Personal Narrative: My Developmental Change

Growing up as a kid, I was quite the troublemaker. I would act out inappropriately at unfitting times, which frequently led to consequences. It did not matter whether I was in public or at home; I would continue to act the same. It ranged from using offensive words and physically hurting others, to being inconsiderate. I was a naïve child who was oblivious to the real world, and acted on a whim without the thought of the consequences for my actions. One may describe this behavior as simply what makes a child, a child; however, I never knew how much it would affect my life going forward.

Pure desperation is vomiting behind public dumpsters, or stealing laxatives from Target; it is shoving food into your pockets and your hair, hoping no one witnessed you scraping the butter from you slice of toast, storing the excess behind your fingernails. It is wearing ankle weights to yearly physicals, donating blood to “shed a few quick pounds”, and bringing plastic sandwich bags to Thanksgiving dinner to avoid eating the beautifully prepared meal. I was ten years old when I read that I could eat whatever I wanted without gaining weight, permitted that I was willing to carry a toothbrush around in my bag. Little did I know at the time that my playing with such dangerous behavior would then lead to my brain waging war against my body, a series of battles that I would consistently lose over the course of the next nine years.

Growing up is very difficult. It takes time and responsibility that I thought I had. This summer I quickly realized that becoming an adult is not as easy as a person may think. I had to travel to Oxford for a day by myself, and I learned several lessons such as: always pay attention while driving, make sure to park in appropriate places, and be very cautious while driving in the rain.

Late summer of 2015, my dear friend, Rhonda Mannes invited me to Morning Glory Prayer at Dumas Christian Center, under the leadership Pastor James Elam. At each intercessory prayer service that I attended, I felt the presence of the Holy Spirit. While in prayer October 2015, I heard the Holy Spirit speak so gently to “Step Out.” I didn’t know what this really meant; but I was being set up for something beyond my imagination. “Now to Him who is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly more than all that we dare ask or think [infinitely beyond our greatest prayers, hopes, or dreams], according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be the

Throughout the cycle of life, everyone passes through obstacles that seem to overrule our lives. However, a key difference is that people with autism have trouble understanding social cues made by other people in life. Those with autism know the struggles and challenges that life can offer for a person. During my life, I have overcome obstacles, but one obstacle that I would be of the utmost proud to have overcome, is completing high school.

As we grow up we grow up we form our identity. Identity is our sense of self; according to Erikson, the adolescent’s task is to solidify a sense of self by testing and integrating various roles (Myers, 2016, p.153). Erikson’s statement is true for myself. I have different identities when I am in different environments.

Since early childhood, I have been focused on improving my life despite the many difficult physical challenges I have endured. Thus, my struggles and journey have become the story of my success, ultimately leading me to pursue as a leader through a health care profession. I was born and grew up in the small village of Alamata, Ethiopia. I lost the use of my legs when I was one-year-old. My aunt was climbing a tree with me on her back when I fell to the ground. My father was seriously ill at the time of my fall, so that his care became the family's medical priority. I got no medical care after my fall. The belief was that if I did not live, my father would be able to father another son when he got well. My father did regain his good health,

"Change is hard at first, messy in the middle, and gorgeous in the end," by Robin Sharma. In general, change is extremely difficult to deal with, especially when it's moving. During the Summer of 2013, as I approached my eleventh birthday, my parents notified me that I would be moving homes. I had heard of them discussing it before, but I never assumed it would ever come true. Due to this, I was in great shock. Luckily, I would be moving locally, and would be still attending the same school I had been attending since I was four years old. Though the only thing changing was my home, I still was not sold on the idea. I did not want to leave the house I had grown up in my whole life.

Unfortunately, there is no pause button in our lives – either we move forward or we move backward. Thus, in order to evolve, people should always take a step forward at each stage of their lives. Finally, this moment came in my life and I had to make a decision whether I continue my studies in college or to labor somewhere. I have chosen the first one and hope that this decision will never be a disappointment for me.

There have been a lot of experiences that have defined me and fundamentally changed who I am, whether it metastasized into negativity or cultivated itself into positivity, it drove my core until the very present. Even as I continue to grow, I find myself constantly being challenged in different aptitudes, fighting against forces consciously unknown to me as a child. One experience in particular that I remember, was when I was younger I had been bullied quite a bit. It was actually several racist remarks that had made me cry home to my father, whom was no help to me at all. At the time, I would like to think I knew what racism was. I knew the idea, the concept, and that that concept had rejected my being as something not equal to those who chastised

It was a scorching June day when I rose around 10 o’clock, like any regular teenager would do. I stumbled down the stairs into the living room where my mom would usually be when I woke up, but she was not there. I called her and she would not pick up the phone and that is when I started to get worried. Finally after about 10 minutes of waiting for my mother to call me back, she did and she told me that my grandma had had a stroke and was in the hospital. I could not believe what I was hearing. I’m not a huge emotional person, but I could feel my voice starting to crack so I quickly hung up the phone.

There are a countless amount of times where my mother would give the justification of “you are a girl, it’s different you have to take care of yourself”. As a child I thought that this was just another thing parents would say to get their young girls to do or agree to what they wanted, kind of like the “because I said so” excuse. Now that I am a young adult, venturing away from home and getting a taste to what adult life is, this saying has taken on a different meaning to me.

While growing up as the youngest child I depended on my parents and siblings for just about everything. I would always seek for help rather than doing things by myself. I had my father drop me off at school, which was literally a five-minute walk. I would even ask someone to fetch me water because I would be busy playing video games. My brothers assisted me in doing homework because I wanted homework done as soon as possible so I can go play. I would get angry if no one was around because I wouldn’t know how to do some stuff because I had others doing them for me. I was sometimes guilty when I had others to do things for me but I ignored my guilty conscience and continued. This had a very negative effect on me because I became very dependent

Growing up, I was a timid kid who was not very fond of change and trying new things in life. During elementary school, I was with my parents at their restaurant all the time because they did not like the idea of me being home alone, or with a babysitter. Constantly hiding behind my parents in front of customers at the restaurant, I hardly talked with people outside of school and my home. When I started sixth grade, a family friend came over to the restaurant one day, and told me that I should practice Taekwondo under his instruction in his dojo. I was reluctant at first, but my parents highly encouraged me that I should try it because they did not want me being at the restaurant all the time since I was a kid. Thinking it over, I saw that there was no harm in trying something new with someone I was familiar with. Within a week, I agreed and started going to the classes in hopes that it would

There comes a time in most of our lives where we have to find out things the hard way. Growing up as a child, I have always tried things. My mom would tell me several times not to do something, but I have always done the opposite and did things my way. My mom would always tell me, “Girl your head is hard as a rock”, “You are going to learn the hard way.” However, I did listen to her, but I did not care to do as she said. There was a car accident involving two of my friends. One of my friends has always told my friend the driver to never drink and drive, but my friend the driver did not care to listen until he was in a serious accident. Although, he lived, but this taught him a lesson not to drink and drive. He learned his lesson the hard way.