Personal Narrative: My Life In New Orleans

I am willingly making positive changes to my personality traits to be able to once again enjoy God’s gift to me, Ecko Rose. When I am feeling overwhelmed or I am feeling angry I usually can take a short walk to rapidly lower my anxiety or my blood pressure. I plan to remember to take these moment aside before allowing fight or flight response to become the initial reaction. When I have feelings of helplessness or discouragement I have recently, since my daughters removal from the home, engaged myself in a variety of personal hobbies including meditation, painting, writing poetry and assisting my roommate with his income source making custom Colorado boxes, as well as continuous self reassurance which has already shown substantial assistance

In August of 2013, my dad moved to Florida. For the longest time, he kept me in the dark about the issues he had with his money. He still has never told me directly that he was in debt; the only reason I know is because I overheard my sister talking to her boyfriend about it. He moved to Florida to manage a warehouse for his nephew’s beauty company, JacoSpa. He was offered this job multiple times, but he could not bear the thought of leaving his family in a state across the country.

The city of Miami is a cultural melting pot. It is considered home to over 400,000 people, and grows with each day. It is safe to say, the majority of the population of Cuban-Americans, live in Miami. For this reason, I like to refer to Miami as “North Cuba.” I am a Miami native, but I also identify with my Cuban Heritage.

Cultural diffusion can be defined as a process by which one culture barrows or adopts material culture or ideas from another culture. This process occurs when one culture comes into some form of contact with another culture. The ideas or material culture that is borrowed is usually more advanced than what the other culture holds, which in turn makes it more appealing to the other culture. Cultural diffusion is not only limited to remote areas or islands but also has spread to Western cultures such as the U.S. An example of cultural diffusion is beignets in New Orleans which originated from the French.

Disasters can be chaotic and extremely unpredictable. Experts have developed a common cycle of five accepted psychological phases a community progresses through from the time a disaster strikes to the final reconstruction phase. Each of the five phases was evident during the 2005 Hurricane Katrina that devastated the Gulf Coast. The first phase is the pre-disaster phase.

Waking up bright and early on a hot summer day, I get ready for an exciting day at Blue Bayou. I do not realize at this moment that today, July 22, would be a day for me to remember. I put my bathing suit and clothes on and get in my car. I meet the other members from St. Dominic CYO at St. Dominic School. We load the bus and get on our way to Blue Bayou.

My life in Jefferson, Mississippi, was a bit tragic, dramatic, and painful. It changed all my world after my father’s death. My life was not easy. I did what it took for me to be a happy woman. I had a good house, but who would think my life was a disaster?

I was raised in a city of two realities; I grew up in Baltimore. My parents immigrated from the Netherlands a year before I was born to pursue opportunity in the United States. My sister and I attended a private Quaker school because my parents could afford it. On one hand, there is a Baltimore presented by the TV show “The Wire,” on the other you have my reality. As a white, upper-class, male I haven't had to overcome any significant obstacles to follow my dreams.

On August 29, 2005, my home was destroyed. Hurricane Katrina had made her arrival. I remember the howl of her rattling winds as I sat in my uncle’s house in Baton Rouge. I watched her violent tears fall from the darkened skies. Unbeknownst to me, the levees were bursting, filling my childhood home in St. Bernard Parish with over ten feet of water.

It is no secret that golf has changed my life in many positive aspects over the short time I have been playing. Golf has given me many things to think about in my life. It has changed the way I approach things and how I make good decisions that give me a positive outcome. Many positive events have been able to change my life over the past few years, because I started golf. At the age of fifteen, the end of my freshman year in high school, I started golf.