Personal Narrative: I Am Clarer

I am Falisha May Graham, I was born April 28 1989 to Tammy Graham (Sims) and Roy Vernon Graham. I have an older sister Loretta Graham. Growing up was never easy for the two of us, you may be wondering why. Well it simply put as this my dad was mentally ill and had often left me and my older sister scared of him. We loved him but his mental illness brought out sides that drove my mind to block out leaving me with so few memories of my beloved dad. My mom would try to protect us by sending us to my grandmother’s house when he had his worst moments. So my grandmother helped raised us and became our shield whenever we needed it. Eventually the illness lead my mom to filling for two divorces, one they had gotten back together, but the other would

I considered just simply taking the zero on this assignment and walking away. I do not enjoy talking about my childhood; my life growing up was very different than anyone else I knew. I am twenty-four year old woman; I am married to my best friend, Jeremiah and we have an eight month old son named John. Jeremiah and I have been together for eight years, but have not even been married for one whole year yet. I was born and raised in Cedar Rapids, Iowa where I met my husband in 2006. To Begin with my childhood though, I need to say that my family is very complicated; I will try to make everything clear and in chronological order. My mother and father were never married, yet they maintained a very unusual relationship up until my mother married my step-father Jim in 2003. My mother Tish, was married before she met my father, at which time she took her husband’s last name Gerlach. My mother had my oldest sister about nine years before I was thought of. My mother and father, Alan, had me in January of 1990. My mother refused to marry my father, when I asked why years later they both have different reasons for her saying no so I am still not sure the real reason. My Dad ended up starting a family of his own a year later with his new wife Cathy. I have three half-sisters; my oldest sister Kandis Gerlach is from my Moms first marriage, I have the same last name as Kandis and at the time

I was raised in a middle class environment with an unorthodox family. I have three siblings, all of us adopted. My brother is named Ethan and we are two years apart from each other. He is also a mix of so many different races that I cannot keep track of how many there are. After him, there are my sisters, Jackie and Josie. They are African-American twins who are five years younger than me. They are very sporty and athletic, while I try to avoid sports as much as I can. I have both a mother and a father, Robin and Paul Schlegel, who were both born and raised in Indiana. I was born in Sheboygan, Wisconsin and moved to a town called New Palestine, Indiana when I was only a few months old. New Palestine is an average-sized town where everyone knows

2. I am married to an amazing woman named Kaelynn; she is 24 years old and lives in Fredericksburg, Va. We have a smart two-year-old named Emerson that lives with us and loves to explore. My parents, Tim (53) and Jenny (52) Harpe, live in Batavia, Ohio. My father is a Service Advisor at Kings Mazda in Mason, Ohio and my mom does not work. My oldest sister, Wendi Manning, is 33 and she lives in Illinois and does not work. Jennifer Harpe, my second sister, is 31 and lives with my parents and works at Gymboree as a Sales Associate and The Goddard School as a Childcare Provider. My closest sister,

I am the oldest sibling of two brothers and two sisters. My mother conceived be at the age of sixteen years old. My father then became scared of responsibilities at that young age, leaving her with me. My mother made sure that I was academically involved. I joined the band, I played volley ball, I played soccer and in the Girl Scout’s club.

It was a picture perfect morning in the early days of May in Greenville, South Carolina, when I was born to two very loving parents. My birth did not come without any obstacles; I was born with a backwards heart. My father, Scott, is the Worldwide Sales Manager of a company that cleans circuit boards called Aqueous. My mother currently works with DSS and is working on obtaining her master’s degree from Southern New Hampshire University. I have an older brother named Jack who is a freshman at Costal Carolina, a younger sister named Natalie who is home schooled by my mom and another younger sister named Georgia who is in Pre-K. After 7 years of marriage my father and mother split up. I currently live my mother and see my father every other weekend.

One aspect of my identity that has shaped my life experience and the way I see the world is my race. I am an African- American who has Nigerian descent from both parents. Growing up African American is hard for many of us, but we always come together to help each other out. We get judged for our skin color, religion, sexuality, and economic status. When I was younger, I always thought about what other people would say about me and how I looked. Even though it was hard seeing how other races portrayed my race, I have learned to embrace my skin color and not let anybody judge me. The society believes that African Americans are lazy, uneducated, and violent. Things people say about me and my race only make me want to prove myself to them that I am proud of my race and would never change myself for anybody.

