Personal Narrative: Growing Up As An Old Traditional Family

I was born in El Paso, Texas to Mexican immigrant parents who did their best to raise me and my three siblings. Growing up in El Paso I never even saw myself applying to college, but then my dad made a bold choice to start a career in homeland security and that was when we moved to the DFW area. Ever since we moved to DFW every grade in junior high, i was talked to about college: how to get there, how to pay for it, and how to make it a reality. The thought of going to college never even crossed my mind before coming here. Now as a Senior in high school I'am doing everything in my abilities to make my dreams come true, to go to college and graduate to make my parents proud and prove to them that all their sacrifices haven't gone by without

Narrative family therapy was developed by Michael white in Australia in the 1980s. Before his died in 2008, White was an active writer and presented his ideas among his colleague, David Epston. From New Zealand, he was a big fan of Whites work and had a significant influence by him. They both were influenced by philosophy and anthropology, which lead to educate their work by postmodern views. Narrative therapy started to grow over the years and other therapist such as: Jill freedman and Gene Combs in Illinois, Alan Parry and Robert Doan in Canada, John Winslade and Gerald Monk in New Zealand, and Jeff Zimmerman and Vicki Dickerson in California expanded the idea. The emphasis of Narrative Therapy id placed on Foucault’s sociopolitical analysis comparing to other postmodern and social constructionist theories.

My parents always wanted to give their children the life they never had. I am Mexican-American, both of my parents immigrated from Mexico to the U.S. before I was born. I have numerous relatives, including my older sister, who do not have the same opportunities I have to achieve success because they are undocumented. For them, college was only a dream that could never be attained. Being the first U.S. citizen out of my entire family affected the way I thought about life. It was expected that I would attend college because I was the only one who had access to all the resources granted to American citizens. Although, I agreed with my family, the pressure to succeed and be a role model to my younger siblings was overwhelming.

My family does not count with a large income specially since we’ve been here, new family members were added to our family. At this moment I have 3 younger brothers, and 2 younger sisters. I am the oldest of the 6 children, therefore I knew that I had to set an example for my siblings in order for them to want to succeed. But I believe that something new happens each day of our life and a new lesson is learned each time, and that’s what makes us greater people. I have been through many experiences while growing up which made me really think about what I wanted my life to be like in the future. Thinking about how my parents gave up their life in Mexico just to give us a better life encourages me to want to achieve all of my goals. I understand the importance of getting a good education for having a better life. Hard work and dedication is what keeps me going knowing that if I do the right things, have perseverance, making mistakes and learning from them will help me achieve what I set my mind to. I am very thankful to my parents for making me understand that no matter the circumstances that we live in, no matter how many people doubt me, nothing is impossible. In 2014, I received the incredible opportunity to attend Marygrove College, to pursue a career in advertising and theatre. So far, this milestone has been a joy ride of stress and happiness while making great friends along the way. I have much to learn and grow in order to achieve my many goals and dreams but what I have accomplished, makes me more than proud of

When it comes to class, I can relate to Leslie more. I grew up in a working class family. Our main priority was to pay bills and maybe if we were lucky have a little money to enjoy or safe. But our priority was never about saving. Even though, both of my parents came from different class, they both ended up as a working class citizens. My father grew up in a family that had money and he always lectured us about saving. However, my mother was more into living in the present than in the future. She thought money comes and goes and we shouldn't stress about it. Eventually, I took up her personality. I have a hard time saving any money. Even if I try to manage money, I stress and give up eventually. An advise I would give couples is to talk about

Even tho many are lucky to have their parents together and grow up in one family that was altogether, I was lucky to grow in a divorced family and I say lucky because I have become stronger because of this situation and even tho I have become stronger, I have also learned to cut off the slack off myself. I grew up with 3 older male siblings and we were not the type to get along and share, some of us would help each other and the older tell the younger how to survive through different circumstances but I was left out.

