Personal Narrative: This I Believe

I now realise that the Arts, including music, creates opportunities to engage, inspire and enrich our lives. Music making and responding can challenge, provoke responses and enrich our knowledge and understanding of ourselves, our communities and the world.

Many years have gone by with much contemplation about what I wanted to do when I grew up. Due to my age, that vision has looked like many different professions. I started out with dreams of having an Army career starting at the age of 18, to have that quickly change when my new husband and I found we were expecting our first child. When our commanding officer found out, he spoke to us and explained that both of us could be sent to war at the same time. Rather than deciding which family member to give custody of our child to in that situation, I decided to depart from the Army and start my new journey as “mom”.

Reflect on a time when you challenged a belief or idea. What prompted you to act? Would you make the same decision again?

Fourth quarter of my sixth grade year was a dark and rough time for me. I was very stressed and felt as if I was trapped in a box grasping for air. I felt like I was going to completely fail the sixth grade because there were so many projects to be done. Now enjoy my rant full of life lessons and stories.

It was a hot sweltering Saturday in August, August twenty-seventh to be exact. I remember waking up that morning with my stomach in knots we were to play the Hot Springs Bison. Sure, I played JV last year and practiced all summer with the first team but now all the hot god awful gut ranching two a day practices were about to pay off.

I go to the woods to calm down ,take a break from the drama. My dad used to take me to this special spot where these rocks split and you can stem to the top of them and sit down. For some reason the view and the feel is so peaceful. There's a dip in the rock perfect size for my body. I'll kick back and look up at the sky and sometimes, it’s rare though i’ll listen to music and sometimes fall asleep and when I wake up i'm refreshed and calm. Sometimes i'll stay there after i'm calm and just chill and sometimes if a friend comes over well sometimes go over there and we'll play around on the rocks and talk and after a little bit of hanging out we will go back inside and play my PS4 for a little bit and after the gaming we are still bored we

1,764 miles, 26 hours, 1560 minutes from home. My feet may have left the frigid snow in Minnesota ten years ago, for a sandier terrain in Florida, however, my heart has yet to travel. Growing up in Minnesota till I was six years old provided me with the comfort of growing up alongside family and friends, who’s families have known each other for generations. This comfort in my surroundings was shifted to a new sense of ignorance when I moved to South Florida. I was greeted by a new reality of diversity. My peers no longer resembled me, with their light skin, blonde hair and blue eyes. They were replaced with a medley of skin tones, eye colors, and accents. To be greeted in a grocery store with a “buenos días”, rather than a “good morning” was a complete eye opener to my family and I.

Since I was 3 years old, my mom and dad have been separated. At around 5 years old, my dad had decided that if I ever wanted opportunities to be successful in anything I do, it would be best for me to live with my dad permanently. My mother did not seem to care about my mental well-being or my academic career and tried to jeopardize my relationship with my dad numerous times. In order for my dad to get full custody of me, he hired a child service lawyer. Although, I was isolated from the legal process, all I knew was that lawyer saved me and my academic career. This was first when I knew I was interested in law and being a lawyer. As I grew up one of my main maternal figures was my paternal grandmother, she watched me after school and properly

I violently shiver as I stand near the stop sign, awaiting my morning bus. My stomach, which had been growling furiously since the afternoon before, is now quiet underneath the layers of jumpers I am casually wearing in sunny, 65 degree weather. Fingers trembling, I plug in the food I plan to eat later on in the day into my calorie counter app, my breath hitching as I realize that today is the start of a new life- a life towards recovery.

There I was, walking through the tall wooden door that laid open in front of me. I am about to work what seemed like, the longest seven hours of my life. The bright ceiling lights were shining in my exhausted eyes from a long day of school. As I prepare to punch in my seven-digit number into the register, I could smell the overwhelming scent of pumpkin in the air. Just as I thought, Dairy Queen has now started the bright fall orange seasonal blizzard, The Pumpkin Pie Blizzard. I can just taste the cinnamon in my mouth that is watering over the smell of the pumpkin spice.

Everyone has a fear, even me. Specifically I fear the past will change both me and my future. Your question might be what’s your past? That is my story to tell you. Should something like this ever happen to you, I know how you feel, and you know the same for me. In Sheridan, Wyoming I was a nine year old and I thought nothing would change my future. That’s when it came. The hidden truth. I wish someone would tell me the truth. No lies and no hidden truths. I mean I’m older now just tell me the truth of the past. I know now the past had changed, and why it changed.

February 4, 2007 was a day of celebration for my whole family. That day my family gathered around in the living room and cheered on the Colts to victory in the Super Bowl. This day was the anticipated highpoint of my school conversations for the past week. My dad was in his leather chair drinking his favorite Raspberry Snapple Tea. My mom, siblings and I were crowded around on leather couches in our living room. We were all close in age. I was ten years old in fourth grade, my sister was eleven in fifth grade, and my brother was thirteen in sixth grade. I didn’t understand football that much as a fourth grader, but I always looked forward to the Super Bowl commercials. I still remember one of the commercials that affected me the most. In the

This I Believe. Through our lives, we have the opportunity to learn through experiences. What we learn in these experience is unique for all of us and can change how we think about and live life. Through the opportunities I have been given, I have learned one of the best lesson that I live by to this day; you can overcome anything. Here is how I learned this, and I hope you can learn from it, too.

Some people just love to corrupt innocent things, don't they? Scott slammed his car door and stepped into the dim, vacant parking lot. They were just rumors. False ones at that. Of course, bad publicity was enough to close down a family entertainment business and ruin the hopes and dreams of children everywhere.

It can be easily accepted that music can play such an important role, and have such an inconceivable impact, but the question is how can one put it to good use? There