Personal Narrative: Jailen

I went to my grandmother’s house for lunch one afternoon. Her name is Bonnie. As we were eating I asked her about a family story. She had one that came straight to mind and really stuck out. It was about her long lost cousin, Jimmy. Jimmy’s mother, Willy, was born into a big family. Willy had eight siblings, but in this story I’ll only talk about two, Gladys and Maylene.

The next thing that you know you are in the school and people are harassing you. When the day finally ends, you hate your life because you have to go back to school the next day. When you wake up the next morning though, you find out that for the rest of the school year you will need to be escorted by members

Hey little brother sorry you can't call. I don't have any money on the phone. I haven't spoken with Mj in a month. I am so heartbroken. Your wife told me the great news and I am so happy for you both. Like I told Lamont I really don't talk to no one in Michigan. Kristy (1-2 times a week) Aretha and Fred (every other 3-4 months) maybe. Mom and Cass never. So that's that. You, Lamont and Mj are my concerns as long as you all let me be in your lives I will be. I love all my family dearly; however, along the way we have lost vital parts of who we are as a family. I think long incarcerations have made some feel that they are not family. Many people have forgotten who they are as simply Africans but on a basic level in this family we have forgotten

Finally the day has come that Jr. and I. get out of jail. We had our good friend T-dawg pick us up. He pulled up in his Chevy impala with his 28 inch spinner rims and competition hydraulic lifts. He pulled up and simply said get yo cracka pasty lookin selves up in my whip before I pop a cap in yo man. Jr. and I simply responded we didn’t know you had a daughter and that we missed him too. T-dawg was always such a nice guy he used to give homemade candy to all the adults and kids on the street in exchange for just a little bit of cash.

When in the classroom learning is something that is like a seesaw. The ups and downs come with some classes more than others. The classes that I have found my most ups and downs are English, math, and science. When learning you can not just keep failing by not seeking help. These are the most challenging classes stem from one of these subjects, but there is always a way to make it through with these three steps; finding the situation, assessing it, and seeking help.

I remember it like it was yesterday. People thought just because, I was from Mexico, I wouldn't be able to succeed in life. People laughed at me just because of the way I spoke English.

As I am sitting in my smelly, old jail cell I am thinking why did I pretend to be someone else. I’ll tell you why I got into jail. This is the story of how I got into all of mess and what I did that made me go to jail. Once I was stealing from a store and I was about to big escape while my partner was outside by the car covering for me. My partner and I always robbed places because this is what we did since we were in high school. We got in the car started to drive, went across the bridge and BOOM. We quickly jumped out of the car and got in the boat under the bridge in enough time to get in the boat before the police got to our car to find us. We drove back to the warehouse in the boat because we have to drop the money that we got and we almost

In fact, it was the worst part of my entire year. It was by far the most challenging class I had ever taken. At one point it even brought me to tears. I was trying as hard as I could. I was working with my teacher in the mornings and in the afternoons. Yet, I was still failing tests and quizzes. I remember taking this one quiz three times before I finally got a grade that I deemed acceptable. It was the first time I had ever felt inadequate in the classroom. I felt like my brain did not work anymore. It was a difficult time for me. I had always excelled in honors courses, and I was doing well in my other AP classes. It was this one class that could not seem to figure out. I did not understand why my performance was so poor. Granted, the whole class struggled with this course. But, they too started to make small improvements. I had managed to maintain between a D and an F throughout the course of the semester. This was disappointing because I wanted to do well. I did have some small victories, but it was not the kind of performance that I was proud of. I was not used to giving something my all and getting nothing in

My brother is in jail and has a parole hearing in another month so I go to visit him to make sure everything is set up so when he is home he won’t have a hard time readjusting to the free world. As I pull into the prison I had a bad feeling but I thought that it was just butterflies. I haven’t seem my brother in so long and i was nervous wonder would he look like would he still be the same funny guy before he was taken away, or would he be mean and rugged like the other people that surrounded him.

I took Chemistry for the first time as an Honors Chemistry course in junior year and loved it. My teacher did not explain so well, so I had to teach myself the material. Previously I had considered this situations a burden because I had to spend so much time reading the book and looking for information online, but with Chemistry it was different. I enjoyed reading about the different subjects and understanding their applications to our daily lives. This passion I feel for Chemistry only got stronger and stronger, which is why I’m taking AP Chemistry as a senior, even though it meant not being able to take AP French, which I enjoyed a lot.

Baghdad, Iraq is where I was born and raised; I lived there for about 6 years during the most pivotal years of the war. My dad left when I was about 7 months. He went to Lebanon to live for a few years before settling in the United States. My mom took care of me and my siblings. War was going on in Iraq; people walked with a dying heart. Iraq was split into Shiite, Sunni, and Christianity. Sunni and Shiite do not have any issues with one another, but there are people who do not like the Shiites and caused civil strife between the two divisions of Islam. My family is Shiite and we do not believe in a separation between anyone because we are one, they are

I still remember like it was a year ago, the first and last time that I was in jail because of him. My uncle Jackson called as usual to tell me that Luke was in Jail for stealing fruits from different baskets of the woman at the central market. I waited till the weekend to go to Chicago to pay his bail because I could not be absent from my job. I was going back to Oakland, one of the many dangerous neighborhoods. Everything had changed and right inside the house, I was hearing gun shots every one hour and a half or two hours, I found myself ben scared like never before. Nothing was the same. Later that evening that I arrived, I asked my uncle to go along with me to show he station where my brother was locked. We drove thirty minutes to get to our destination, I was so angry because my brother was there with his friends but he was the

Kristine was sentenced to life in prison and they can not guarantee her another trial. Her lawyer is fighting for another trial because the evidence is strong enough to prove her as innocent. I do not think her outcome is fair because there is not enough evidence to prove her as guilty. The main reason I do not think she is guilty is because her son died with a high percentage of carbon monoxide in his blood, which means he was dead before the fire started. The fire was likely to have started in the space between the ceiling and roof because of faulty wires. With this evidence, I believe she is innocent.

I also have always been intrigued by chemistry and the world around me. Because of that, I decided to take ACP Chemistry C105/C125 and C106/126 my junior year at my high school. Not only could I earn college credit, but I could also satisfy my thirst for learning and understanding more about chemistry. I figured it would also be like any other high school class I had taken previously. That was not the case. It was the hardest class I had ever taken up to that point. All my other homework took me about an hour and a half at most to do but chemistry took me just as long and longer still some nights. Some nights my dad would come into my room at 11:30 telling me to go to bed and I had to tell him I couldn’t because I had to finish this assignment.

Many people do not listen to ideas of a young person. They are thinking that he or she does not understand. Even, I sometimes have done this with younger kids. Many people equate youth with immaturity. Which is sometimes true but is not always true. This is somewhat similar, but not as severe. He is just another adult that thinks young people are all the same. Age is a big problem with its stereotypes and could be a "cage" with either being too old or too young.