Personal Narrative: How She Changed My Life

What is your story? What kind of challenges did you overcome? There are things that happened to me that not many people really know about, I was abused by my older sister when I was a young child. But that didn’t make me a bad person, it made me a better one. I treat people with respect and kindness, I help my family with the things they need, and I take care of my brother. I still always make time for myself, to draw, to write, for anything really. But I wouldn’t be the same person I am today if these things didn’t happen.

Narrowing down one specific event is rather difficult. If I had to decide, it would be the Sunday morning that I stood in pool of water with my wife Amber holding my hand. Together, we were baptized in front of our congregation at a small church in Elizabethtown, KY. In order to understand why this event is so significant, and why it will influence my academic goals at CCU, it’s imperative that you know my back story. I’ve served 12 years as a military police soldier for the United States Army. I started my journey in the Army, as a young, inexperienced 18 year old young man. I ended my career as a Sergeant, with memories of experiences I will forever hold in my heart. Most of these memories are difficult to even talk about, but being a soldier

She won her first medal for track and field when she was eight years old. SHe loved everything about the sport. “ I loved that I didn’t have to think, there was just the physical,” Janet Davis, 50, said. “And it helped I was good at it too.” Davis said.Davis’s love for track didn't falter as she grew older. Davis said,” Growing up in Indianola, Mississippi, meant that I had a lot of free time on my hands. So with the free time that I had, I raced and practiced. I helped me stay focused on my goal.” She raced with her sixteen brothers and sisters and as she grew even older she wanted to run even more. Davis joined her local track team and started to travel at age ten.By the age of 12, in 1977, she won her first gold medal, in Tokyo, Japan.

According to, The University of La Verne fifty percent of all college students go in to careers that does not fit their degree chose. Though the numbers may have been different from when my mother went to college, but people have been changing their minds about their future since the beginning.

Anyone could have had a rough life just like mine, having divorced parents and soon having a new mother to look after you. But all stories have a twist to them, my parents met in the army. Currently I haven't been born yet, until February 4th, 1999, I was born and raised for a while with my parents. Dating far back as I can, I remember the fighting that took place in a apartment complex, both my parents pulling me side to side across the house. Everything my dad had like his credit cards were stolen and used for my mother's own uses, ruining his credit for life, he now cannot buy himself nice things. Fading back once more, I remember the moving and hiding from cops because my mother stole one more thing more important to my dad than money itself, me.

this point my body was exhausted and my energy felt like it had been sucked out of me. I kept trying to talk back to the crew members when I was questioned about anything. At first I could hear myself completely sounding fine responded to a question but I kept getting weird looks from the crew. They asked me "What's wrong, you aren't making words out." This started to scare me so I kept trying to talk then I could realize I wasn't forming words and my mouth was also not moving with the pace I was used to. I started to freak out because I could only communicate with myself at this time and all I could do was yell at myself for not stoping this before. I kept going but then the shaking started. This affected all of my actions because I couldn't act like a shark attack victim who was unconscious while shaking. I tried to stop it but it got the point where it was uncontrollable.

Throughout my life, until now, I have always felt like my dear mother has sheltered me from the world. I was hardly ever allowed outside to hang out with my friends and if I was to be let out I always had the earliest curfew. I remember one day talking to my mother I said to her “ de que me protégés? No necesito que me trates como une niño el resto de mi vida ” (what are you protecting me from? I do not need you to treat me like a child the rest of my life). At the time my mother saw my questioning as a challenge to her authority and instead of being a bit more lenient towards me she just became stricter. I was expected to come home straight after school and I was never allowed to go outside to hang out with friends or my girlfriend.

I never knew that one action or decision could change you life for ever but on Friday, May 28th 2016 I experienced first hand by jumping into a shallow pool and tore my PCL.

In the fall of 2015 I reunited with my on-again off-again relationship with running. At the same time I started doing boot camp classes which I had never tried before. I’m not sure if it was an improper box jump or a wrong step down the road, but I began to notice my knee clicking when I walked up the stairs. After waiting (probably a little too long) I decided to go to my doctor because the clicking wasn’t going away. The ultrasound showed fluid on the knee, also known as prepatellar bursitis. She said it shouldn’t take long to heal as long as I rest and ice my knee as well as avoid doing any strenuous weight bearing activities such as “jumping around” or kneeling. As a yoga teacher it was hard to avoid doing any type of kneeling but I stopped running and going to

My mom taught me lots of important lessons when I was younger. We went through a lot of hard times and through it all she was there for me and my brother. My parents divorced, we had to move, switch schools, and move to different states. Even though there were many changes we tried not to complain because we knew our mom was doing everything she could to get us through. She tried to be positive and make the best out of our situation.

Years ago mothers stayed at home with the children while the father worked to support the family, but my home is the exact opposite. In my household, its three children and one adult. My mother works as a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) at a near-by nursing facility. My mother was once married, but later got a divorce. After my mother’s divorce, she acquired a second job to pay bills. As a teen in middle school, I had to take on the responsibility as being the “babysitter”, so my mother wouldn’t have to pay for childcare services. Being the leader of the house while my mother worked, I had to learn how to provide for my younger siblings by cooking, cleaning and giving them short homework lessons. During this time my siblings and I bonded and learned how to care for one another just like I was doing for my mother.

Growing up, I was unaware of the modifications taking place in my own world that molded my adolescence and established the way I behave, think, and undergo the process of preceding with the analyzation and execution of each idea I am faced with in any current day situation. As much as I would have desired to be apart of a family with two happily married parents with two children in a pretty house in a pretty upper middle class neighborhood that goes to a pretty church every sunday morning and has a pretty homemade dinner every night with every member of the family in attendance; I would not choose that life. I don’t have a desire to withhold the same mindset, goals, and future of my peers I grew up with. Each individual event I have had to

If you really knew me you’d know my parents divorced when my brother and I were young. It didn’t really affect me, all I knew was that I wouldn’t get to see my dad anymore. After their divorce my mom went on to have two more baby girls with different guys. She went on to start doing drugs, went on to have many, many boyfriends that she just ended up fighting with. My mom wanted to have fun, she didn’t want to be a mother of 4 and stay home instead of going out with her friends. We moved around a lot. Moving schools every year, having to make new friends, having to feel the anxiety of being the new kid a hundred times. That is why i’m the way I am. I don’t get close to anyone because I know it won’t last.

“What I asked you was what you meant by your use of the word 'Like '.” She paused for a second and hearing nothing from Jim, she told him. “I was asking you about your real feelings about me.”

“Uh, sure,” I said, but even as I agreed I hadn’t committed to it in my mind. There was something about this grandmother that I didn’t like. It was more than just her spooky appearance. It was the way she moved, spoke, she seemed aggressive, hostile.