Starting At An Early Age It Became Apparent To Me That

My story isn't quite special really, although I have lived under some unique circumstances. My mother was a single parent raising my little sister and I until she married my Stepdad in 2007. I was five at the time and had no father figure until then. From that time on he became my dad. Our new family moved twice before living in a small city where we stayed for 6 years. This is where I made close friends, achieved academic excellence, went to church regularly, life was great or so I thought. What seemed to be our perfect life was turned upside down as hard times fell upon us. I was now the oldest of five younger siblings, my mom wasn't healthy, and my dad had to struggle to keep things going.

The weeks that followed were very difficult. My mother ended up changing her hours at work so she could visit my father in the hospital. On the weekends my mom would spend from Friday when she got home from work, to Sunday night in the hospital. I have an older brother and a younger brother; they are lazy most of the time, so the only help I got was from my grandmother. Unfortunately, my older brother wasn’t present for three weeks for certain reasons, which left my ten year old

When I was in 5th grade at the age of 10 I was fortunate enough to go on a vacation out of the country. This was a pivotal moment in my life because my family had never really had enough money to go on a trip with all of us, but we did this time because my dad saved up; we were going to the Philippines. Even though it was just supposed to be a vacation, it ended up being something completely different. During our time there, we stayed with my uncle who lived in an underprivileged neighborhood.Spending time with my relatives in that place made me realize that I took things for granted. My thoughts recollected at the church, where I really saw a different view of my dad. He was teaching in a huge, crowded church and what he said and did seemed

There was one man I talked to in particular that sticks out in my mind. And we didn’t even deliver to him. When we first got to IU Medical Center, we had to wait about 30 minutes for the food to be brought to us. While we waited, a man about 75 years old started talking to us. He told us about how his wife had died eleven years ago and after she died, he started volunteering at Meals on Wheels every day for the past ten years. He explained that his wife had a disease that got so severe that she was put in an assisted living home. The particular assisted living home she was in had meals for her, but were expensive. So her husband found Meals on Wheels. The couple got themselves each two meals a day and had lunch and dinner together every day. After the man’s wife died, he started delivering the meals to people who are not healthy and able to get out and go shopping for meals. This man was such a sweet man. This man is doing something that Jesus would have done. Even at his old age, he still takes time every day to help somebody else out besides himself, someone less fortunate and unable. This man sacrifices at least three hours a day delivering meals to people that he would not have known otherwise. This man made an impact on my life. He showed me that even when we think we are

Growing up, I never lived in a steady household. My biological mother moved us around, had different men coming in and out of our lives, endured physical abuse from my biological father, and threatened to end her life countless of times, leaving my siblings to take the reins, and not only take care of the house, but me and themselves as well. None of us had it easy, but being the youngest, and the only one who lived at home until I was eighteen, I seemed to bear the brunt of it all. At such a young age, I began to become less and less happy, no longer enjoying the finer things in life. Due to my emotions plummeting, not only did my opinion on myself began to change, but apparently so did the opinion of others, resulting in a major shift in appearance. As time passed, I received numerous amounts of negative commentary on the change of both my appearance and personality, which did nothing but enhance the self loathe I had for myself, leading to the

Another critical moment in my life that changed me forever occurred in August of 2001. At the peak of hurricane season, Louisiana was terribly affected by Hurricane Katrina. Katrina devastated millions of people across the south. For the first time in my life I got to experience what it felt like to be homeless. I had lost everything! And even though it was not much, it still mattered. There were several moments when I prayed and wished that my father could be there. No child, my age should have to go through with what I did. In hopes to find assistance, my mother left me and my siblings with my grandmother for a few months. These months were terrifying. I remember crying several nights

Living in poor conditions was never easy when I was young. My dad worked in a coal mine to support mom, myself and my six sisters.

They took me to a youth group at the Greenfield Church of Christ where I met the youth minister. At a time when I refused to eat and kept talking at an all time minimum, he took interest in me. He brought me my favorite food, cheese fries, in attempt of encouragement. Although I did not stay in Greenfield long, he and his family kept in touch with me once a week. When the respite family I had stayed with caught wind that I was in the hospital, they immediately requested that I return to stay with them. I came to know the love of Christ and became a Christian that same year. The people I now call mom and dad took the steps to become adoptive parents and I moved in with them the months to follow after returning to Greenfield.

