Personal Narrative: My Wisconsin With My Family

Moving from the South to the Midwest was a huge change in my life. For my whole life I grew up to the southern hospitality and the tang of salt in the air since the beach was always less than 5 minutes away wherever I lived. Now I moved to a place where they flip you off to say hi, and the closest thing to an ocean is a sea of grass that seems to go on forever. Although I am now adapted to the change for the most part, it took me awhile to break in to the social norms of an average Midwest kids.

Moving around from town to town happened quite often when I was younger. I always mirage living in one house my whole life and never having to know the feeling of leaving good friends behind. The move from Michigan to Illinois was definitely the most arduous. Elise, one of my best friends, had been with me from the first day I walked into Rummer Elementary to when we were crying on my porch the day before I left Michigan three years later. I expected this to be the last time we saw each other. I had done this enough that I realized she would move on or the six hour drive would keep us separated till we eventually gave up. My mother promised me it would be different this time, I thought she was only trying to keep me from becoming an misanthropist,

Looking back out of the small window, I catch a final glimpse of corn fields and lonely railroad crossings before they dip below the horizon. For my first time on a plane, the excitement of adventure meets me as I depart from the comfort of home and enter a world unknown outside of Nebraska. Seeing the world in God’s view as the landscape evolves below, I fall in love with flying. Looking down from 30,000 feet and seeing earth on such a vast scale, I realize how much there is to discover.

It was one beautiful morning day my sister and I woke up and we had to go to the hospital because we found out my dad Daniel Snyder had cancer. That day was not so much beautiful after all, nothing was working out right. We tried to move on but, it was very hard. My family loved him so much more than he would ever know. It was more than saying I love you to the moon and back it was like infinity times there and back. You might think of some heroes like hulk or Benjamin Franklin, who made electricity for our world, but, I think of someone totally different an inspiring man, my step dad Scott. Someone came into my life Scott my step dad. I picked my step dad for my Michigan hero because he was here for my family

Michigan's capital and my current place of residence. DeWitt is wonderful place for children to spend their early years, and for many of my acquaintances, still a nice place to live. When I was young, Dewitt was a growing and friendly community. The atmosphere was brimming with positive attitudes and possibilities. It sounds corny, but honestly driving down the street, with every waving arm offering a warm welcome, you would think you entered a cheesy family sitcom neighborhood.

Nebraska, that’s what they told me. As the word echoed in my head I thought to myself, “What the hell are they talking about?” Nebraska. Is that even like a real place where people live? Who would want to leave behind a life by the beach and close to friends and family? How could my parents do this to me? I sunk into the couch wondering what would happen to my life. I had been so accustomed to my friends and my school, these were people I had known since the second grade. And another thing, in my eyes, Nebraska was just a state in the middle of nowhere. I hadn’t ever heard of anything about Nebraska on tv except for a few husker

For me, there are two distinct separations that come to mind, moving into the dorms at Alverno College and moving into my own apartment here in Milwaukee. I was 19 when I first moved into the Alverno dorms and it was the first time I had ever not lived with my parents. There was a level of fear, not only due to being away from my folk but I didn’t know anyone on campus. It was a huge step in separation, not only physically but symbolically as well. Flash forward to this past April, I had taken a semester off after gaining my associate’s from Alverno to figure out what I wanted. In that time, I had moved back in with my parents and was working full time as a nursing assistant at a nursing home. Finally, I had decided to move back to Milwaukee.

Every family has their own unique way of spending time together with loved ones only seen during the holidays. In the Stock home, there is only one thing we enjoy doing. Sure, like every other family we have our grand and elaborate dinner, which is composed of all the greatest delicacies my mother and grandmother can whip up. Of course, as is expected,

I keep running from one to another. The rooms are big with white walls and ceilings. Here and there bright colors decorate the walls. Small groups of people converse over their opinions. Children reach out to touch and their mothers pull them in, smacking their hands and telling them no. I stop and spin around, trying to absorb everything around me. Then I stop and stare.

Dear family for Illinois,remember when it was snowing that a fell in the snow and came out cold and wet and the sleds that we would go to MC Henry in Woodstock and grama would make us hot cocoa it was the best day of my life.well it started in December when we spended all the time sleeping there well all my family can to come over and say hi and had a nice time . well you think that all no no no when Christmas can everybody came to celebrate and was so cool but the best gift was the family that was there was like you will never get cold because you know they will always be on your back.

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.

In 1752 at the age seventeen years, I was a destitute living in Scotland, Ireland. With no real skill-trade or education I had high ambitions to become a collective dependant, hoping to achieve a stable lively-hood in the New World. I lost most of my loved sickness. The only few relatives remaining were as impoverished as myself. Fearing there would be no prospect of a better life in Scotland I contracted myself as an indentured servant in exchange for passage to the New World. I and many others boarded a merchant ship that specialized in the trade of textiles and dress making. It was in the interest of the captain to keep us fed and in decent health to be sold for profit to proprietors in the colonies. Our voyage to New York would take 8-9

Growing up in Michigan, my childhood was anything but serene. I faced adversity at a young age, being bullied and picked on by other kids all my life for being slightly different. I was very skinny kid with lots pimples, jet black hair, and very insecure. Everyone has insecurities that remains dormant their from childhood. My list of insecurities came directly from my childhood dealing with authority figures and people of power such as my father. I always wanted to please others before pleasing myself and gain their approval others. One thing I could not tolerate any type of constructive criticism or feedback from anyone growing up. This clearly effected me once I entered the workforce later on in life. I was described as hyper sensitive and

Have you been to Wisconsin Dells? One day we finished packing are bags and left out. It’s a two-hour trip and it just began. I was so excited it felt like five hours. We finally got there I got out of the van and stretched. We walked in sighed in and went to unpack at the motel.

As a child, my family would celebrate every holiday with grandeur, especially Christmas. We have specific traditions and rituals that we carry out during the season, but the most important of our traditions is what we do on Christmas morning. Our rituals and traditions reflect our values as well as my own of family, unity, and tradition. The morning of the holiday my mother has always woken my brother and I, and then brought us to our dad so we could all walk down to the family room. As we gather in the family room around our tree and presents, my mom serves us each a piece of her Christmas casserole, saved for this special morning. Following our video-taped walk down to our presents, my brother, mother, father, and I open one gift from each other and the first thing in our stocking. After this ritual, my brother and I would go downstairs to our in-law suite where our grandmother lived, to wake up our Mimi and pull her upstairs so that we could finish opening presents and have hot chocolate with our entire family. One Christmas morning