Personal Narrative: How I Became Me: The Writer

This summer was pretty interesting and a tad bit boring. I sort of learned a little bit more about myself and how I could deal with things. Some things got a little rough along the way but that’s life for you. Everyone hits that rough patch in life at one time and point.

Everything that I have attained in the past helped define who I am today. Everything I have gone through and have done in the previous years of my life molded me into the person I am today. Not only have they shaped me into who I am; but also guided me in discovering the potentials I did not realize that I had. Without the challenges and hardships of the past, I know that I would not be who I am today.

In my first “Who I am as a Writer” paper I stated how one of the areas that I needed to improve was writing. I went into more depth talking about how my writing is not descriptive enough and how I cannot grab the reader's attention. Even though I still need to continue making improvements, I have gotten better in both of these aspects. Compared to my papers in high school my introduction paragraphs have improved.

My name is Yris Guzman and I’m a senior at Perry High School. I’ve always struggled writing essays. The things I struggle the most with is grammar, spelling, coming up with a thesis, and organizing my thoughts onto paper. I hope by the end of this semester I become a better writer. We all have strengths and weaknesses.

The way I am today directly reflects the way in which I was raised. The teachings of being smart with money, always using your manners, and always doing the right thing have helped to build my character as I have grown up. The community I lived in was very enjoyable where everyone was respected and friendly toward each other. The implemented rules and things we did as a family have stuck with me and helped shape the way I am today.

Since being adopted, I have continued to try to find more about who I am and what I am supposed to do. Although I have been asked many times when I found out and how it makes me feel, it is still a taboo topic to talk about because of the little information I know. I was admitted to the orphanage after being found at the bottom of a staircase in the middle of a village square. After ten months of being admitted, I was adopted, but I almost did not make it because of a high fever and infection. As a baby, I did not want to hold any medicine that was given to me and because of this, a close family friend had to fly in some Western medicine so that I could have a chance at life. Since then it has been a challenge to find my place in this world

There is a lot to learn about me, but here are just a view things. First, I live at home with both of my parents and I have two younger sisters. I also have a three year old dog named Ella. She is a pointer beagle mix. Most of my time I spend outside of school and on weekends dancing. I am on a competitive dance team at Vibe Dance Center. One of my other hobbies is playing the piano. This year will be tenth year playing the piano. My parents love to travel so I have been to the majority of the states in the US. I have also been to Mexico and Canada. This year for spring break we are going to Costa Rica. When we are there we will spend have of it in the jungle and the other have in the mountains. That is all there is to know about

The Constant Battle of Who I’m Told to Be & Who I Had to Convince Myself I Was

When I was growing up, I always had a passion for reading and telling stories. My mom has scrapbooks of my first stories written in awkward, over-sized letters complete with illustrations brought to life with crayons. Throughout my school years, I always had a book with me. The bigger the book was, the more I loved it. I was discouraged from pursuing a career in writing, but I had a passion for stories that only grew over time.

When meeting new people, that is the most common question I receive. My tan complexion and my facial features would lead someone to believe that I am Filipino but the kinky curly hair that sits atop of my head would lead someone to believe otherwise. So the question remains: what am I?

“Sam, you have cancer” Dr. Kimmel told me with a tone that absorbed all of the energy in me like a black hole. I could feel all the happiness I once had slowly drain from me mentally, and I knew the physical part of me soon would start to fade. My family stood there in complete shock, soon after, my wife fell to her knees and filled the room with tears. My mind was racing, I lost all sense of who I was because I felt as if it didn't matter since I was going to die anyways. I didn't just have cancer, I had stage 4 brain cancer and nothing I could do, or anyone, would fix this. I knew it was bad when the MRI scans showed a massive tumor within my center of my head. My Stereotactic brain biopsy showed the cells were abnormal

Throughout my life, I have encountered many tough circumstances that have altered me into the person I am today.

My experience as a writer although I need a lot more practice to become better at writing in general and learn how to be detailed with my information correctly. I would say my strength in writing will be knowing the subject on what I would want to write, but once I'm typing all of it down I over think and then does not make sense at all. For example, I get a topic talking about dogs and have to describe how they live, eat, etc. Like that topic is easier than doing one about a scientific method and at the end it helps because you learn a new topic about a subject you might have not known about. Overall, my strength would be knowing what to write about but my weakness is not knowing how to put it in a essay. What I have read affects how I write

From the early beginning of the school year to the current day, my writing skills and knowledge have improved and broadened over time. If not drastic, the change is noticeable nevertheless. For almost an entirety of eighth grade, assignments of varying difficulty challenged me to a degree. To be frank, some seemed as though they were beyond my comprehension and ability. However, determination amalgamated with knowledge obtained in advance helped me to overcome my doubts, for I exceeded my expectations; surprisingly good grades and comments are a delight, owing to the fact of that I don’t tend to think of myself as being proficient at writing. Consequently, the assignments given to me this school year shaped me into who I am as a writer.

Their is a choice in life to be oneself or to follow in the footsteps of someone who has already succeeded. I believe that it is best to travel on your own paths than walk on one that is worn out because you will find your own identity and you're your own differentiator.