My Role Models

On August 2nd, 1998; David and Christine Bouchard who are amazing parents gave birth to a pretty awesome daughter, myself: Alison Elaine Bouchard. I mean I must be awesome if they only needed one child. We lived in a small trailer in Oakland, Maine with a springer spaniel named Colbie who would soon become my best friend. At this time my dad was working long hard hours, the night shift at the local paper plate mill. My mom worked for the hospital at odd hours as well. They tried to go to college to better themselves and although they took an alternative path I am so proud of them for getting their degrees. I even got to attend their graduation ceremonies. This lead to my grandparents acting as my second set of parents since they took care of me so often. Both my parents and grandparents made me the young woman that I am today through many life skills that they taught me even if it was hard to learn. Although this is just the beginning of a lifelong story we are all faced with hardships just like the board game LIFE. From a young age to my current self I have had to work through the same disadvantages time after time. These disadvantages are generally based on things that I cannot change even if I tried because it is shown through sexisim against my gender, economic hardships, and even prejudice against my race.

When you think of a role model, who comes to mind? Many would say an actor, singer, athlete, etc. My role model is my sister, Natasha Hobley. For those who don’t know Natasha personally, they probably wouldn’t understand why she is a role model to me. However, I find her to be a role model for many reasons. Not only is Natasha strong, fearless, and independent, but she is the most loving person I have ever met. Regardless of the trials that have been thrown at her, she always comes out on top, and stronger than before. Natasha has unfortunately lost loved ones in her life, but still manages to find happiness in the darkest situations. Despite battling mental and emotional battles, my sister continues to find the best in situations, and always uplifts others. Ever since I was a child, I remember looking up to her and always wanting to be just like her. Natasha Hobley is my role model.

This drained my mother’s energy each and everyday. She would leave food at home as she went to work and dinners were usually me eating by myself. Although I had many siblings our schedules did not match up either, because we were the first generation in my family to get a genuine education so my sisters were always working so hard in school. It was tough going to school each day and having my friends’ parents dropping them off at school in the morning. This seems very silly but it had truly affected my and realize I could never be dropped off. As I became more involved in extracurriculars such as the school choir, sports, etc. I remembered how excited my friends were to show off their performance-not because they were exceptional but because their families would be attending. I could never ask my mother because it was the difference between having electricity that month or a sports event. Also I could not ask my father either because when my parents split apart my mother forbid my father from contacting me or remaining in my

My background goes from the island of Puerto Rico, to the country of El Salvador. As I get more in detail of my family you will discover we are not your average “Brady Bunch”. Were quite the opposite, even though I am beyond blessed with the family I have been given, we are as screwed up as they come. It was my first day of kindergarten when I came home to find out my parents were separating and getting a divorce. My life went into a tailspin. Growing up my father was always part of the picture financially. He was always a pay check at the beginning of the month. He was never there for what I felt were important life moments. As the years were to come my mom took care of my brothers and I. My brothers who were angry with my father lashed out by getting involved with the wrong crowds, and drugs. The weight of the family of fell on Victor. There were several factors that majorly effected my life. One of them being I was molested at the age of eight. So I went to very dark place. My parents were divorced, my brothers were giving my mother more than she imagined, and then I was molested. My childhood was robbed from me, it

Due to economic circumstances and my father's alcohol abuse, my family suffered from family problems and emotional pain. My father would come home drunk and argue with my mother about our economic circumstances. I was too young to understand what was occurring between my parents and I grew up believing that this was the typical family. I remember a specific occasion when my dad came home and he said that he was tired of us. He left my mom with my three siblings and I without money and anywhere to go. This situation terrified me and caused me to focus in school to forget about my personal problems. I could not understand how my father could leave us and not care for us. We then lived in someone's garage because we could not afford a home. Throughout

One of the things my mom did that explains why she is my role model would have to be the time in which I was in the middle of a custody