As a child, I lived most of my life in Mexico. My family was two sisters, my brother, mom, dad and me. We used to do everything together, trying to help each other in whatever was needed. While I was living there, my family was always united, except for my father, who was always traveling because of his job, therefore I never felt close to him. But when he was there for me, he taught me lessons having a big impact on me by changing the way I thought and the way I saw the world. The day I graduated from elementary, bad news came to my house. My father had lost all his money, leaving his business in bankruptcy. People in our town made jokes about him. They said he was a fool who didn't know how to handle a business. Even his parents went along with the town. But he never gave up and he kept working and working until he got over himself. He is the most hard working and caring person I know and I am lucky to have him as a father. From his experience, I learned I must never give up and always go forward. I need to let other people, who have more knowledge than me, help get me on the right track. But at the end of the day, I should always listen to myself, knowing that my decision will help me. I learned

At only nineteen years old I have been through a lot in life. So much to the point that most people soon realize why I give my all in everything that I do.one thing that will forever stick with me is being homeless as a kid at a young age. Growing up in Mobile, Alabama I grew up with my mother and four siblings. I was next to the youngest out of five kids. My mother had a job at USA medical center where she had worked since she was 21 years old. My mother worked with the house keeping service as basically a janitor. My mother worked six days a week as much as she could to ensure we at least got to school. Even though mom worked so hard sometimes ends were just not met. Some nights she would go to bed hungry so that my siblings and I would have something to eat. Well one day mom came home from a long day’s work to a letter that stated that basically we had a nine days to get our stuff and leave because we were being evicted for not having the money to pay rent. We didn’t have anywhere to go, we couldn’t even afford to go anywhere. This was the first time I had ever seen my mother break down and just cry her eyes out. I didn’t realize at that moment what was going on. Four to five days had passed by with no luck at all. Then by the grace of god we got a phone call from an organization known as family promise. Family promise basically assists with families who are at risk of becoming homeless. They had called after someone had let them know our situation. So we arranged to stay

In 2008, the recession hit hard in St. George, Utah, which caused my father to be laid-off and become unemployed for two years. With the urging of a friend, my dad packed up his tools and drove to Williston, North Dakota with no job and no place to live. He took a leap of faith to save our family, and the day he arrived, he found a job and a place to live. Having him leave me was heartbreaking. He went from being there daily to quarterly. He is my hero because he made the biggest sacrifice of his life. He moved fourteen hours away to work twelve hours a day and seven days a week to support us.

     Due to the fact that my father was now on his own and trying to raise three children (my older brother from my father’s first marriage), he had to take a different position at his work. Although he was getting a raise it wasn’t necessarily a good thing. He had to start working the night shift so he could get the raise. He didn’t really have a choice in the matter and because of this new change, I began to lose valuable time with him as well. It was now up to my brother to watch over us at night and make sure we got to bed on time. If there was any trouble or and problems in general, my brother would call my grandmother. For three years my dad worked that job and every night he would stay up after he got home to see us. He would make my sister and I breakfast and make we were off to school on time. This meant the world to me because no matter what he always made time for us.

The summer before my senior year, I worked at Camp Evergreen, a Christian summer camp in north Georgia. My cabin that summer was the oldest boys, there would be two first-time campers joining us. One of them was an older foster child who has had a lasting impact on the way that I empathize with the experiences of others. His name was Chris.

I will never forget that day, the day I casually walked downstairs to find my parents sitting face to face at the kitchen table with both arms crossed and a serious look on their faces. I slowly walk towards my dad who is reaching out to give me a hug, looking at me with his sorrowful eyes, tells me that he will be moving out. At the time, I remember feeling confused, but I did not feel so emotionally affected because I was only just 5 years old. Being raised in a single parent household has been a challenge in my life and has impacted me through financial problems, social situations, and maturity.

My parents divorced when I was 11 and my mother left for Europe to be with her family. She definitely moved to USA when I was 16. I was really close to her while growing up so after she left I did not really have a female figure to look up too or to share my worries with. I grew up in the city and I was going to a private school; being the kid without a mother at home made me feel different but that was not something you could talk about in my dad’s house. He is a proud man and he put that pride in us so we had to keep our heads up all the time. Still, I had people talking on my back. I started keeping to myself from there and doing everything on my own without asking anyone help because that is how my dad wanted us to be: educated, successful, proud and independent so we wouldn’t have to deal with failure or rejection. I realize today that as people, we will always need someone’s help at some point in our life, and pride is not everything. It is hard letting go of old habits, but I am trying to be more of a people person because we can also learn from failure and rejection. They are all part of life.