Personal Narrative: Growing Up Without A Home

It was the hardest thing I ever had to do, but I tried not to look back(Lezotte,35),” I go through this all the time. My mom and dad split up when I was about 7, I lived with my mom and my sister, and my dad lived in Sioux Falls for a couple of weeks then moved. My dad now lives in Rapid City, SD, which is about five hours away from Sioux Falls. I usually go up to Rapid City for about a weekend then I come back home because I have school. I think it is the hardest, and the worst feeling to have, is to leave your father and then not seeing him for about 7 months.

My life took an interesting turn when my mother told me I would be moving to a different country, fear took over my body because that meant I would have to start from zero. On January 1st, 2011 my mom gave me the exciting news that her fiancée, now husband, had started the process to bring her to the United States so she could become a permanent resident, live with him, form a family and start a brand new life. I remember her face blighting up to every time she spoke a word but that smile faded once she told me I could not come with at that time because of the expense of the process. I understood why she could not bring me with. We had economic and emotional issues going on.

I just didn’t understand why my dad didn’t want to be a family anymore and why he didn’t want anything to do with us kids. I hated him, every time he asked me to do something with him I would say I was busy when I wasn’t, or just not even answer. The divorce got finalized my sophomore year, and since I was 16 I didn’t have to see my dad on certain days I could just live with my

I was afraid to leave most of my family behind, afraid to leave my friends and the hobbies I had. I told my dad but he told me “it's for the best” but I was young I didn’t know what that meant.

In the book Glass Castle, Jeannette and her family don’t let all of the circumstances around them stop them from dreaming any smaller. Perseverance is the persistence of taking action, especially in spite of difficulties. Perseverance is overcoming the tough things in life, and not letting them get the best of you. In fact, for the most part, the Walls’ kids all worked a little harder to reach their goals. Lori, Jeanette, and Brian save up money so Lori can pursue her life outside of Welch, and move to New York City.

Ciao, come stai ! (Italian for) Hello how are you or how is it going? Daniella Peterson, my friend from Italy, has been my speaking partner and has been teaching me about her culture and home land. I have had so much fun with her and we have become better friends through this experience.

Eventually that led to a divorce and yet another loss in my life. My step-father had been the only steady adult figure in my life and now he was gone

What exactly is the hood? The hood is a slang term for the ghetto. Many people may associate the hood with the birthplace of criminals, people with no lives, and even what some people would call “gangsters”. From the outside looking in, one would assume the hood is a horrible place to be, and those were my exact thoughts in the beginning. Is the hood as dangerous as it is described?

As a child I was very fortunate to have a family like my own; my parents were truly happy and wholly in love. I was incredibly close with my siblings and still am today despite our little fights. Along with being close to my siblings my father and I had a great relationship; most people who knew me would have considered me a “daddy’s girl”. Growing up my father was remarkably proud of my grades and who I was becoming as a person. Oftentimes he would brag about me to anyone who listened.

When one thinks about changing anything about where they live, it turns out to be difficult topic, or at least it is for me. Even though it is a hard thought for me to process, I do have some things that I would change. A couple of things that I would change about my place of living would be, changing our gravel driveway to an asphalt one and building a two or three car garage.   Changing the driveway has been on my mind, I would say ever since I began driving. Keeping my car clean is one thing that I really like to do.

Growing up in a public housing development, I longed to one day help individuals from an underserved community obtain care. At this soup kitchen, my responsibilities included welcoming guests, serving food, waiting tables, and cleaning trays. I empathized with their excitement when watching them receive a hot cup of tea on a sub-freezing day or a book bag with a built-in trench coat on a stormy day. Having an opportunity to spend time with and learn from the diversity of the population that we served was invaluable. Each person had a unique story to tell and just wanted someone to hear it.

I mostly grew up in poverty. We were the people that were thought as “smooching off the government.” My dad is retired and we both live off of social security. Throughout my entire schooling till the end of high school, I always received the free/reduced lunch program. We went to a lot of garage and yard sales growing up.

We had no resources, no way to find out what was happening, or how long it was going to last. Looking back reflecting the other situations we faced such as pieces of other people 's house flying everywhere, the scarce amount of money, and food. Because the hurricane destroyed so much, we had to move pieces from the road and in front of our house so we could get to be out. Also, due to us having a hard time getting to an ATM, or them being down, money was very tight. Just about all the stores that were open only accepted cash.

Have you ever moved houses? What about cities? Or states? Moving for many people is normal and doesn 't affect them whether they move to a different neighborhood or to a city far away. Some enjoy experiencing new places and new people, basically starting a new life.

Growing up without my father was hard, especially because my mom was only there to feed, clothe and raise 5 kids including me. At 7 years old my father got 9 years in prison. I still remember the day as if it was yesterday. Approximately at 7 p.m., I saw a lot of police officers outside my house, I thought what is happening! Occasionally I kept peeking out the window to see what was happening.