Personal Narrative: Me For Me

When it comes to what separates me from other teenagers, there would be quite a bit to tell. I would say a major difference which separates me from my peers is my love for barbershop harmony music. I do not have a quartet of my own; however, I love to sing barbershop tags with other friends at church. I set myself apart from the world because of my beliefs: as a New Testament christian, I believe the bible gives us all instruction concerning spiritual matters.

Who am i? I am an individual who has achieved many goals despite a childhood and adolecense with much adversity. I grew up I Santa Clarita, California my child hood was realativley normal . My grandmother mary died, when I was 7 and my mother started drinking heavily . By the time I was 11 she was a raging alcoholic and was depressed most of the time. I was helpless, at the same time my father became a drug addict. As a result of her alcoholism my mother contacted cirrhosis and when I was 13 she passed away. I was devastated and too young to lose my mother.

What defines me is my drive to help people, and the adrenaline and mental high I get from doing it. I can accredit this to my Aunt Rhonda who was a Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) During my early childhood. I remember her letting me sit on her lap after she got back from a long weekend of volunteering, and me marveling over her stories of the shift. By the time I got to elementary school, I had started carrying extra band-aids in my backpack so as to save the life of a possible wounded classmate. When I got into middle school, I was familiar with the first responder standards of care and had my own basic medical bag. I spent my weekends reading “Grey's Anatomy” and watching endotracheal intubation demonstrations on youtube instead of doing my homework. But everything I

I saw, even though you tried to cover my eyes. I heard, even though you tried to block my ears. I felt, even though you pretended there wasn't a reason to. How could I possibly understand what I was seeing and feeling at such a young age? Who was there for me to talk to about it? No one..I had to comprehend so much. I sat behind the door with my back against it, when the screaming began again I closed my eyes this time. I pictured myself in a meadow with the grass being pure green and the sky being pure blue. The sun shined so brightly on my skin and the feeling of warmth comforted me. I could see a man walking up to me, but he was so bright you couldn't see his face. My throat was in a knot and my heart was heavy, but as

When I pondered all of the character traits that I retain, a prominent attribute that recurred to me was that of independence. I have been called

Identity. Who we are. How we define ourselves. Imagine taking away something that defines you. You’re left feeling “who am I?”

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

As the daughter of immigrants, I had grown up with a strong idea of what my culture was and how I identified myself. This identity had influenced my beliefs and the value I believed my parent’s culture held. My background had revolved around being raised by parents who had both spent a majority of their lives in Vietnam before moving to the States. This meant I was going to be influenced by the Confucian ideas which remained prominent in Eastern and South Eastern Asian culture as well as the Buddhist religion which my mother followed. All of these traits along with the environment I grew up in had affected how language had become a major pillar in my culture and identity, continuing to play a part in my relationships and actions today.

This is the stage when you form your own individual identity and separate from the oppression based system of hierarchy. This is the stage I developed through the help of my mother. Even when I was bad she would install the power of knowledge in me. She always installed on me that I had to go to college. I went through this stage when I stopped associating with my high school friends. I notice that they had nothing going on with their lives and were dragging me down with bad influence. Once I decided to go to college I stopped all contact with them. Going to college changed my perception on life. I know that with the proper education I can be anybody I want to be and I can have an equal chance in society. I stopped feeling like I was oppressed

I like to think that my journey to finding my identity has been a complicated one. As in my case identity was something no one really focused on finding but at the age of fourteen my complicated identity would come to accept a new part of it, Cancer. But it is not what I identify myself as, it makes up my identity but I don’t let that define it.

I just need to look around me to guess that most people, if not all of them, suffer through some sort of identity crisis, whether it is psychological, social, sexual, or another. But that knowledge doesn’t really help me answer that deceptively simple question: “How would you describe yourself?” Probably the most honest answer I have for you today is some long version of “I don’t know.” I am trying to find some answers to that question, though, and that’s something pretty new for me.

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?

My identities are complicated and hard to explain so the best way I can do at this point is do kind of a free form of the two and then explain them the best way I possibly can. My first identity would be the blue collar professional one (Mr. Coverdale). he is well-spoken, poised, well-mannered, and knowledgeable. The second identity (Henry). He would be the short tempered, disrespectful, and just do not care about anyone or anything but himself and takes no bull from anyone. They get along more than they disagree with each other helping each other out in a way that things get done in the right way, but they do bump head from time to time. The situation in which that happens has to be the most challenging and conflicting. sometimes one is entirely

When I was young, I was naive, and also pretty arrogant, as was everyone I presume. But, on the other hand, I also had two sides to define me: the first was this quiet, curious, and almost peculiar being who was engaged and would absorb everything (quite literally too.) The other being this reckless, yet selfless child who cared about others well-being more than his own. For as long as I can remember, I've always been this way. Good or bad, that's me.

Who am I today? I see a man with potential. As I see myself right now I am pretty proud of myself and thankful. I am thankful for the opportunities that have been given to me such as being able to go to a very well known college prep school and I am thankful, and I know it sounds cheesy, for parents that love me and support me and give me a kick in the butt when they see me slacking a little bit.