Personal Narrative: My Life In Oklahoma

As a Texas-born, Texas-raised, small town girl, I lack the words to explain what role my hometown and the state of Texas has played in creating the person I am today. I will say, though, that I have all intentions of paying it giving back to my community by furthering Texas scientifically and medically through research, and caretaking for Texans as soon as I have the chance, starting at Texas A&M University this fall.

Have you ever moved? I have and It’s hard, packing up and moving along with leaving any friends or family behind. Moving to a place you only visit once a year is, though, also I have only seen a small part of this state, the area by my grandma’s house. The summer of 20ll was a rough time. It was the year we moved from Florida to Kansas because my mom found a better job.

Growing up I lived in the small town of Duncan, Oklahoma; although, not nearly as small as the town I currently reside in. Throughout my adolescence, I attended Mark Twain Elementary School and as I was ending the third grade, my parents decided that we should move to Fox, Oklahoma to be closer to my grandparents. Moving would bring big changes my way such as a smaller school, living in the middle of nowhere, and new ways of entertainment. Living in the country has its pros and cons, but I can tell you the only thing I could think of the night we moved out there was the cons. Eventually, I had grown accustomed to the silence, lack of traffic, and having nothing to do. Looking back I feel that if we had not moved to the country then I would

In some cases, school was cancelled because of these storms. In the same year, slightly after noon on January 21st, a dust storm was reported that rose up to 10,000 feet in the air with winds that blew 60 miles per hour. According to Duncan, the local weather bureau called it “awe-inspiring” and “most spectacular”. An Associated Press reporter gave the Dust Bowl its name the day after Black Sunday, which was the worst dust storm reported (Ganzel). These storms were so devastating that people had to cover their faces with wet rags in fear they would get dust pneumonia, a deadly condition where dirt would clog up the lungs (Klein). They were also fearful of being caught outside of their house in the middle of a dust storm, because the storms rolled with thousands upon thousands of fine particles of dirt that would completely block out the sun, and no light could penetrate the blanket of darkness (Ganzel). The residents of the Great Plains couldn’t even escape the dust inside their own homes. The dust would somehow percolate through the tiniest of cracks, crevices, or gaps in the walls, windowsills, and door frames (Duncan 51). These deadly storms were also capable of producing so much static electricity between the ground and the airborne dust that even a simple handshake could initiate a spark so powerful it would knock them to the ground (Klein). The entire region of the Plains was affected, and eventually the entire country (Ganzel).

I was born very early and had teenage parents who did not really have their life together at that time. My parents were both high school dropouts. My dad dropped out because school was not for him and he just wanted to work and get money and my mom dropped out because school was not for her also and she was pregnant with me and did not want to deal with school. My dad worked everyday to keep our family moving and my mom just stayed at my grandmas house with me because obviously she had to take care of me. So we were living by paycheck to paycheck. One year later my sister was born and two years later after that my other sister was born. Since my parents really did not have that much money to get our own place we would live at my grandmas house to my papa’s house but at times we would have to camp out at the beach because we had no other choice. When we would live at the beach I would think that we were just camping for fun but I did not realize that we did not have any place to stay. My parents clothed me and my sisters, provided food for us, but we did not have a house over our head. So

The birds, squirrels, and fishes living in tranquility. The daylight there is an early riser, while the night feels like a mother rocking her baby; peaceful. Therefore, the nights are so still that only the beautiful harmony of the crickets could be heard. The green tree looks so alive, they were standing large and stiff. There was even the opportunity of exploring the mountain trails. It was amazing being able to experience something completely different, especially when it was just a few days from starting my junior year. The memories from that trip will be unforgettable.

I grew up in a city named Colorado City, TX – the city is located in Central West Texas. I had a really good friend, that I became best friends with, named Daniel. We went riding our bikes everywhere around this little town, scraping our knees on concrete and crashing our bikes on practically everything (since there was practically nothing to do in this town – this was before the 3M Palace Theatre was reopened).

