Personal Narrative: My Life In Locust Grove

It was a nice summer morning we I was all of a suden shoke like turbulence on a plane to wake up. It turns out I slept threw my alarm to wake up for the day. It was about 11:00 am and today we were heading to Florida and our flight takes off at 1:00 pm. You may think that we had time to make the airport in Milwaukee but, we had to drive all the way to Chicago, Illinois because there was no flight for Florida in Milwaukee. Luckily I had packed the day before with the rest of my family so all we had to do was wait for our aunt Lisa to take us to the aiport in Chicago. She showed up five minutes later with a mini van and there was about seven of us jammed in there. It was alright for me because in our family if you called “shot-gun” or “I

As a child, I remember growing up in the beautiful city of Detroit, Michigan. It was clothed with one hundred plus degree summers, 6 feet or more of snow winters. A building called the Renaissance, which housed a rotating restaurant on the Penthouse level. It was the Motor city home of General Motors and the Motown city of music. Growing up there was so much fun and amazing to me. Where we would watch the bright, red, blue, green and yellow fireworks on the Fourth of July at Edgewater Park every summer, participate in community activities at the 4-H club. There were barbecues with our neighbors, one of which had a daughter with the exact first, middle and last name as mine. On the one side of me a lady everyone referred to as Ms. Pat, use to bake fresh yeast bread from scratch, and would always share with me and my sisters. We could smell it while outside playing in the yard and inside the house. Then you had the neighbor across the street with the rough edge to them, where you would hear an argument or two every once in a while, but when Mama needed some help while my stepfather was away in the Army, she could call on Joey and he would always be right there with his "yes ma'am and no ma'am" etiquette. With the memories of all things good from the eyes of a child, seeing everything as

It was a small town in Cornersville, Ohio. Nothing much ever happened in this small town until one day. A new family moved in one afternoon. Everyone was surprised because no one even noticed the house being built. Everyone was still delighted that they moved in because the couple, Bob and Nancy, were very friendly. Bob and Nancy helped with all the activities in town and were very generous. A couple of weeks after they moved in, a lot of strange things began. Money started disappearing, the lights in the town went out every night except for Bob and Nancy's lights, even people's pets went missing. One night, everyone's lights went out at 11:30 as usual, except there was an extremely loud noise. The neighbors went outside to see where all the

It was April of 1999. My family was at home. Children were running outside. The asphalt was burning. Cars rolled up to the entrance of the apartments and BANG. I grew up in Stockton, California. Surprisingly, as a minority, I wasn’t really a minority. There were, in fact, a large and diverse population of Asian-Americans. But, Stockton is not the ideal place to live. It was hot and dry, almost to the point of a drought. Stockton was also ranked as the one of the top 5 most dangerous cities in California. So, having a nice and safe family is kind of difficult. Eventually, my family decided to move to Crescent City, California when my dad retired. It was a world of difference. There were trees, plentiful water, and a nice cool temperature. This

A few months after Shayla was born my family decided to move to Canal Winchester. This was a big deal because moving means a new school. The next school year Desiree, James, and I were going to Tussing Elementary. We went there for a year and while I was there I was able to make dean’s list. The following year we were moved to Pickerington Elementary due to Tussing being overcrowded. After 4th grade I went to Diley Middle School, and while I was there I was able to have a spectacular time at Outdoor Edu. Before the school year was up my family moved to Reynoldsburg. When the school year was about to start I learned that I was going to be going to Lakeview Junior high instead of Ridgeview. The transition was much harder for me this time than

Imagine your life being confined to eight and half square miles. This was a reality for me, up until age 14, when I first adventured out of my home state.

Coming to Citrus Hill High school was a big transition for me within itself. I originally transferred from rancho verde to get away from the trouble and focus more on the things that were important to me, like my school work and baseball. I had heard from the people around that there was a good program there play baseball there. When I came I thought my year would be good new start, new school, new surroundings nothing could go wrong.. Shouldn’t have said that. When i got there my anger issues have gotten in the way and has held me back from achieving many of the goals i set for myself before the school year began. For example, starting off good in all my classes keeping my grades up and making the baseball team. I’ve had previous conversations

I witnessed my cousins boyfriend corpse lying on my neighbors lawn. It was a humid summer night around 3:30 when I peeked through my window and saw my devastated cousin sobbing uncontrollably on my decaying porch. Being from East chicago, Indiana has transformed me into the person I am today.

