All of us can probably point to one or two defining moments in our life. Mine came when I was running across a rooftop with a gun pointed at my back. Something inside me snapped and I just knew I didn't want this to be my life. I stopped running.
I grew up on the streets of the city. Each neighborhood has its culture and so did mine. Ours included playing skellie with your friends while your older brother is twenty feet away on the street corner selling crack or weed, or heroin.
Do you know what hustling is in the ghetto? It's simply the American Dream for us. You see we're not so different. We all want the same things. Everyone wants respect. Everyone wants a home for their family. Everyone wants to prove themselves; it's just
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His warmth, integrity and commitment seemed real. So I decided to give it a try. I went to FRIENDS.
FRIENDS became my first functional family. They provided me with love, affection and whatever else I needed, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They helped find me a job as a janitor, and they provided the support I needed to work for minimum wage and then go home to my neighborhood and not be drawn into the life around me. You see the streets are always five seconds behind you.
Later, they helped me get a job at a clothing store, Paul Stuart no less, and FRIENDS helped me apply to college and work my way through. I'll be earning my B.A. next week. But most of all, Clinton and my case manager Lonny showed me what real manhood is all about.
A little more than a year ago, Clinton, and Friends' Executive Director, Beth Navon, asked me to take on the challenge of working full-time as Youth Leadership Coordinator. I felt it would be an honor to work with Beth, Clinton, Lonny and all the dedicated staff at FRIENDS. And helping young people find their way through a dangerous adolescence would give me a chance to give back to my community.
My job and my transition back into society has been all these things, but it's also been heartbreaking. Because as I said, the streets are always five seconds behind you, and sometimes they take you under. It took a little while, but a few years ago, I finally convinced my best friend James to join FRIENDS and
2.1 Evaluate the effectiveness of organizational policies and procedures in supporting individuals and their social networks affected by significant life events
Despite only being in high school for two years, the friends that I have made have greatly impacted who I am as a person. Whenever I am struggling, my friends are the first people I turn to for advice. I learned from them that I always put others first even when it may cause a large amount of stress later on, am very talkative about the things I am
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
It was Friedrich Nietzschehas who said, “What doesn’t kill you makes, you stronger”. I like to call these moments in a person’s life, “defining moments”. Additionally, I like most people, have had a few of these “defining moments”; probably more than one person should. Growing up, I had a hard time accepting one of my “won’t kill you-make you stronger” moments. It was a moment of betrayal and deceit, inflicted upon by a person I trusted fully and completely, with my life. My mother.
There are many events that stand out in my life that were significant and helped me grow stronger. One of these events stands out in particular to me and had the greatest impact in my life. When I attended high school my focus was never on the academics but only on sports and having fun with my friends. I never payed attention for more than five seconds and failed to complete any type of work given to me. My lack of care for high school affected me on going to a four year college, playing a sport in college, and taking remedial classes.
Life seems to take many twists and turns that somehow mesh into each other to form a chaotic knot of happenings. All of these occurrences are supposed to shape you into a wiser more experienced person. Many people can even pin point the exact moment in their life which was forever changed by a single event. When that event happens it becomes an unforgettable memory for you and teaches you a lesson that becomes one of the basic guidelines in your life. The event that forever changed me and was most significant to me was when I decided what I planned on doing for the rest of my life; choosing my major. I knew exactly what I would plan on doing my
I feel my friends and family have had a good influence on my life. They have influenced me a great deal. I tie friends and family into one group because I feel they both did the same thing for me, and I see my friends as a family and family as friends. My friends, although they have changed a ton in my life, have been great in helping me in my development. They have helped me a great deal in my life but they were the ones who first started me drinking and using tobacco. So I guess they weren’t always good. But I don’t think anyone can go through life without friends to help them along the way. You always
Many people influenced and events my reading and writing development throughout my childhood from my mother, my elementary librarian, and Sesame Street, to getting my first pair of glasses. We all have defining moments in our lives where we can look back and say, “That moment changed my life.” This is the story of the defining moment that changed the way I read and write, and I learned it from a whale!
There have been very few events throughout my lifetime that I feel have impacted or inspired me with such noteworthiness and that I know will change my outlook on the world and affect me forever. One of those events occurred when I traveled to Portugal, my parent’s homeland. From this excursion in 2007, I learned the importance of family, most importantly the distant kind. It provided me with a totally different perspective on the world and how large and extended one’s family can really be; even across cultures and continents. I felt so fortunate learning this lesson at a young age and growing to appreciate the ideals I was brought up with as a child. The family I have in Portugal has always been there; however, their faces have aged and
My life has been a crazy roller coaster with many events that have affected my life all in different ways. There have been times where my life has been at its highest peak in the world then it falls down, right into a deep valley. From the time my lovable younger sister came into my life to when my grandpa had a near death experience, I have learned many valuable lessons through the rough times as well as the more happy times. When I was a young girl, my mom had always told me the same thing over and over again. I never really thought about how a few words would have a deep effect on me in a short amount of time.
The most important event in my life, didn’t even happen to myself, but happened to my older sister, Becky. The reason I am writing about her is because the things that have happened to her and the things she has done in the past have affected me tremendously as well as my family. Her life used to be filled with nothing else but drugs, stealing, and lying. My family has never been the same since then.
gorgeous and from the moment I set my eyes on her I fell in love with
The end of school came eventually, and I abandoned dreams of the sixth grade. Luckily, I was transferring to another elementary school, but this offered me little consolation. Only dummies have to repeat a grade.
This explains the beginning of my life all the way to the end of my life. My life from the beginning was very fun as I grew up living with my mom’s friend and my friend. But there were a lot of fights and I was very hyper back then. I have ADHD so back then when I was little; I was very hyper and wouldn't stop moving around the place. I always was annoying back then and never seemed to get my homework done at school.
Have you ever encountered a tragic moment and saved someone’s life? All of a sudden I was the only one that could help because everyone else was in shock. The bravest moment of my life that surprised me was giving CPR to a man in a restaurant.