Personal Narrative: The Story Of Me

Many people are crafted by the events that have had an impact them and made them who they are today. Like me, I have had so many experiences in my life that have made me who I am today, but there is one that defines me and made me how I am overall. The one experience that truly shaped me and made who I am today is an event that happened on my first day in 1st Grade.

I saw, even though you tried to cover my eyes. I heard, even though you tried to block my ears. I felt, even though you pretended there wasn't a reason to. How could I possibly understand what I was seeing and feeling at such a young age? Who was there for me to talk to about it? No one..I had to comprehend so much. I sat behind the door with my back against it, when the screaming began again I closed my eyes this time. I pictured myself in a meadow with the grass being pure green and the sky being pure blue. The sun shined so brightly on my skin and the feeling of warmth comforted me. I could see a man walking up to me, but he was so bright you couldn't see his face. My throat was in a knot and my heart was heavy, but as

“Someone forgot to take a shower.” Two pairs of eyes immediately looked over at me. My first day of sixth grade was full of many microaggressions and passive aggressive chuckles. “No, but actually, who smells like that?” Attending a predominantly white school in the suburbs of Minnesota attenuates you to that kind of stuff. “Is it true Ethiopians eat food with their hands like monkeys?” Little did I know that these microscopic insignificant interactions had a greater impact on my awareness of my own identity than anyone else. I stood five feet tall, with my dark brown skin, and wore my hair into two puff balls, one on each side. I already stood out. The strong smell that surrounded my entire body is what made me stand out even more. Middle

Since being adopted, I have continued to try to find more about who I am and what I am supposed to do. Although I have been asked many times when I found out and how it makes me feel, it is still a taboo topic to talk about because of the little information I know. I was admitted to the orphanage after being found at the bottom of a staircase in the middle of a village square. After ten months of being admitted, I was adopted, but I almost did not make it because of a high fever and infection. As a baby, I did not want to hold any medicine that was given to me and because of this, a close family friend had to fly in some Western medicine so that I could have a chance at life. Since then it has been a challenge to find my place in this world

As the daughter of immigrants, I had grown up with a strong idea of what my culture was and how I identified myself. This identity had influenced my beliefs and the value I believed my parent’s culture held. My background had revolved around being raised by parents who had both spent a majority of their lives in Vietnam before moving to the States. This meant I was going to be influenced by the Confucian ideas which remained prominent in Eastern and South Eastern Asian culture as well as the Buddhist religion which my mother followed. All of these traits along with the environment I grew up in had affected how language had become a major pillar in my culture and identity, continuing to play a part in my relationships and actions today.

Throughout my life, I have encountered many tough circumstances that have altered me into the person I am today.

I really had trouble finding a topic that I thought would inspire readers or keep their attention. I reviewed the information from unit one several times before picking my topic. The topic that I chose was a scary situation for me that took place this year and felt that readers needed to know how these types of incidents can happen and how often they happen around the world. I felt like my story alone could not make the paper requirements and may need to revise several areas where I stated outside information even though I felt it to be very important information and relevant to my personal story. As I was writing my story I felt like I did a good job and had a successful paper, until I reviewed unit three’s lecture and lecture review, where

so, right now i am sitting on my 900-1000 dollar comupter typing this to you. I hope we grauated, and i know we will. Right now, I'm listening to "Daft Labeouf - Harder, Better, Faster, Do it" kinda modivational. Anyhow, i im getting alright grades, and im fairly happy right now, grant left a while ago, around 12:30 i think. i've been palying cs:go and ive been getting better at it. so, now for my dreams. I hope in the near future i have a allright house and i am happy. It doesn't haft to be a fancyass house with lots of 1000-10000 dollar things in it, it just hast to be a place that it comfy and i have privacy in. i hope that we have money to go and spend and be happy with. i hope we also still play games. sometimes i worry

On September 21, 2008, my dad and I were heading to soccer. As we were driving, we ran across a stray dog. It was a Black Labrador. She was SO cute! We decided to let it into our car and we took her home to help her. We gave her food and water and for a week or two, we looked for her owner… we couldn’t find the owner. We didn’t know what to do with her so we decided to keep her. She was the best dog ever! She was so sweet, nice, and fun!

Everyone believes in different things. Some people believe in barbecue, some people believe in Shakespearean sonnets, and even some people believe in shrek. But me, I believe in running. It has benefited me more than I could have ever imagined, and shaped me into the person I am today.

In my Life, I have had many experiences that have shaped me into the person that I am Today. One experience being when I was able to volunteer at the Booker T. Washington Nursing Home with the Hopewell Baptist Church Sisterhood Ministry that is based in Shreveport. Our objective was to keep the Elderly patients company and we decided entertain them by engaging in Bingo and giving them gifts in the forms of cookies, snack cakes, and toiletry items. To be perfectly honest, I didn’t know what to expect upon my arrival at the nursing home.

Whenever I turned 18 I really wanted to get my ears pierced, again. I already had two lobe piercings and one upper cartilage earring, abut my cartilage earring had been done wrong, so for the last three years it was always hurting when I wore an earring in it. I talked to mom about how I wanted my ears pierced again and she didn’t like the idea, she said it was trashy, and tacky. I didn’t care, I still wanted them done again, but done properly by a licensed piercer at a tattoo parlor. I was still in high school and they had rules on how many piercings you could have, and I had softball so I couldn’t wear earrings then either, so I waited.

Who am I? Who am I? A question that I have constantly asked myself . A question that I haven’t found a complete and accurate solution for. Before this mystery is solved, I have already discovered a few personalities of my own. I, Richard Shum, welcome the opportunity to tell you more about myself.

As I sit here with my fingers on the keyboard, I am nervous about writing this autobiography. This week I have mentally had to prepare myself up to complete this assignment. People that know me intimately know my story, but it is a bit more challenging to share intimate details of your life with a complete stranger. As I gave it more thought, I realized that is the purpose of the assignment. We will face students that will be just as afraid to reveal the details of their lives. As professionals we must use our own life experiences to guide students into turning a negative situation into something affirmative.

Looking at how I have changed from freshman year of high school to where I am now I can’t begin to list all the ways I have grown. Trying to guess what I will have learned about myself after my years in college is nearly impossible but I can try and imagine it. After four years, I will have grown more confident in myself and thrown away the idea that what other people think of me matters. I will have learned to go outside of my comfort zone and meet new people, go new places, and take risk. Most importantly though, I will discover what is really important to me in life, and who I am as a person. Hopefully I will figure out what direction I want to go in life and the lessons I will have learned will have prepare me for that next step.