My mind will often wander to all the places I've lived in and all those I would love to travel to, or visit again. I think of the streets of Santa Fe, how fresh it would be compared to the over 100 degree temperature of were I am now, the hot dry heat of El Paso, Texas, a place I often come back to, the soil were my roots are permanently ingrained. El Paso has grown significantly in the past 10 years alone and is now the sixth most populous city in Texas (World Population Reviw). It's far from it's days when it was widely known as “El Chuco,” or “ChucoTown,” nicknames whose origins and meaning have long been debated, but no matter how much of the new generation is unfamiliar with these terms the history lives on through the streets and current

Growing up as a military brat wasn't easy, there were many places we had to go to and we didn't have a choice. One of those places was here ,Illinois, and I was ten when we made the move here.This move was probably the hardest thing I have ever physically gone through considering all of my mom and I's stuff was lost in the ocean because the place we moved from was Hawaii.So, when we got here me and mom both didn't have our stuff but the rest of my family did.To make matters worse my dad was being shipped out to South Korea and we didn't have a house. For a whole year we were homeless,we put what was left of our stuff into storage and moved in with grandma. As terrible as that year was, it taught me a lot about what some people actually live

Everyday gets harder and harder to survive. The storms are getting worse. They make my husband's farm all dry. It’s very hard to find food when we can’t grow our food either. The stock market just crashed a few years ago and everything is just getting worse. Everyone in our little town in Kansas is struggling it's not just our family. Last week the dust got so bad outside we were trapped inside our house for almost two days. The wind would be so strong and the heat would also be so bad it would burn our skin if we went outside. I know the whole town is struggling even though I haven’t been outside for a few weeks. We lost all our chickens from the wind. I wonder if anyone else has lost any of their animals too? If my family was strong enough

A toast to a place above all the rest, this place though odd has captured my heart. I know this isn’t a conventional Burns supper toast, or even a real toast at all. But as I was thinking about which toast I wanted to give; I realized that there was only one place that I wanted to talk about. So firstly, I would like to ask you guys have you ever been to a place that makes you feel happy. A place that even at the mention of its name, you can’t help but think of happy memories you had there. The place that does that for me is the Black Hills of South Dakota. I spent my summer working at a campground in the heart of the Black Hills. So here’s a toast to the Black Hills and all of its natural beauty.

I never thought a white woman from North Carolina could make a change. Back then, everywhere I went I can feel the town's eyes follow. You don't grow up thinking that your beliefs could/would change. Hell, you grow up thinking much of nothing down here. In North Carolina, the only thing you have time for is making money. So you can buy more time.

I am a South Dakota girl through and through. I grew up in Clark and haven’t been far away from there since graduating in 1993. I attended SDSU where I started as a music major and quickly learned that I was not meant for that classroom. My high school English teacher gave me some excellent advice during Christmas break of my freshmen year, and I never looked back! In my 16 years as an educator, I have taught a wide range of ELA, Speech, Journalism, and History classes to 7-12 grade students in a number of A and B schools in the Watertown area. I have landed back home at CHS where I have taught 9-12 ELA/Speech and K-4 PE for the last four years.

Agony ripped through my insides like a disease. My great grandmother died in the winter of 2014. She lived in Kansas at the time but my great grandfather died and found his final resting place in South Dakota. Since South Dakota lies so far north, during the winter a permafrost covers the ground making a burial impossible. So, to bury my great grandmother with my great grandfather, my family cremated her to bury the couple together.

I was raised in Oaxaca Mexico, in a little town of no more than 2,000 people. My little town was an isolated and calm place where each day was an adventure with many new things and places to discover. My mornings were almost always cold with cold wind blowing that made me shiver each time I would step outside. Also, there were not many toys to play with but my friends and I had something better than toys, that was our imagination. The resources that nature gave us such as rocks, sticks, flowers and dirt and our imagination were more than enough to have fun. Our parents let us play outside but warn us about the many dangers we could face such as all kinds of snakes, and scorpions. Poverty have been always a huge issue, almost all families struggle with food and other resources necessary to live, it was something to worry about every single day including my family. Unfortunately in my town, there has been always a lack of water resulting in poor harvest for all people. But my dad never gave up, instead he would trade off his crops to harvest new ones that would not require much water. My parents besides harvesting their own crops they also worked in agriculture receiving very low pay, there were moments in which they both get desperate thinking about possible solutions to their problems but there were any. At that time, I was only 11 years old and realized that life was not easy. Living in a small town would make it even harder for me if I wanted to