Personal Narrative: Growing Up In Ohio

It was all a blur. Next thing I know I feel a sharp pain in my arm. I collapse and land head first. My breathing became hard and heavy. My eyes felt like they couldn’t stay up on their own.

One night, during the cold winter, I walked along the side walk to reach the local store down the block. As I walked out, before I can realize it, I was dropping down onto the concrete while bullets swiftly passed me. I then began to run back home, but I wanted to keep running. Away from Chicago, away from the west side. Growing up in Chicago, it was easy to assume that there was nothing different beyond the blocks of my streets.

For some people it's just fun. But for me It's a lifestyle. People ask what is it? It's the sport rodeo. For those who don't known what rodeo is, rodeo is an exhibition or contest in which cowboys show their skill at riding broncs, roping calves and other activities.

The community I grew up in central Texas celebrated my heritage, honored differences in culture, and fostered personal growth and self-discovery. My parents, with the strong work ethic they developed on their family’s farms in Ghana, encouraged my brother and me to work hard and find ways to use our skills to be of service to others, which wasn’t hard to do growing up in Austin with its many avenues to become involved and take care of the community, whether it was helping to direct families through the Trail of Lights at Zilker Park during the winter or raise money for educational programs for underprivileged kids in the area through working the concession stands at the University of Texas at Austin. It was this collaborative mindset that Austin

I grew up in inner city Baltimore Maryland. Neither of my parents were or are followers of Christ. They divorced when I was very young. I spent most of my life moving from place to place with my mother and two brothers. I gave up on high school when I failed my freshmen year.

Growing up in California, my whole life has been around farming and like many others, it’s how I make a living. It’s now been at least a year, living through the Dust bowl and many people have migrated to California with the hope of surviving this crisis. Keeping my crops has become a struggle and that's what most people including me depend on. I am lucky enough to be able to pay my mortgages even though I’m not able to keep the land with the help of family. It’s practically impossible.

Throughout my childhood growing up in Miami Fl, was an amazing experience, it’s unique variety of cultures spread through one city is absolutely mind blowing. Although there was one thing one my mind at all times. One thing I never experienced was living out west and getting away from the Miami life. Its kind of hard to believe someone would prefer living out west, in the middle of nowhere than along a beach shoreline. As a matter of fact, living out west had become one of my priorities when I was making my college decision.

Growing up in Texas What is it like growing up in Texas? I have people always state that their home state is the best place to grow up, but I can honestly say where I grew up was the best. We had some much to do and so much to see.

O-Oklahoma Oklahoma is the place I was born yet the only time I was ever there was maybe the first two to three months of my life I don’t remember obviously. I’ve always wondered what it’s like there. One day I hope to go there because I fell in love with a lot of their sports teams and I want to meet my biological brother. My favorite sports teams in Oklahoma are the Oklahoma City Thunder of the NBA, and the colleges of Oklahoma State (The Cowboys), Oklahoma (The Sooners), and Tulsa (The Golden Hurricanes). I started paying attention to the NBA when my brother Scott bought NBA 2k11 I played with every team and found myself playing with the Thunder the most, because I loved playing with Kevin Durant and Russel Westbrook.

Moving from Tennessee to Ohio in the 6th grade was probably the most difficult times in my life. Boardman, Ohio, is where my mother and I moved too, from Murfreesboro,Tennessee. The environment was definitely a big change for me. Murfreesboro had variety of people with diversity and cultures from all around. Boardman is very basic, and not extremely integrated.

I heard the inspectors heavy footsteps walking around upstairs and then towards the basement door. My heart was beating fast. More than fast. It felt like it was going to explode. I could feel my heartbeat in my throat and could hear it in my ears.

but then I heard a rushing in bush next to me. My heart starts beating twice as fast, the sweat on my face felt like bullets. I make my way over to

Next thing I knew we were talking about the tragic events that had occurred earlier that day. I began to explain what exactly happened,

There are some people that I can’t imagine living life without. I can’t live life without my friends from school, my blood family, or my dogs. Though I cannot live without any of the entities I just listed, there is someone that I know, this person is special. This person has left a big impact on my life, and his name is Jody. I remember when me, my mom, my sister, and Jody would go to Culvers every week that I was with my mom.

Dorothy Allison’s femininity novel, “Bastard Out of South Carolina” has to do with a young girl’s transition of childhood to adolescence while coping with constant abuse. Conclusively, though, the novel’s strengths come from the use of unreserved imitation of life for women in the 1950’s through the eyes of a child. The books connotation is reminiscent to the emotional and physical atmosphere in the south during this time period and is still important today as this time period is widely discussed in and out of classrooms. Dorothy Allison was born in Greenville South Carolina where women suffered through loss of identity and conflicts with loyalty. In this time period, the South was going through a period of rebuilding from a destructive civil