It was a nice Saturday evening, a cool gentle breeze, as Mason was playing soccer in the park. Mason had just turned 15 and was entering his sophmore year in James Grove High. He had a nice little family, living with his mom and being the oldest of 2. He had a sister named Melissa and she was 12 years old just entering the 7th grade. When he was just 2 years old his father sadly passed away in a gruesome car accident. Growing up it was hard for him not to think about this inccident. Him now being older it’s now his responsibility to be the man of the house.

Closer to the day that I was going to leave NAS Willow Grove I called my folks and told them when I was going to go home. My family was very happy that at last I was going to be with them, and Dad told me he was going to drive from West New York to the base, and pick me up to take me home. I was looking forward to seeing my parents once again. I had a lot of things I wanted to tell them, so many stories of my adventures of the past months. I was also looking forward to getting home and seeing what college I could go to now that I felt more confident about myself.

Longview, Texas is a unique hometown for many reasons. First of all because, more than likely, any given person who attends Texas A&M and did not play football in high school has never heard of it. When meeting new people in college, I’m always asked where I’m from and 90% of the time the response I hear is “Oh I’ve never heard of that”, 9.5% of the time I hear “Is that kinda by Houston?” (a question that, after hearing for several semesters, I’ll just respond yes), and finally .5% of people I meet know where Longview actually is. Living in a small town—not in the suburbs to any city—offered a unique perspective on life going into college. There are 4 high schools in town. The largest, Longview High, was an athletic and academic powerhouse: always going to state

Nolanville ,Texas was where it all began. I was about fifteen or so my sisters and I were walking to the buss stop . The big brother Iam trying to make sure my sisters are safe. I told my sister to get off to the side of the road . It was early in the morning around six to seven am. The typical time for school to start around . I have a really big family to be exact I have five sisters and myself which is the only boy being the second oldest the buss stop was about about a mile or so not very far from my house on the corner of the street a black car sped through the street as I was on the right hand my sister sarah the middle child started to cross the road as I saw the saw went to go yell the car hits her projecting into the air the car was

I grew up in two very different communities, El Paso, Texas and Olney, Maryland. I spent the first ten years of my life in El Paso, which being home to a military base, was a community with strong military support. For the past seven years, I have lived in Olney, Maryland, a small town with families that have known each other for generations. No one really moves to Olney, most families have deeply established roots here, so when I moved to Olney when I was 10, I was very much an outsider. El Paso was fairly limited to El Paso as far as short trips, but in Olney you can be to D.C or Virginia in about an hour; there is always something new to do. Although Olney and El Paso are quite different, they have both instilled a common value in me, take

Hwy. 395, past a marker grandma green church of my childhood. Our post Ironman week was less than typical. Hence, we are home turning over flagging remnants of overgrown August herbs, a plethora of scarlet blistering shishito peppers, and multi colored bells, discovering another garden dinner in the doing. My mother often made stuffed bell peppers which began with blanched, whole peppers full of ground beef, bread crumbs, bacon, and raw Minute Rice which magically cooked the tiny white bits as they bathed in bubbling stewed tomatoes topped with American cheese. Sixty years later, my sister and I reminiscence about those delicious packages of meatloaf and buttery new

I don't remember how I met you in 1st grade, but I do remember when you used to be taller than me and had braces. I remember asking you what a period (menstrual) was, and the days when we talked about relationships—I mean we still do, haha. I remember going to the Sacramento field trip with you in 4th grade, when we carpooled to the airport at five in the morning and how you were there when I experienced my first time on a plane. I remember seeing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows together and then getting In-N-Out afterwards. I remember when we both did Beginner and Advanced Strings in 5th grade. I remember having the same cabin as you at 6th grade camp. Going to the Big Bear trip with Ben, Bob and Josh last year and being there when I