Personal Narrative: My Hero Mabel Hickman

My personal Michigan hero is a loving mother, grandmother, aunt, sister, and daughter. Her family is everything to her, and she has shown them to live life to the fullest, to follow God, and to be a role model. Moreover, hard work has never defeated her, and she has shown courage in all that she does. Not to mention, the love between us is like a sunny day, but shines even greater than the sun.

My first day of the second grade, I knew no one except the teacher and my younger brother. Kindergarten and first grade had been easy enough, but I was scared of the upcoming year. The only thing I knew about being the new kid was that it hadn’t panned out too great for Addie from the American Girl books. Mrs. Henson’s class was fairly quiet throughout the day, for most kids were nervous or tired. We neared the end of the day and I was ecstatic over the fact that hadn’t made a complete fool of myself. I hadn’t met anyone yet, but I thought that that would be a challenge for another day. Unfortunately, that’s not what Mrs. Henson had in mind. She sent us all out to recess with a grin plastered on her face and with me practically kicking

Her paintings represented “the cultural nationalism of [Mexico]” (Meadows). She had a strong artistic style in which she showed her Mexican patriotism and her communist ideals. In addition, she also made political statements on the U.S. and the industrialization.

It seemed to amaze her how they could tell her how they did theirs, but wouldn’t teach her how it’s actually done. All her paintings came from her traveling experience. I remember her saying how the clouds looked solid as she looked up and just imagined. She lived until she was 90, she died of old age. I admired the fact where she talked about how early she would wake up and what time she would be back after being out working as an artist because it showed how dedicated she was to her craft. There was a time when her drawings were put up in a museum without her knowing and she found out from someone else and got down to the bottom of

It wasn’t like any other swim practice, no, not like any other I’d ever gone to. No one usually moved to Minot, North Dakota that was also in swimming, so when Emily Pitcher and her family moved to town and came to practice, it was quite a shock for everyone on the team. She moved from Colorado and she had 2 younger brothers and a younger sister as well. They seemed nice enough but there was something about Emily, who was my age, which seemed a bit off.

“If, when you’re older, someone comes knocking on your door asking you some heated questions that you’re not sure how to answer, just stop and say “I want an attorney” and they’ll have to provide you with one as a basic right,” she stressed.

Waking up and realizing that today was the day, my body got packed with nerves, still wondering how my mom even got me on the show and why they wanted me. While I was putting on my clothes, I was trying to look professional, but looking back I would have chosen something different. I was wearing some boot cut jeans, a shirt with a purple cross that had a shawl connected to it, some ugly sneakers, and my hair was straightened. It was dark and chilly December morning, and myself and my parents took the 30 minute drive to the TV station. When my parents and I arrived we had to be checked in by security, as they were told to expect my arrival, for the early morning weather segment. I felt that I was going to pee my pants, but I was also excited. My mom was making me more nervous, “You

Finally I have escaped. I was critical about escaping at first but now I know that it was the right choice to make. I escaped with Mary Ingles, a fellow captive. We escaped while on an expedition to find salt away from the village. Mary says we are going home, but I have no home anymore. I was the only survivor of the raid. However, Mary is a kind person and says that I could live with her family. Poor Mary she has had even worse than me she has lost all her children to the Shawnee. I feel very fortunate that I survived my captivity at all. Some of our fellow captives were even burned alive by the indians. I am lucky that I gained their respect by running the gauntlet. Mary and I escaped because they let us go out into the woods to forage

My personal michigan hero would be my mom because she has always been here for me, through the think, and even the thin. I was adopted when I was 4 months old. She found out that she couldn’t carry a baby because of her severe scoliosis. So she waited for a long time to bring home her little bundle of joy. Even though I am adopted, we both have a lot of things in common. For instance, we have the same allergic reaction to mangos, we are both 4 foot 11 ½ inches and, we have the same golden brown hair.

"If my men are too scared to return without Hannah Curtis, I will happily let Miss Curtis kill them. There is no room for cowardice in these ranks, boys. I, however, am no coward and an honorable warrior will let me go free back to my Queen." The Commander sounds disgusted as he raises his voice to address me, assuming I'm somewhere near him. Which is true, obviously, yet he can't be sure.

Cathy Gernack, also known as my mom, is my hero because she satisfies many of the heroic qualities we discussed in class. She is brave, giving, and determined on a daily basis. She is currently employed as an Intensive Care Neonatal Nurse at Kaiser Permanente here in San Leandro. She was born and raised in Alberta, Canada. After she graduated from High School, she attended the University of Alberta and received her bachelor’s degree. In 1999, she was given an offer to move to Hawaii where she would be working at the Kaiser Permanente hospital in Honolulu. She graciously accepted the offer and brought my dad along with her as they started a new life in another country. On August, 26th 2000, I was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. In 2002, my mom, my dad, and I moved to Boise, Idaho where my little brother was born. When I was four, we all moved here to San Leandro and have lived here ever since.

My personal Michigan hero is my Aunt Shari. My parent’s decision to adopt me made it the third generation in my family to adopt. The news made my Aunt very happy. It meant that another orphan had the opportunity to experience life in a loving family. My Aunt does not have any children of her own and that makes our relationship even more special. She helped my mother bring me home from Kazakhstan after my father traveled home to return to work. Even before we met, she loved and prayed for me. My aunt travelling alone halfway around the world, took an immense amount of courage. She loves God deeply, is courageous, kind, loving, and just has a special light around her. When we are together, I know just as with God and my parents, I feel safe.

Jane Addams is the most wonderful person I know. We grew up together in Chicago. She was my neighbor and my friend. An amazing person to have the priviledge of knowing, me and Jane met under the worst circumstances. We had never spoke to one another until my family heard that her mother had passed away. Jane's father told my father the horrible news one night after we had just finished dinner. I remember looking at my mother and feeling so grateful that she was my mother. I hugged her a little tighter before bed that night. The next day I went over to Jane's house to express my sympathies for her loss. From that point on, we developed a friendship that could move the stars.

Other things that had an influence on her was the Civil War, the women's suffrage movement, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and Ecole des Beaux-Art school in Paris. Her father did not want her to be a professional painter, he wanted her to be more or less a housewife. I believe this was one of the major regions she felt tied to the women's suffrage movement. She wanted to do and be who she wanted without being discriminated by men such as her father. One painting that represents this belief is The Mandolin Player, It depicts the portrait of a young girl playing a Mandolin

Our story takes a change when Mabel caught Norma Jean smoking. Even though Norma Jean is an adult, she was treated like a child by her mother. Mabel would come over and criticize the way the closets and linens were. Mabel caught Norma Jean smoking because she didn’t knock when Norma Jean was busy, smoking away at a cigarette. This upset Norma Jean badly; was she reverting back to being a young teenager by feeling guilt from her mother catching her smoking? Norma also felt guilty about the marriage because of the baby being conceived out of wedlock and also because of the baby