Personal Narrative: Looking Back On Barlow Road

When I was little, I was very shy around new people. I usually only showed who I actually was around my family. I didn’t have a friend who I could be myself around, they were usually just friends who I would play with at recess. That was until everything changed, and I moved across the town of Derby.

I finally arrived in Vicksburg, trying to escape all the pain I had suffered from the farm in Mississippi. All the whippings from Master Ethan had deprived me of my strength, and he murdered my best friend, James when we tried to escape together. He was my only closest friend, and now at the age of forty, he is dead because of us trying to accomplish our freedom. It took me about four miles to get to Vicksburg, but I was completely exhausted at that point. I had to compel myself to keep going and find some kind of harbor to rest in because it seemed like I ended up in a very dangerous place of Vicksburg. It wasn’t really safe to be in Vicksburg, but I had no choice. After awhile, I finally found an abandoned house to settle in and eventually

I didn't always live in California. Before California I lived in Denver, Colorado. Before Denver I lived in Aurora, Colorado. When we moved to california we had a family of five. We moved to California, when I was six, Then we lived at my grandma’s house in Riverside for a year. We found a place on Ferree Street and that became our home.

The first steps I took outside of my comfort zone were on the same city grounds where Rutgers lies. Not far from New Brunswick’s busy main roads, there is a quaint little store called the George Street Co-op. It is a non-profit health foods store and cafe that is run by its members and student volunteers. Their Sweat Equity program for students is what called my attention first while searching for places to volunteer; the more I researched the co-op, the more it drew me in. I fell in love with the store as soon as I walked in; there was a poem painted on the stairs leading to the cafe and a large chalkboard displaying a well-known quote by Hippocrates saying, “Let thy food be thy medicine…”. Flyers urging people to “Ban Fracking Now!” and to look for the “Non-GMO Project” label covered the message board. I knew that this was the place where I could find people with the same interests and values as me.

Hinds Community College has undoubtedly enabled me to grow as both a student and a leader during my time enrolled. My passion has always lie in the film and media industry, which made Hind’s film program the perfect choice for me. Before entering this program my skills were unrefined, but now I have been given the knowledge to pursue a career in the film industry with the confidence in my ability to complete any necessary job. Since joining this program, I have become the Media Associate at First Ridgeland Baptist church in charge of all video projects, the sole video contractor for Harmonic Audio and Concert Production which is a multi-state concert production company, the lead contractor for a major theater

I couldn't believe we were actually leaving Florida. My heart sank when I got into the car. "Why do we have to leave?" I asked my mom as I started to cry. My brother had helped us pack, and he walked up to the car and gave me a hug and said goodbye. Saying goodbye back was probably the hardest thing I've ever had to do. Earlier today a few of my friends dropped by to say goodbye. I love my friends in Florida i didn't want t leave them at all! But, The hardest part of today was leaving all of my family. I don't now what I'm going to do without knowing that they were not going to be a few minutes away anymore. They would be 16 hours away!

The day I moved from Rockwall to Crandall was a day I’ll never forget. It was a strange couple of days. The day we moved was extremely saddening.

On April 1, 2000, I was placed into a group home because of my behavior at the home. My dad and I didn’t get along. So he sent me to a placed called Bowman House. When I arrived there the first person I met was a lady name Alexander, she begin showing me around the units. Alexander was called the granny of the units. It was two units for the boys and girls. She took me to the boys unit first to look at the units. After I looked at the boys unit she took me to the girls unit. Where I would be staying. I had the chance to bond with Alexander, it wasn’t something I was trying to do it just happen. I had to stay with Alexander until the staff came back from picking the other peers up from school. An hour pass and the peers came back I had to go

“Are we there yet?” my brother whined. My mom replied, “Almost”. Finally, after three hours in the car I can get out and stretch my legs. When I open the car door I am overwhelmed by the smell of salt. “We’re here!” my dad cheers. Everyone is mingle ing and having side conversations; catching up on what’s been happening the past year. It’s nice to see my relatives again.

In my time at North, I have had countless amazing classroom experiences. The classes that I’ll never forget though will be AP Calculus with Mrs. Buckley, AP Statistics with Mrs. Schmid, and multiple advanced science classes with Mrs. McCreery. From the funny moments and inside jokes shared with classmates to the feeling of satisfaction after finally understanding a super tough topic, I will always have terrific memories of these classes. These classes taught me to challenge myself and to always stay curious. My experiences also showed me that hard classes are as enjoyable as they are difficult. It seemed that as the classes got harder, the stronger the bond was between the students and the teacher. My life will forever be changed because of

“Chasing Cars” by Snow Patrol reminds me of my favorite show Grey’s Anatomy. Whenever something serious was about happen this song will start playing and I would know someone is either going to die or have a sad moment. In an episode, Callie Torres, one of the characters, got into a car accident when she was pregnant. Her soon to be wife was driving and Callie asked Arizona if she would marry her and Arizona wasn’t paying attention to the road when a car came out of nowhere. When Callie got to the hospital the other doctors got to her into a ER room when they started singing “If I lay here, if i just lay here, would you lie with me and just forget the world.” This episode was my favorite one because it was a musical episode and I loved how it wasn’t like all the other episodes.

Once upon a time I was walking down wooly booger street. It was about 11:00 P.M. when I started creeping down the street all by myself. I was wearing some nike shorts and a big tank top when I felt something hairy touch my shoulder. I immediately started running I then looked back over my shoulder to see this HUGE monster who was about eight feet tall, three arms,one eye,one leg and had on a shirt that had wooly booger written on it. I was running so hard when I suddenly tripped over a sewer hole after I tripped over that I never heard the wooley booger again. I sat down to take a break I was SO out of breath I could not catch a break. Five minutes has past and I all the sudden heard something I look up and there he was again he came out the

a lot of my life was spent on a place that my brother and I call Pappas Road this road is where I did a lot of my growing up. the people that I love most all lived on this road my aunt and uncle Bonnie and Clyde I lived on this road and my grandma and grandpa lived on this road therefore spent a lot of time here on this road there are two Curves in it we call them the first and second corner my brother and my grandpa and I would always go walking on this road mostly in the summer spring and the fall or really anytime it wasn't too cold and he would always take us to the first or second corner he never wanted us to go past there because he didn't want us to get too close to the highway. from the time I was born till the time I was probably seven or eight the road was gravel and since I wasn't tall enough to see out the windows of the car I always knew we were on Papa's Road when we turned onto a gravel road I feel like this road kind of grew as I did because it went from a little gravel road to being paved in completely different as I did Growing Up.

There is nothing more fabulous than getting outdoors on a crisp, autumnal Sunday morning to photograph a beautiful family.

I had never understood contradictions until I met Adelaide. She was always saying never to do one thing and then doing that thing. For example, she would tell you that you should always believe in magic, but at the drop of a hat she'd turn around and tell you that magic was a load of shit and that anyone who believed it was real was crazy. She was confusing and beautiful and I had convinced myself that when we turned eighteen we'd get married and I would be hers forever. It's silly, you think that way at fourteen. She'd only been mine for a month and I dreamed of us getting married.