Personal Narrative

From a very young age, I contended with countless setbacks, but the vitality placed on our income at home was the leading factor to my family’s problems. I remember when my parents chose to buy me a new pair of running shoes over paying the electricity bill or when they stayed up all night making tamales to sell so they could afford to pay for medical bills. There never went a month without my parents constantly arguing over the monthly rent or not having enough to buy groceries for the family. I grew up with five siblings in addition to two cousins who were sent from Mexico by their parents and placed under the legal guardianship of my parents. Naturally, learning to adapt to unfortunate circumstances was not rare and I quickly understood

My parents and I emigrated from Mexico when I was very young. I was born in Zapotlanejo, Jalisco, Mexico. There my father, my mother and I lived in a shaggy one bedroom brick shack that lacked all the common utilities we take for granted here. There was no electricity nor was there plumbing inside the house. During the night time we had to light up oil lamps only when absolutely necessary and everything that required water usage was done outside. When my parents discovered my mother was expecting another child they finally decide that was not the life they wanted for their children. They left behind

Arriving to the United States, to be more precise Houston, Texas. Big, green house with only three rooms for two family’s. The people there were amazing in a day they donated food and supplies enough to survive for a week. My parents struggled to starting us off. We barely had anything. We were a big family with needs. And slowly but surely we had start to adapt. Only 3 minute showers. If

Growing up as a military brat wasn't easy, there were many places we had to go to and we didn't have a choice. One of those places was here ,Illinois, and I was ten when we made the move here.This move was probably the hardest thing I have ever physically gone through considering all of my mom and I's stuff was lost in the ocean because the place we moved from was Hawaii.So, when we got here me and mom both didn't have our stuff but the rest of my family did.To make matters worse my dad was being shipped out to South Korea and we didn't have a house. For a whole year we were homeless,we put what was left of our stuff into storage and moved in with grandma. As terrible as that year was, it taught me a lot about what some people actually live

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.

My whole family and I were devastated by the sudden death of my uncle Ryan. He had been sick with what we had thought was the flu, but later realized that it was pneumonia. I believe that we learned so much from this experience and were able to come closer as a family. As a result of my uncle’s death, my whole family decided to take a get-a-way trip to the Dominican Republic during his birthday and Christmas. While I was there I learned a very important lesson; I am blessed to live in the United States.

Yes there was struggles, but my mother was there holding my hand along the way. Finally a year had past and I had saved up 8,000 dollars, working countless hours and weird jobs. It was time for me to move on from this place and find a new place to call home. Looking on housing sites, I finally decided on a place to move….London. It was in a big city and right next to Scotland. Packing up my apartment and giving my cat to my mother, I bought my ticket and got on the plane. When I arrived, my boxes that I had shipped weeks before were waiting in my apartment. The apartment may be small, but it will do. I do not need petty material items to make me happy. As long as I have a bed to sleep and food to eat, I am

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.

I was born very early and had teenage parents who did not really have their life together at that time. My parents were both high school dropouts. My dad dropped out because school was not for him and he just wanted to work and get money and my mom dropped out because school was not for her also and she was pregnant with me and did not want to deal with school. My dad worked everyday to keep our family moving and my mom just stayed at my grandmas house with me because obviously she had to take care of me. So we were living by paycheck to paycheck. One year later my sister was born and two years later after that my other sister was born. Since my parents really did not have that much money to get our own place we would live at my grandmas house to my papa’s house but at times we would have to camp out at the beach because we had no other choice. When we would live at the beach I would think that we were just camping for fun but I did not realize that we did not have any place to stay. My parents clothed me and my sisters, provided food for us, but we did not have a house over our head. So

My mother was a single mom. She worked so hard, days and nights. Writing mortgages, always on conference calls. Yet she always made sure that she gave her kids as much as she could. In 2001, she was finally able to afford a home. She found one in Mattapoisett. It was in bad shape. The kitchen had a rotting ceiling, and a rotting floor. The front yard was full of weeds and shrubs.

It was near the end of my 8th grade school year, about 2 month away from graduation, when something I never expected to happen actually happened. This event really changed my life forever and shaped me into who I am as a person today. I had just arrived at my house after school when my parents received a call that my grandma was ill and that we should come down to check on her. As we rushed down to my grandparents house, my family was deeply concerned about what may have happened because my grandma had never really had many health issues before this. As we arrived at their house and walked through the door, we were greeted with the sight of my grandma sitting in a chair with a blanket around her while she was sleeping. My family’s first reaction

After my Dad’s hunt for a job, he finally found one that would work for our family in Texas. Comfort was now with us, but the scary journey continued. My Mom trying to sell the house, Dad traveling from Texas and back to Illinois every other weekend, and my sisters and I going to school. Going through every room, putting everything into boxes, saying goodbye to all my little sister and I had ever known to be a home. Hugging my only and best friend for the last time. Then, there was the temporary housing, with small rooms. For a month, only one bedroom for all 4 of us. There was also the long ride to our new home. I can remember my sister and I looking out the car window with our eyes filled with excitement. Our wonder

Because of economic reasons, it was not possible that all my family came to live here so I had to live with my relatives. At the beginning it was not really hard but after a while it really started to hurt. Every day I woke up and asked God if all that sacrifice and pain was worth. I only wished everything to be as it was before. One day I was almost to give up, and I said it to my mom. She told me “Sometimes we don’t get what we wish because that isn’t what we need. Believe in yourself, you can do it!” Fortunately, it changed as well, and now we all are living together

The first year was the worst. My mother was completely devastated; she never left bed. I would kiss her goodbye for school in the morning and come back to find her in the same position, she didn’t move not even for food. My father would pay my mother $500 a week every Monday when he would pick up my brother for school. The money was used to pay the mortgage, the car, the heat, and food. The $2,000 a month was not enough to even cover the mortgage alone. There were days I would come home and the lights would be off, the house cold, the fridge empty. Soon enough the house would be foreclose on, the cars reposed. There were days I would come home to find my mother crying on the couch, trying to figure out how she let this happen. I would sit there with her helpless, all I could do was wipe her tears, hold her and reassure her everything would be all right; it will get better.

Out of the nowhere, a few days before Christmas, my husband was jobless. While nostalgic holiday music bombarded the airwaves and frenzied shoppers and travelers jostled to check off their lists, my family watched in longing and dismay. We were told our last paycheck was due mid-January, then we were on our own. Our collective angst intensified since soon after that paycheck hit the bank, our car crashed, taking it off the road for months to come. As a result, we were stranded in the suburbs with no transportation and without a job to alleviate the situation. Fortunately, we were rescued by kindhearted friends who stuck with us throughout the crisis.