Personal Narrative: The C-Word

Every time she comes back, my dad tries to talk some sense into her, but my sensitive mother always claims that Dad is a “balloon popper” and doesn’t care about her dreams. When she comes back she always has little sleep and for the few clients she does have, she has tons of work to make up. She’s very cranky when she’s back and stays cranky for days because it takes her that long to make up sleep because she has to work into the late hours of the night to catch up on her actual work. If she stays home for over a week, there might be one time she offers to make dinner, but she always gets distracted and burns something or doesn’t cook something long

She's been in the hospital multiple times; from surgeries to disease scares, to her been sick. I always forget about her health. Putting myself in her life made me feel like a terrible, inconsiderate child. Being an immigrant at age 14, and not being able to understand a Piece of English was very Challenging for her. AS She grew UP she began understanding American life. flash forward to multiple years later, She now has a husband And 7 Children to tend to, 2 of which have moved Out of the nest. when she comes home, there is always a mess. As I massage her, I notice that she's gotten skinnier. My mom's hands are wrinkled and Petit. She Always Starts falling Asleep in the middle of the massage. I imagine myself having to work long hours While Putting my children's health before mine. It's very hard to do. You get tired but they are your Prized too sessions. I'd always be giving, Pro­viding everyone with what they need or want. Uov wouldn't get much in return besides love, which Who isn't fine with that? For a few years when I WAS young, I Would 90 to my mom'S Work area After school and On the Weekends. I helped Around a little bit, but the majority of my time was spent in the back room Playing on an

always nagging her about something; whether it be smoking or that her laundry is piling

Ida B Applewood is a fourth grader living a life like no other. She has a cat, a dog, her beloved apple trees, and her loving parents. She loves her perfect life. Every morning she wakes up, eats breakfast, and goes out to her apple orchard to talk to all of her trees (which she’s named). One day when she goes out to talk to her trees, one of them “Viola” tells her that bad times are coming. Ida B’s natural optimism dismisses the prediction though. Later that week, Ida’s mom gets diagnosed with breast cancer. Ida B is brave and supports her mom while she starts chemotherapy. She helps with extra chores, tries to be quiet when her mother is resting, and understands her mother’s mood swings and her father’s anxiety. She’s still mainly happy, until her father tells her that they have to sell part of the apple orchard to keep up with her mother’s bills for cancer. Ida B’s anger turns her heart cold. She refuses to speak to her mother

Gigi notices her mother is starting to get weaker and less able to walk and run like she used to. This worries Gigi but her mom says she is okay so Gigi just thinks its cause she is getting old and doesn’t think much of it. A month loater Gigi’s mother gets diagnosed with pancreatic cancer which is really imparing her mother from helping figt off the bullies. But she is still giving Gigi her words of supportand

I was twelve years old when my mother was first diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. Cancer: a scary six-letter word that has been both a curse and a blessing in my life. Over the next year I watched it deteriorate the once vibrant woman who was my mom. However, her illness fostered

Of course the norm for me is that of any citizen living in zone three.

With those statistics, my mother would not see me graduate college, or get married, or have children. With those statistics, my mother would not see my little sister even graduate high school. With those statistics, my mother could no longer grow old with the love of her life. At first, I was furious. My mother had already led a life full of pain and now she had to endure one of the most deadly forms of cancer. I had never imagined a life without my mother around, and now my vision of the future crumbled. My obsession with social status dwindled when I realized that there was much more to life than having nice clothing. I no longer cared about "fitting in" or "looking cool". When my mom, who had absolutely no symptoms for her cancer, discovered her illness, I understood that we will all eventually die. I no longer had an invincible mindset that most teenagers have. I began looking at life from a different perspective. I realized that there was no guarantee of happiness in this world. I learned that if you wanted something, you had to fight for it. My mother now had to fight for her life. For six months, my mother bravely battled through

As I continued with the interview, I started to ask my mother more in-depth questions regarding the physical and cognitive changes she has experienced throughout adulthood. While she has also experienced many signs of primary aging (i.e. white hairs, wrinkly skin, and weight gain), cancer continues to be one of her most salient physical change in adulthood. My mother was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer when she was forty-one. She later had her left breast completely removed and underwent chemotherapy and took ton of medications. As she started to discuss this experience, I started to analyze Baltes’ life span theory where development is a life-long process that involves maintaining and finding stability as well as adapting to gains

I quickly swallowed my homemade authentic Indian food leftovers and gulped down my chocolate milk. Looking down at my watch that read 11:28am, I knew that I only had two minutes until my most favorite part of the day: recess. This particular day in 5th grade, I had run a lap around the playground before getting the rest of recess to myself. As I started walking for my warmup, another student ran up and said, “My parents said that your people caused 9/11.” Completely caught off guard, I held back the tears in my eyes and tried to shake off his comment. I had never encountered something like this.

Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers among the world. Cancer affects almost every family in the United States and if it hasn’t then you should consider yourself lucky! I know that this terrible disease has affected my family tremendously. When I say that it has affected my family, I mean that it tore our world apart! Breast Cancer is something that I hold dear to my heart and will almost always be involved with in some way, shape, or form.

DAYS, I certainly feel comfortable enough to announce that motherhood is not easy peasy. It’s not hard, but it is undoubtedly trying on those occasional DAYS. Even on the worst of days, I can’t imagine my crazy life any differently. People comment “Oh, she’s pretty – wait until she gets older!”, or (my all time favorite) “She’s going to be so bad when she’s older – you’d better watch her!” People like that pull on strings of mine that I promise to you I didn’t even know existed. I always want to just give those haughty women a little speech about how awesome I am at raising my sweet little lady; that crap junk is so not even on my radar. Rule one about being an amazeball parent: Not every parents comments and opinions matter. [Most of them are completely and utterly

I look for words in the dark, silently describing to myself the particular conditions of the weather on the morning I saw you most recently— the wind, its patterned disarray— my mind elsewhere, distracted, lyrical, while the pianist plays an encore. Mozart was born on this day 257 years ago. All day I have been ungenerous, resentful, impatient. In between movements, no applause but the old ladies cough loudly, violently.

June 20: I woke up early this morning to my mom coming into my room. She always barges in using my stuff and that usually gets me annoyed and wakes me up because of how loud she is. My mom always greets me saying good morning once she sees that I am awake. Usually, I’m not always in the best mood when she wakes me up really early so I just tune it out and ignore it. I work every Monday morning so my mom always asks if I want a waffle or bagel, a typical breakfast meal she would easily make. After she asked me if I would like something to eat, that's when I decided to respond. She also asked me what time do I go to work, she always asks every week even though I always go at the same time. After I review our conversation, based on Jack Gibbs

Upon seeing me with makeup, my mom asked why I had lipstick on. She has this belief that applying lipstick will remove my lip’s original color and hates when I put any color on my lips. She especially hates dark lipsticks, since according to her it does not go with my personality. She also mentioned that my face looked different, and I told her it was because I was wearing makeup. She said it was not necessary and that my skin would be ruined all because I want to look prettier. As for my hair, she would watch me fixing my hair and would comment that burning my hair is pointless. My dad told me that I looked less tired, but