Personal Narrative: Leaving Home

"Oh wow, Avenelle Jérôme, wow." I snatched my hand away from him and hid both of them behind my back, knowing he couldn't tickle me on a

People often hear or maybe seen on the news of houses being broken into. We do our best to protect ourselves and our families from the unenviable happening. We have locks, we purchase alarm systems and other forms of defense to keep strangers out and our possessions in. When I woke up on Tuesday, April 6th, 2011, I never imagined someone would come inside of my home and ramble through my things and take from me whatever they wanted. If I could have seen into the future, I would attempt to change the minds of the guys who broke into my apartment.

When I was at school the other day, my band instructor told me, “You are one of the hardest workers I have ever seen, why do you work so tirelessly if you know that you might fail? I was quite surprised because she has been teaching for 33 years. I responded with your book, Almost Home.

Lauren: I had some right outside the door; I’m going to go call my parents to let them know we have made it.

Since this essay seems to be getting a bit more personal, I might as well discuss the role I play in my family. I am the oldest child in a family of six children: five girls and one boy. The age differences range from one and a half years old to eighteen years old. I love children, but in a way I really don’t have much of a choice. It is only natural to be somewhat of a second mother to my

“Things are going to be different for you now,” my mother said with tears streaming down her face. I was the oldest of five and would be the first in my family to attend college. “Things will be better for you.”

He said,” Wow I knew you would help people out someday”. I said,”Ya” with a smile. Then the food came out.

“Okay gather around children! The skies were beautiful this weekend! What did you all do?” Ms. Anissa beamed at the children gleefully.

I was on my way to school when I heard this low rumbling in the sky. We haven't had much activity in this part of the country, but over the last couple of weeks we have had government leaders setting up bases everywhere. Sometimes on my way to school, I can hear them talking about what they are going to nex to try to stay as far out of the Vietnam War as they can. I am almost to the school, it's such a long walk I can't wait for the school year to be over. Suddenly, I am flown to to the ground. I'm so scared right now, I don't know what to do. I turn around on my back and see a house burning to the ground. It was a bomb. I am so scared and I don't know what to do. Should I go to the school, or should I run home. I look at the sky, it is black

This time, it's my eyes that go wide. "You were born six months before Christmas. Wow, that must've been an early Christmas present for your mom" I say. I hear a slight chuckle coming from behind me. I made him happy I think to myself.

I hadn’t been able to track down Bryan all day, so I resorted to playing with the kids at the playground, a huge wooden play structure set on fake grass a few levels above the ball park. At first, I could only think of how many germs were on indoor playsets, but a snap to reality reminded me that there were worse things around us than flu germs. I didn’t even know what kind of germs we were dealing with, or if we would all get sick sooner or later. Better to let the kids find their joy right now. The little kids’ eyes lit up when they saw it. The weight they’d been carrying fell away with a quick

“I guess a little, but you know that I’ve been doing this for a long time, right? But I’m very excited for you, little sis.” Patrick replied.

She suddenly shivered as Katherine lightly trailed her fingers over her sides, gazing into her similar doe eyes. Her heart nearly jumped from her chest as Katherine revealed,

People always think that once you have a kid, it will be all sunshine and daisies. Maybe sometimes it can be like that, but not always. There are joys and challenges with everything in life. Many people have different ways of describing the joys or challenges of taking care of an infant, for example, some people would find that first outing as a joy and some people find it as a challenge. Men and Women both have perspectives with how they raise their children, whether together or as a single parent.

Throughout this whole semester we have learned that there is no right or wrong way to parenting. We have learned that some approaches to parenting might be more effective than others, but there isn’t a one size fits all approach when it comes to being a parent. I asked “Lauren” basic questions on how the experience of being a parent has been, what are some challenges she has faced, and how she juggles it all from working to being a wife to being a mother. I found that most of her responses were consistent with what we have learned throughout this whole semester. According to The process of Parenting Baumrind, and