Personal Narrative: Michelle Pires

It was towards the end of the day. My grandma had just came home from work with a tired look in her eye. I waited a few minutes to start the interview, giving her time to rest and relax from a long day of work. I entered my grandma’s room and sat on a cabinet just in front of her giant bed. My grandma wore her long-sleeved blue work shirt and jeans. As she answered my questions, she had a serious look on her tired face, and gave me the most wises and detailed answers I have ever heard.

Michelle Pires lived in Maui, Hawaii at an early age. Everyday she would drive 26 miles to her college and back and eventually got a job at a hotel. Reflecting back in the past, Michelle did not expect college to be so difficult. “In high school I lived with

When she needed help with work, she could get help from teachers and her parents. Now that she goes to college, she no longer has those things available. She now has to do everything on her own. “I had to buy my own food,” She stated, “I had to pay for my own house or where I was living. It didn’t come out from the tree. I didn’t get that money tree that was planted in my yard because it was already dead.”

During high school, Michelle didn’t pay very good attention during school. She states that it was the biggest mistake that everyone makes. “There’s a reason for you to go to school, not only for you to learn everything, but it gives you life lessons.” She calmly states. “ Everything you go through might be the happiest time, the baddest time, the homework that you forgot to do or didn’t do because you wanted to do something else,” she chuckled.

She explained to me many other lessons that I learned about personally. She explained that when you’re young, you don’t think of what’s beyond your age until you go through it. “It’s farfetched. You’ve never been 18, so how would you know what I’m talking about? But if I tell you when you were 5, you know exactly what I’m talking about. You’ve experienced through