Personal Narrative On My Last Day In California

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

Growing up in Southern California, I was surrounded by coastal culture, which has influenced me in many ways. No matter whether I lived in San Diego or Ventura county, I was never more than ten minutes away from the beach. Every weekend, it seemed, my dad would take us to the beach as family so we could play in the water, build sandcastles, catch hermit crabs, see the tide pools, and most of all, spend time together. I was enchanted by all the beach had to offer. Every sandcastle built was a palace for a hermit crab and every tide pool a thriving community. Whenever I stepped into the water, my imagination would run wild. Despite how often we went, I always enjoyed our days at the beach.

It was mid-winter of 1848, I was doing my daily chores when my neighbor brought news that two days earlier, on January 24, James W. Marshall made a discovery of gold on his piece of land in California. At first, I didn’t think that this would affect me in any way, but then I realized I could start a new life in California filled with gold and fortune, away from my small farm in Missouri. I decided to pack up my things and start on my long journey to California, I packed enough food, water, and supplies to last me a few months. The next morning I was surprised to see that not many others from my town were seeking gold, I knew it was unsafe for me to travel alone, but I was sure I’d meet others along the way.

Hi, I'm an established freelance writer based in San Diego covering environmental issues in the Southland and beyond. Although it's hard for me to

My brother, my mom, his friend, and I was going to a Vacation for the weekend, driving to San Diego. We've admire and took picture of the sun setting the ocean with the rippling flow and could hear the noise of the ocean fresh breezes, when we got the hotel

When I was six years old I moved from Colorado to New Mexico. At the end of my junior year of high school I found out that I was moving back to Colorado. I was full of emotions that made me hate the world. I had thought of every possibility on how to stay in nm and finish high school. At the time I was talking to a girl that I really liked and had a lot of very close friends. I wasn’t the kind of kid to go out and do things with people but during the second half of my junior year I made some friends that I started to do things with. It was as if I had finally made all my friends and found people who I wanted to be around but it was all being taken away from me. One of my brothers still lived in nm and my plan was to stay in nm with him and

Hot summer day in southern California I was born at 1:17p.m. on August 13, 1996 in San Diego. My father was a marine and my mom was a stay at home mom like most of the wife’s of marines. I have three older sisters and one older brother and two younger brothers my older siblings are my half-sisters and brother. My two younger brothers both have a disability Carlos (Ricky) was born in Patterson, New Jersey he was immediately rushed into surgery because he has a heart condition when they had to cut him open and preform open heart surgery. My other little brother Gabriel Jr (Gabe) was diagnosed with autism when he was two or three he still has yet to talk to this day. My little brothers are a big part of my life I love them so much. If I lost one

I hate California, I said I would never live there. I wanted to live in the country with a farm and lots of animals, it’s been my dream for my whole life. I wanted to achieve this so badly in college I got a job and rented an apartment, in California. It felt like the only option I had, I needed the money very badly. Luckily, not everything in California sucked as much as I thought it would, some of my close friends also decided to live there and I got the cat I always wanted. My job as a plant pathologist was occasionally boring, but everyone was very friendly and I was earning good money. I took the bus every day to work because I couldn’t afford a car. It was smelly and sometimes dangerous, but at least I wasn’t in debt. I didn’t have a

I used to be the type of person that needed my life planned out; I needed a routine or a schedule. I was going on an amazing trip to Catalina Island with my closest friends. We had a plan; take a bus to LA and get on a boat that would take us to Catalina from there. When we arrived to LA the weather was so bad we couldn't get on the boat. We had to wait until the next day. Having to go off schedule we ended up making more memories, we went to a huge aquarium and spent the night on a boat. After that trip I realized things happen and you need to be willing to make the best of things or you will not have the opportunity for new experiences.

Have you ever been in the middle of nowhere and hungry? Well, that was the case of my family on vacation in Oklahoma. Every year, my parents plan RV trips that we take mostly during summer, and some during the school year. One day while at home, my mom announced that we were going to Arkansas for a weekend. Although I was glad we were going on a trip, I wasn’t too thrilled about Arkansas. Arkansas? Really? I thought to myself. Within the next week, I found myself dreadfully in Arkansas with nothing to do. My parents decided it would be nice to go to downtown Oklahoma, since we were near the borderline, and there really was nothing to do at the park we decided to stay at.

Over break my sisters and I went to Santa Cruz. We had rented a small house by the beach and spent much of our time just hanging out together watching movies on the couch. Every night we would turn on the electric fire. There was only one bedroom and the couch turned into a bed so I went and laid down by the fire, my water glass in hand. It was cold outside and the fire was just the right temperature. I laid there with a pillow, my back to the fire as I read a book on kindle and listened to music. After a while the heat from the fire become a bit stifling. I stayed there anyways because I was too tired to get up. Instead of moving away I decided to just have some of my water. It was after I had ended up drinking the whole glass that a perfect

Although the beautiful winters in Rochester already make the university cool, I, as a student, can make the school even cooler by being an active member in organizations and introducing Bay Area culture into the campus. I have lived most of my life in the Bay Area, during this time I have grown accustomed to the cultures from here. I plan to introduce the cultures and customs that originate in the Bay Area. Since they aren’t known over the country, these cultures only occur in the Bay Area. For example, the hyphy culture began to emerge in the late 1990s and early 2000s as a response from Bay Area rappers against commercial hip hop. However, this culture and movement wasn’t popularized anywhere else in the country. Consequently, this urban

California Sunsets Sandy beaches, movie stars, golf courses, warm weather and mansions. These are just a few of the things that come to mind when someone thinks about the state of California. Popular culture has taken the 2nd largest state in the lower 48 of the US and made it into sort of an otherworldly land, a place where nothing can go wrong, a place where the sun shines high in the sky each and every day and a place where Mercedes - Maybachs seen driving their morning commute is not an abnormal sight. Our trip had some of these amazing traits, but some things about it were very, very different.

If I were to go on a road trip from Maine to California I would bring my grandpa with me. The reason being, as we drive across the country, he could provide me with the history of wherever it is we are driving through. My grandfather loves to share childhood stories about his growing up in the United States and his adventures traveling the country. He has really shared some great stories of driving from Louisiana back to his home state of New York. He has told me the crazy stories ranging from getting pulled over by the police to the scenery as he drove from state to state. Grandpa always loves to tell a good story, with his passion for history, his navigation experience and his positive outlook on life, there is no doubt in my mind he would

I hate the idea of starting over. I sit in class and wonder everyday, “ What would my life be if I was still living in Los Angeles? “ . Would I have the same friends as I did when I left or would I have met new people.