My Identity connects to my culture because it describes the way I look and the point of view I have on certain topics. My culture is the Native American tribe, Wampanoag and I am also Mexican. I have some facial features and body structures from both sides of the family like: most of my family has brown or black hair, we are taller than the average human, and our faces have an oval shape. Some topics that my family has taught me from both sides of the family is, family always sticks together and always comes first, and If you see bad things going on in the world, always try to help and do whats right. From my Dad’s side of the family, I learned tons about survival skills and on my Mom’s side I learned a lot about traditions. An example from

An important part of every humans life is having something they believe in. Having something to care about is essential for people to reach their full potential in life. People need a special person in their life, or a great job that sparks passion in them to bring them happiness. There are many of these types of passions in my life but to better understand who I am, there isn't just one, there are three people who have shaped the young adult I am today. My two little sisters and my little brother. However they aren't exactly normal siblings, they were given to us by the City of Cincinnati for temporary care, while their mothers tried to recover from heroin addiction and battled in court to explain why their child was hospitalized because of a lack of food.

When I introduce myself I will state my name and something they would either know or remember me by. Never would I immediately go into a story on who I am or how I found my identity. That, quite frankly, is a little too much to handle. If they were to get to know me, they would discover many things about just exactly who Kaitlin Wyse is.

First, my parents got divorced in 2011 when I was 8 years old. This impacted my life a lot because both my mom and dad had to move. Before my parents got divorced me, my two older sisters, one older brother, mom, dad, and my little sister lived a pretty good life. With my parents divorced it has changed me as a person. They now have 50/50 custody of me &’ my little sister.

I am a beloved daughter of a broken household. My parents got a divorce when I was eight years old and who I am now is a product of that. I am an Undecided major at Midwestern State University. I am a sister, I have one sister and one step-sister. I am very close to my cousins and they are one of the reasons I’m going to Midwestern State University. They live only three hours away in Canadian, Oklahoma and I wanted to be closer to them, I haven’t been this close to them since I was five years old. I am the youngest grandchild and the second person in my family to go off to college, my sister being the first.

According to merriam-webster.com, the definition of identity is “the distinguishing character or personality of an individual”. I believe that a person’s identity is comprised of many things, including the type of people they hang out with and their actions towards other people. Your identity is how other people see you. I also believe that a person’s identity can change over time due to something like a traumatic event or even the maturity that person gains as they grow older. There are many ways to describe who I am as a person and my identity. I believe the three main facets of my identity are sports, reliability, and, most importantly, the fact that I am a brother.

I do not know. The question of who I am becoming is something that is unanswerable due to my own personal lack of knowledge. My life and the people who surround me constantly change. As a teenager growing up in our current American society, the possibilities of how we want to look and act seem to be endless yet, labels are constantly being put on us. High school constantly tries to change you. Many of us struggle just to avoid living the typical high school cliché while other thrive from it. There are students that will peak and some that will plummet. We are becoming adults but in different forms and attempting to put who I am developing into in words can be extremely difficult. Our values, identities, and beliefs can vary and adapt within those four years or stay the same. Personally, I do not have a clue of who I am or who I am going to be. I have yet to experience that “ah, ha!” moment and many never do. Experiences such as traveling and being a camper at CYO have left me admiring and recognizing the good in the world and discovering the type people who I want to surround myself with. Ultimately, high school sucks to say the least and experiencing it will hopefully not negatively impact who I will become in the future but as I currently live through it, the major event is surviving it.

Born January 12, 2000 in San Antonio and raised I lived with my grandparents while my mom was somewhere else I honestly don’t know where but she would visit sometimes. I never knew my biological father and I never cared to know. Me being the second oldest with my two brothers we’d always play on the nintendo 64 also living with my grandparents was my cousin timmy whose mom was an alcoholic and dad in jail. Living with them and going to windcrest elementary school until 2007 I then moved to royal ridge with my mom and her boyfriend only ten minutes away from my grandparents. My mom was pregnant with my sister ravin she was born the day before christmas eve and when she came home I was attached to her always read to her and all one year later in may my sister was born.