Personal Narrative Essay: Surviving The Fall

For years my fascination was to travel somewhere spectacular, some place that would show a dignified view that would make me say “wow.” Finally after waiting years, last year was the year that I had the opportunity to leave the borders of the United States and go to Canada. Specifically, Niagara Falls, getting there was a journey in itself. Once getting there, a scene of unspecified beauty appeared in my field of vision that was unexplainable with words. It was something that would stick to my mind forever. The flow of gentle water hitting the rocks, a originated mist that came from the falls hit my face, filling my face with joy.

The boat was gouged with water. The hissing of the falls hit our ears with great force. Niagara Falls, the powerhouse of the great lakes, was gaping over our puny bodies.

Going into the fall 2014 semester, my family was not in a good place financially, and I was not mentally. Our income had been reduced, meaning I had to step up to help my family. This caused my already weakened mental state to become even more strained and took a toll on me physically. I was not able to concentrate on anything at school, work, and home, it was almost in a blur. When I resigned from the fall 2014 semester, I knew it was something that was needed to make sure I stayed healthy, mentally and physically. Two years went by and I found myself in a better place. Going into the fall 2016 semester, I found the perfect balance between studying, work, and home life. In the end I exceeded all the expectations I had set for myself in every

It started when i was three years old, I lived in Copperas Cove, Texas. My dad had my older brother, Trevor 3 years before I was born. Dad and my mother had divorced so it was just my dad and me for a couple of years. We were best friends and did everything together. I was his favorite person in the world. He met Alison when I was three-years-old she was super nice and took me under her wing, we turned into a trio, but my dad and I always had our special bond. In the spring of 2006 my dad found out he would be deploying to Iraq for his second time. He had deployed for a year when I was a baby, too early to remember. My dad and Alison had made the plan for her to move back to Maine while he was deployed, and I was going to stay with my Aunt

Fall is in full swing here in Kansas. The leaves have changed colors, the nights are crisp, and the days have a brisk chill. This is a whole new experience for me. Growing up in California our seasons consisted of cool summer and hot summer which could vary day to day, all year long. I have never experienced a true season of fall until now. Since the day I first noticed the trees beginning to change I found myself completely mesmerized by it all. As each passing day would become a bit more cold the leaves would change more and more and eventually let go of the tree. In a way I couldn't help but relate to what I watched the tree going through.

Fall, lovely fall, one of my favorite season, because it's not too hot and it's not too cold. I love the colors of fall, and there's no place like Colorado to celebrate it. We recently decided to take a trip up to the mountains to look at the beautiful Colorado Fall Colors. It's when the trees change colors and you can see a sea of yellow, oranges and reds, or maybe just a sea of yellow as shown below. People travel from far and wide just to witness our colors and I don't blame them, because it's beautiful! You may notice that when fall comes around, we tend to eat more comfort foods, and one of those comfort foods that I just love and my entire family also loves is Quaker Oats. I grew up eating Quaker Oats and I remember my mother making oatmeal in the mornings for breakfast before I headed off to school. In the Caribbean we would call it "porridge", and it was usually our go to breakfast meal. It was filling and you know that you were getting a great meal. Now that I'm older and have my own family, I always keep Quaker Oats on hand, whether they be the original or instant, they're a must have in my own pantry.

A perfect fall day would take place on a cool, Saturday evening in October. Preparations would start early in the afternoon with a visit to the store. Like a kid in a candy store, I would go through the Kroger aisles buying popcorn, s’mores supplies, and hot chocolate. I would carefully check that each white, fluffy marshmallow was not squashed and I would buy whip cream to top off each mug of rich, creamy hot chocolate. Final stop would be the big, shiny Redbox kiosk for a movie. My kids say I take forever picking a movie!

“My mamma ate bad. My grandma ate bad. Now, the food was good, so good, but you know it’s like soul food, so it’s not that good for you. My mamma had diabetes too. I’m sure grandma did too, but she didn’t go to the doctor ever. She couldn’t afford it. I can though. That’s how I found out I had diabetes. I got it from them, of that I am sure.”

Beep, Beep, Beep the alarm went off. I am so excited it is the Fall festival today. I went downstairs to see what my mom had made for breakfast. Yay! She made french toast with cinnamon sprinkled on top and eggs on the side. It smelled so good. Right when I took my fork and put that first piece of French toast on my fork my mom said, “wait! We have to say the blessing.” So we said the blessing and then ate away. As we finished our breakfast my mom said after we eat we will have one hour to get ready and go to the fall festival. I ran upstairs to be first to the shower and took a nice hot shower before the hot water ran out. After my shower I got dressed and ready to go. We all ran to the car and got in. We arrived at the

I hated missing work. Throughout the summer, I was a money-grubbing teenager and never missed a chance for a profit which included overtime any chance I got. At first I wanted to miss out on the family vacation because of my excessive greed. When vacation slowly approached, I gave in, mostly because I had requested the week off before summer had started, and luckily I did.

Everyone has a story, some people have too many if you asked me, but one story has always stuck with me. Monique and I were standing next to a gigantic leafy tree hoping that the sub teacher wouldn’t make us run laps in the scorching hot weather. After running 4 laps we were exhausted, the teacher forgot about us and decided to run the humongous oval with the rest of the students. To make this boring, useless class a little bit more interesting, I started telling Monique that I’m an actual ninja. I exclaimed with excellent “Can I show you this really cool ninja/karate kid flip”.

It was the last day until I was on break for two weeks. I woke up feeling excited as I ever was in my whole life. I was going to see my family in Mexico and I was going to stay there for the whole two weeks! I was a short seven year old that was this was going to be his first time ever leaving the country, in fact it was my first time that I was going to take a step out the state of Georgia.

Niagara Falls is one of the most known attractions in North America. With 30 million people visiting yearly it show people the beauty of nature. During the Christmas/Winter Break of my grade, friends and family and I went to Niagara Falls to see the the breathtaking view, but for my parents to go the the casino there. We visited the falls and went on a boat tour of the falls to see it close up. There was just a slight drizzle splashing everywhere. It was still marvelous but it didn’t give me that,”Wow!”, since going there was a yearly thing.

He said, “When someone uses family to convince you to enlist that person is using a patriotic argument. Remember some of the greatest evil has been done in the name of country and religion. On the other hand, some of the greatest good has been done under the name of patriotism and faith.”

After getting the horrible 5 A.M morning breath brushed away, I went on to eat. In all my previous years of school, id wake up to a warm breakfast already done and waiting at the table. But this year there was a change. It was devastating. I walk out of my bathroom to find and empty, dark, lonely kitchen. My mother was nowhere to be found. I guess she wasn’t dealing with this year of school either. It was not even an hour after my first day of waking up before school and I felt like it was already ruined. I grabbed a pop tart and hurried out the house.