Personal Narrative: My Deviation From The Norm

As my norm violation I chose to alter the way we are supposed to be dressed and look in public as society says. I walked around the marketplace in a backwards low cut shirt, backwards ripped jeans, one blue shoe, one red shoe, and a bright pink wig. First, I went into the yogurt store and everyone was staring at me with blank expressions and kids were laughing. As I walked over to get my favorite mango yogurt an old man jokingly asked if I woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. I told him no, I just liked to wear my cloths this way and that this was my natural hair. After I left the store and started walking around the water fountain, girls my age were pointing, giving me dirty looks, and some were laughing as they whispered in each other’s ears. Guys my age looked confused when they

My whole life I’ve felt like an outsider. When I was younger dealing with a learning disability, I have had a hard time making and keeping friends even to this day. I struggle with being a follower instead of a leader. My own adoptive father verbally abused me growing up and I also had kids in fifth-sixth grade who constantly bullied me. I still am reminded of an instance when the first day of fifth grade approached: I got on the bus and these older girls started making fun of my pants saying, “She’s wearing high-waters.” I was humiliated in front of my peers every day since than during those two years. After being bullied for so long I made a vow to myself to never forget the pain inflicted upon me on a daily basis.

My conformed profile is ISTP; which means that in both work and school I'm a person who's difficult to get to know well, due to the 'walls' that I used to circle myself with; keeping my time and energy out of everyone's hand, which causes me to be prejudged by others, most of times, before they get to know me better, in both of work and school, people think that I'm not interested in their life or in their talks, which is a totally true, but absolutely not out of disrespect, simply because I can't force myself to care, and I am not that good with pretending to want to hear everyone's story and what did they have for breakfast. The more people around me, the more powerless I become, and to be fair; I don't put all of the people that I know on

I am the outsider. I attended beginner sailing camp with my brother, Kent. I had never stepped foot on a sailboat while my brother had sailed since the previous fall. He knew all the instructors because they were fellow high school sailors. I was in a whole different world: the sailing world. New terms like “line” instead of “rope” was being drilling into my head. All instructors and Kent continuously said, “There is no rope on a boat, only line.” The bonding of Kent and the high school instructors made me jealous and envious of their relationship. At that time I was the outsider, who knew nothing about sailing.

Is usual to hear people associating common behaviors from a cultural background to how they expect an individual to act and react to certain situations. So I was really curious to see the results of the self-assessment comparing me to my cultural profile. I was born in Venezuela, and I lived there for most of my life, for that reason I wasn’t really surprised when my answers were almost the same to my cultural norm. The dimensions that I’m most similar to are in leading, trusting, disagreeing, evaluating, and persuading. In “leading”, the scale measures between egalitarian and hierarchical, and my cultural norm and individual answer is more hierarchical than egalitarian. Also, in “trusting” Venezuelans (including me) are definitely a relationship based society, where trust is built by affective connection, for example is very common that most of the business partnerships in Venezuela are made between friends and family rather than with individuals with

First impressions always matter when attending a new school. New schools are also a new start; as a result, it is always hard to try to see if you naturally fit in. Trying to fit in may be difficult may be hard for some kid, but fitting in never truly matters as long as you have the right friends. If you just stay unique instead of being worried about fitting in then you will fit in your own way.

One aspect of my identity that has shaped my life experience and the way I see the world is my race. I am an African- American who has Nigerian descent from both parents. Growing up African American is hard for many of us, but we always come together to help each other out. We get judged for our skin color, religion, sexuality, and economic status. When I was younger, I always thought about what other people would say about me and how I looked. Even though it was hard seeing how other races portrayed my race, I have learned to embrace my skin color and not let anybody judge me. The society believes that African Americans are lazy, uneducated, and violent. Things people say about me and my race only make me want to prove myself to them that I am proud of my race and would never change myself for anybody.

As I was scrolling down my pictures on VSCOcam, an editing app that has been my favorite for a few years not, it struck me yet again that one of my themes for this year was authenticity.

My career was finally looking up, I was working as a senior accountant with multiple multi-million accounts, full-cycle, I finally finished my Bachelor’s degree. I even purchased my first home and bought a new car! Then, it happened, I found out I was going to be a mom. I was excited, and terrified at the same time, I even took parenting classes! I had no idea how to do the formula thing and diapers? Yeah… ok.

The word normal doesn’t apply to someone that’s terrified to throw a gum wrapper in the trashcan. It was a ten-step journey that could transform my life forever. To step out of my chair and making it back safely as if a demon was chasing me seemed simple to others, but mentally draining for me. In order to accomplish my mission, I thought out the steps in my head.

Linda you gave me a secret life you showed me what i actually am. I still remember the day we met. In foodland in normy you were stressing about what u needed for an experiment and i asked u are you okay. You said no im going to fail my science class. So i asked do u need help and well you said yes. And from that day on we were best friends your parents loved me i was apart of your family i skip a day of school to go too your school as a guest. You introduce me to all your friends and i kcked the shit out of the guy bullying you. I dislocated hit sholder and i got i alot of shit for it and i did not care one bit and u told the principle that he punched you in the eye witch he didn't you got your mate too hit you. That day ill never forget i

Dan threw his backpack in the back seat of Phil’s seat, plopping down in the front seat and slamming the door. “Dan, what’s wrong? Why did you ask me to pick you up?” Phil was concerned.

Identity is what I believe the thing that makes up all human beings. Everybody has an identity, some just aren't as brisk to comprehend what it is or what it means. Identity is generally what someone's traits make up and in my case, I believe I am benevolent, venturesome, and optimistic. Some of the qualities I consider myself to have are not what I would have considered myself to be last year. I believe life lessons that someone undergoes can change their identity and the way they come off drastically.

What kind of name is Princess Ja’Nai Farkhanda Ibinah “DVS” Abdul-Wajibul Lavender (pronounced Juh-Nā-Ya , Fuh- Con- Da, Devious, Wa- Gee- Boo)? It’s a unique name and it happens to be mine. It has been mispronounced, the butt of many jokes, even a bullying tool, but most importantly it is the perfect name for me, because its meaning is true to my life and personality.

In the first telling of my personal narrative, I did not consider including what had led me to a point where I began to embrace my identities and become proud of my heritage as Korean. There were many factors that led me to be who I am today. The reason for leaving out the information was because there were so many people and occurrences that led me to the point where I am now. For example, moving to different elementary school where there were more diverse body of students, annually performing at the Mosaic in the Korean pavilion, my parents being a positive role model, and becoming a volunteer teacher at the Korean Language School are some of the reasons which have led me to be who I am today. As I was surrounded by people who were interested