After my period of grieving, I decided that I had to advance my attempts to do well in school and find the path in life I wanted to take. I began to take high school more serious and stopped having a mindset of “this is easy” like I had in middle school. I pushed myself to go above and beyond, but even so I had an extremely hard time adjusting to high school. Facing many adversities, I reminded myself that life goes on and does not stop for anyone. I went out of my comfort zone and overcame my obstacles, so that all the sadness, fear, anger, and guilt would go away. During my high school years I had much more responsibility, since my family knew that they could rely on me more. Whenever my parents are not home, I have to babysit my brothers, if my parents can not take my siblings to a swim practice, violin class, or can’t pick up my brothers from school, I willingly take them even if it means cancelling my own plans or practices. My grandfather always had time for his family and made sure to put them first. He loved us no matter what and knew the importance of having a family. Because of him, my appreciation for family has grown and taking on this responsibility that my parents have given me the opportunity to grow into a more flexible, understanding, and independent

Growing up I never had the typical childhood. My parents had me when they were still teenagers in High School. They were not financially stable enough to take care of me, considering they were young and had no jobs. My mother dropped out to start working and my dad got his GED at an adult school before he started to work. For a while we were living in a motel because my parents were not on good terms with their own parents at the time. Although I was too young to remember our lives in the motels, I gathered enough insight on how it was for my parents, and it was not pretty. Since my parents were never together officially, after the motel stage, we never slept in the same house all together. My mom eventually moved in with my sisters dad, which

A role model is defined as a person whose values, beliefs, and actions influence a younger person to act in a similar way. I would call you a role model, but you are so much more than that. You, Aunt Kris, are the biggest female influence in my life. I could make a list of all the ways you have helped me and what you have taught me. Instead, I ask you to settle with this brief letter.

By the time I was five I was changing pampers. I basically grew up being in charge of the household, which I didn’t mind because I knew how hard my father worked. My father never got a chance to go to college because he had to work to support us, by watching him struggle I knew how important school was. I was an A honor roll student and Gifted Talented, and when I got to high school I was in AP classes. When I turned fifteen my life changed, my father met someone that wasn’t such a good person. He ended up throwing me out because his girlfriend

My chosen role model is my mother. My mother has worked as a full time Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) for over 30 years. She started working when she was 16 and is still working today. As a child she went through some tough times and would sit me down and tell me about all of these horror stories of her childhood. She told me about time when her parents were so poor that they had to eat canned food to survive. Her family always had gardens and farms because they were so poor. She describes that experience as hard but definitely an eye opener. She told me stories about how she was never allowed to participate in activities at school and often had to skip school in order to go to work to help feed the family.

I was never spoiled growing up, but my parents always made sure that my brothers and I had what we needed. I hadn’t felt the need to “grow up” and become responsible when my parents would just do it for me. This was until my parents could no longer do it for me because they were financially unable too. In about June, my family and I found out that we were about to lose our house due to no payment on my parents end. My mother slipped a disk in her back and was deemed legally disabled and unable to work. My father struggled to support a family of five and pay all of

Everyone has a role model. For most people, a role model means a policeman, a firefighter, a veteran, or a superhero of some sort. But for me, the best person I could aspire to follow was my dad.

For the role model interview project, I chose to interview one of my closest friends, Erin. I decided to interview her because in addition to looking up to her, I felt comfortable talking to her and I knew that she would answer these questions honestly and openly. The interview took place through video chat simply because we could not go over to each other’s houses and I didn’t think asking these private questions in a public place such as school would not be appropriate. We talked to each other after school so that we would have plenty of time to get through all the questions without having some sort of limit. While she was the person I chose as my role model, she had chosen her dad as her own role model. A role model is hardworking, empowering, and selfless.

My parents took custody of my sister’s children, which then began the chaotic day-to-day home life that usually left me in tears by bedtime. I was in middle school at the time, as a middle school aged girl I felt a whirlwind of emotions. I wanted to do things that other kids my age were doing but that wasn’t always possible. With very mentally handicap children in our home it wasn’t easy to just invite a friend over to come spend the night, not only would my mom say no but also I was far too embarrassed. I wanted to go out and eat in a restaurant like I heard my friends talking about, but no, going out to eat with my sister’s children would be very difficult because they couldn’t sit still or refrain from making loud noises in public places. I wanted my mom to take my friend and I to the movies rather than always going with a friend and their mom, but my mom was always tied down to caring for my sister’s