. I made a whole new group of friends and it was a fresh start for me. I went through middle school

My brother, my mom, his friend, and I was going to a Vacation for the weekend, driving to San Diego. We've admire and took picture of the sun setting the ocean with the rippling flow and could hear the noise of the ocean fresh breezes, when we got the hotel we was all tired, but we had to get registered a room to go to sleep in. The next day my mom , my brother, and his friend went somewhere without me, selling puppy's to two people. When I waked up and notice that they was gone, I called my mom and said," Mom where are you guys, and long has it been since you guys left," she said, " three hours, and selling the puppy's right now, but it will take a while when come back, so get ready to go get something to eat, ok," ok," I said. when I was