I was raised in an untraditional home. My mother was a teenage parent and my father was older with two children of his own when I was born. Eventually I would have three more siblings join the family. My parents struggled tremendously to care for six children, which forced them to worked several jobs each to provide the necessitates. Providing health care for a family of eight was beyond what my parents could afford even while working two job each, however state medical assistance made sure we each had the care we needed. My parents demanding work load shifted the responsibility of caring for my siblings on me. The financial stress my parents faced continued as I approached college. My decision on which undergraduate university I would attend

Religious inheritance can be explained as the passing down of religious beliefs (or lack thereof) and customs through a family line. In some cases, religious beliefs and traditions in a family will be rejected, but in many cases, children take on the religious background of their family members. This particular situation with religious inheritance has been the case for me on my own personal faith journey.

Growing up I was not the luckiest person. My parents created me to fix their relationship, that did not work out of course. So obviously they got a divorce, but they got a divorce three days before my second birthday.

Growing up in a single-parent home taught me that you make sacrifices for the ones you love. My mother was the sole provider for my sister and me. I remember her working multiple jobs from when I was very young. It was not until I was older that I realized my mom was working hard to make sure that my sister and I would have a better life than she ever did. My mother never had the chance to go to college, so she made it a priority to give us the opportunity to attend college. She saw that I loved learning and encouraged me to be the best student I could be. I, in turn, made sure to work hard both in school and professionally, I wanted to make my mother proud. This background of hard work and education enthusiasm has inspired me to share encouragement

My dad went through so many years of school so that he could become a doctor. My mother was told as a kid that she didn’t have a chance at going to college. Instead, she was a hardworking student who paid attention in class. Just like my father, my grandfather worked for his family and now is retired. He still loves to work around the house, and gets things done. Finally there's me I work hard so that I can balance good grades in school and still do well in my sport swimming. My entire family works hard, and I hope that we continue to in the

I was born and raised most of my childhood in Colombia with a big family. My grandmother had fifteen kids and my mom was the youngest one of them all. She was also the only one that was able to go to college; my uncles didn’t even finish high school. Because my mother was the only one that went to college I was expected to go to college, not only from my mom, but also my family was expecting me to.

I have attained my citizenship to the United States. The foundation of this country has been the access to opportunities for its young citizenry. Because of this critical opportunity I have been given to be able to continue to pursue my education, I know that I will tackle it with the same desire and tenacity I have done the last four years. It is because of my experiences that I have learned that as we navigate our challenges we must remain focused and positive. I believe that no matter the challenges I have experienced, I still have a vision: that vision is that I am going to give my all to become a successful Latina. I believe my hard work and determination will take me to where I want to go. In short, as I close this chapter of my life and begin this next chapter—attending and succeeding in college—I believe that effort, sacrifice, and determination will continue to be critical principles to my

He, nor my parents, continued onto college. I am a first generation student. Education is implicit, therefore, others do not know how far my immediate family has gone into their education. Education is a powerful thing but my parents have been successful in their personal business because they worked hard for what they wanted. They wanted my brother and I to go to college but it was not for him. I enjoy learning and am grateful for the opportunities that have come my way in my college career. Being a Hispanic aiming for higher education can be difficult because others start to stereotype our race. Falling into the category of uneducated people and working in the fields. My mother would tell me to work hard in what I do. To do everything for the glory of God because those who begin to stereotype will underestimate. I am not ready to prove those stereotypes right. Hispanics, coming from any background, can make it to the top.

Devastated, I ran to my room gushing my eyes out. All these emotions going through my head of how my life would be without my parents in the same room or even house. From what I remember it all started about mid-June, the weeks before that were crucial. My parents would always argue over how to deal with a situation between me and my brother, Skyler. They hardly spoke to one another, but when they did they would just start bickering. I remember, one night after dinner they both went into ''their'' room with the door locked yelling at one another. Skyler and I didn’t know what to do, so we went downstairs and tried to figure out what was going to happen. With a scared tone I asked if mom and dad were going to get a divorce?" He answered back '' No, they love each other, they wouldn’t do that to us." That following night, was a school night everything was quiet except for my crying. I couldn’t sleep; all I was thinking about how it's going to affect my family.