Personal Narrative: My Trip To Tulsa

went. We arrived at the hotel around 2pm and were in our rooms by 2:30. The girls shared a

I am not from San Antonio. I am not from Texas. I’m from California. Where no one twangs, or drawls, or even says hi to the stranger standing in line at the grocery store. Texas, half way across the U.S and what seems like a whole other country compared to California. It is a completely different place that I could have ever imagined living and calling home. I came to Texas to find myself. I didn’t know that when I came here, but it is what ended up happening.

I have to admit I was a little nervous before I went volunteer at New Hope Tulsa. When I was nineteen I spent the summer working as a school age child care worker, in a neighborhood where many of the children were at-risk youth. I remember crying every night before bed because I did not want to go to work the next day. They treated me so badly and did not listen at all. It was very stressful to me and I did not know how to handle it. As apprehensive as I was to start volunteering, I was also excited. Yes, in the past I had a hard time, but I’ve also grown and learned so much since then. It was also helpfully that New Hope provided such an extensive orientation and trained on many aspects, including effective discipline. So, by the time I spent

I had heard endless stories of my family that lived in Tulsa, but my 10-year-old self never would have imagined that I would come face to face with them. Especially not like this. I spent my entire life moving from city to city, state to state, how could my dad even think about settling down now? And in Tulsa of all places? It was moving day and I knew I could not put off meeting them any longer. As the movers scurried around the house, I anxiously waited in the driveway for my family to arrive. That’s when I saw them coming down the road, five black cars, 10 aunts and uncles and 17 cousins that had been figures of my imagination until this very moment. As the car doors swung open, my mind immediately pictured a clown car as I watched the people pour out of the car. Although everything I had heard made them seem crazy, my heart was racing as I felt a sense of excitement rush over me.

I had so much fun when me, my sister and my momma took a trip to South Carolina. We was originally going just to go to my brothers graduation from basic training, but ended up doing more than we expected. We had a rough trip on the way to his graduation. By trouble I mean our truck broke down in Atlanta, GA. Since the truck didn't make it all the way there, we got a hotel room in Atlanta. We woke up the next day and went to explore since we was already in Atlanta and I haven't never been before. We first went to find something to eat, but didn't know where anything was at so we asked around. One man said we should go to the Underground Atlanta food court. This is shopping and entertainment district in downtown Atlanta. It was a lot of food

During my trip to Louisiana this weekend, I made plans to meet two of my friends at one of our favorite restaurants. The racial composition of the group was two black individuals and one white individual. We were having lunch and catching up when a white woman who was sitting nearby with her two children came over to ask if my white friend could watch her children while she went to the restroom. She never made eye contact with me or my other black friend and the question seemed solely directed to the white individual of the group.

My mom burst through the door telling me to wake up.(sv) I pick up my phone and see that it's 5:30 in the morning, I get up. I gather my belongings while listening to music. My mom hurries me, telling me that we need to go. I ask my mother where we're going & she says Oklahoma.I got in the car by 6 a.m. I put My seatbelt on and went straight to sleep (svv). Of course, My mom had her music all the way up so I didn’t get enough sleep. Our first stop was at a gas station to go to the restroom, I woke up and wasn’t feeling good at all, my nose was stuffed, my eyes were watery, my voice was kind of going away, and my face just looks terrible. My mom comes back into the car and says:

Have you ever been to Atlanta,Georgia before?The time i went to Atlanta,Georgia was month I have ever had. I got to hangout with my cousins,family,and friends. We had so much fun with them because we did something so much fun.We went to Atlanta,Georgia to go visit people.

From what I can remember my life began in Houston. I was born in Charleston, West Virginia, but moved to Houston before I turned two. I have an older brother and an older sister. I grew up in the Clear Lake area, and stayed there until I finished high school. My family is Catholic, so my parents raised me to be a person that follows the rules and tries to adhere to a moral code. While living in Houston there were relatively strict rules when I was younger that have since faded away. For example, they used to limit drinking pop by only the family drink it on Fridays and Saturdays, and we were only allowed to drink three cans each day. Although they had pretty clear ideas on how we should act, there was not much open communication about politics.

My story actually begins here in El Paso and has continued its course here as well. I was born and raised in El Paso and have been living here ever since. The most further back I can remebr of my child hood was when I started Elementar school at Clendenin. I mostly remember how I wanted to help friends or people that I could when i was younger but as a kid you really could not do that to well. As i grew up that feeling still was there but at this time I just felt like being an architect. Everything changed when I was in middle school and around the time Halo Reach the Xbox game came out. I was at a friends house playing games late and lost track of time, it was 12 and way past my curfew. His parents had left but I did need to get back home so I left walking home.

Very reluctantly, we went to the beach. Micah went on Monday with my parents. Kevin, Miranda, and I went Wednesday night after church. While we were getting gas to leave, Miranda had to use the bathroom. I took her inside and Kevin pulled the van up to the door. We came out to get in the van when Miranda looked down by her door. She picked up something and said, “Mom, I just found $100.00.”

In August 2016 I had the opportunity to travel to Louisiana to help with cleanup of damage from a recent flood. My father, brother, and I went together with a group from church. At each house we went to we had to tear out ruined drywall, appliances, cabinets, furniture, door frames, and sometimes even floors. The most memorable location we worked at was a mobile home near a small stream. The stream overflowed and made the flooding worse there. The walls and floor were still damp and had begun to mold. The heat of the sun magnified the humidity to an eye-watering level. We spent much of our time there methodically tossing ruined furniture and belongings into a massive pile by the side of the road. We cut almost all of the drywall out and wrestled

It is not often that you get to wake up to a perfectly painted peach, pink and purple coated sky, witness the feel of a salty sea breeze brush up against your skin or stare out into the atmosphere, trying to figure out at which shade of blue the ocean concludes and where the sky begins. Had this been a few months ago I would be exploring Castle Hill in Budapest, making headway towards the glaciers of Argentine Patagonia or even tasting my way through Greece. But instead, I will pack my bags with a heavy heart to kickoff my expedition to the place that needs me the most. With my ticket in hand, I would board my flight to Houston, Texas.

David Franco , Ronnie , Kylee and I went to Kansas City for a day trip. It was a lazy saturday afternoon of the summer 2015 when Kylee’s dad came into to Kylee’s room to ask us what we planned to do that day. Kylee replied “ watch this on how to build a pool” He just laughed at us saying “then how about you guys get some shoes on , let’s go to Worlds of Fun.” I screamed with joy repeating “ are you serious , we're seriously just gonna go to Kansas City like right now?!” he then replied “ yes, call your parents and see if it’s okay and you guys can get ready and we’ll go.”

I do apologize for the confusion; the picture was just silly (my new shirt says, “Home is where the dog is”). Conformation was auto corrected to confirmation by my phone, November 9th is a Conformation event, located in Decatur, Bob and I are hoping to attend to observe and I am waiting for Diane to respond with the best time for me to call.