Personal Narrative: My Trip To Aruba

Have you ever swam in the ocean? Ever fought against the waves? Have you ever felt its intensity?? Oceans can be quite treacherous and rigid, but once you sink down beneath the water, all is calm and peaceful. In “The Ocean” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, he paints an image of this by illustrating the waters and the men at sea. Men at sea are represented by showing the journey they fought on the Ocean but how after they died they were at peace. By using symbolism, rhyme, and personification, Hawthorne develops a theme in which the ocean can be crazy and wild above the water, but peaceful and calm beneath.

It has been six years since I left Haiti at the age of four. For me it’s been a lifetime at this point. So long that I don’t remember any of the basic rituals of my family. Jet lag knocked me out so badly the night before, I don’t remember what I did after getting off the plane. Bleary eyed and confused I don’t understand why I’m being woken up. The desire to return to sleep so strong I nearly said a curse word. But in that moment a breeze blew in a mouth-watering aroma I didn’t want nor could ignore. My mouth was open to complain but my tongue sampled the scent and I was rendered speechless. I became so enveloped in the aroma that I barely noticed the coolness of the concrete floor nor the fact that I had even gotten up and walked to the kitchen table. My focus turned to the source of my tantalization. A cup that grandma placed on the table for me. It was just a simple cup of coffee with two sticks of cinnamon in it. The fragrant cup was match by an alluring flavor. It felt like a warm hug with a kiss from

During the summer of 2014, my family and I were going on a vacation to Aruba. Aruba is a small island that is located in the Caribbean Sea. Someone who lives on the island told me that it was so small that someone there told me I could ride my bike all the way around the island. When we arrived to Aruba, after a five hour airplane ride, my butt was so numb it hurt to walk. We went outside the airport to rent a large vehicle, and the moment we stepped outside, we were already sweating. We ended up renting a van, and my family and I headed to the hotel. Driving around the island was pretty different from what I would have expected, because the land looked mostly like desert and cacti and I was expecting beaches, palm trees, and not as much heat. The island is about ten miles away from the equator but there is always a cool breeze.

It was once said that "Everything in life is a changing experience, it is only a question of

The sun had just begun to rise and the temperature was growing warmer with each passing minute. Gusts of wind brought dust swirling into the house as I lay in the bed that I shared with my mom and sister. My mom was just beginning to scrub clothes across the surface of a washboard and was hanging them up to dry on the nearby clothesline outside. Laundry was what kept our family alive because after my father left us a few years ago life became so much harder. I often helped my mom around our one room house cleaning, fixing meals, and occasionally helping collect laundry from our neighbors. We survived off of our month-to-month income and every penny counted. Life in Nicaragua had always been tough for our village because we lived in the poorest

I did want to go to Central America however, David asked me to please come in January because Dec is a very busy month for him. ( budgets )

My family and I went to the Bahamas on April 19, 2015. The Bahamas is an island located of the coast of Florida. We flew into the Nassau, Bahamas and stayed at the Atlantis Resort. We went because my Dad was getting honored for being with the Principal Financial Group for 20 years, but that was only two days out of the trip and we went for eight.

As I walked out of the airport, unfamiliar faces surrounded me. I was beginning my first week in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere -Haiti. We rode in an open air box truck to where we would be staying, bouncing out of our seat with every bump along the way. I saw people washing dishes, bathing and going to the bathroom all within the same water source- while on ride to the compound. Throughout the week, children laughed and took many pictures with me. Walking into a village- there were homes made of cracked mud and broken sticks, fences made of garbage, and roofs made of metal tins. Seeing children with ripped clothes or no clothes at all; I felt so sad and confused. My team and I helped create a concrete slab for a garage and

It was a cold Sunday morning as my mother and I headed into church. Once inside, we listened to the announcements and to our shock, there was a refugee couple that had just arrived from Cuba and needed help. We immediately went to talk to them and asked  if they felt comfortable with us helping them, which they were ecstatic about. Over the next couple of weeks we helped them find an apartment, jobs, and house necessities.

2005- My parents found my name on the Cottage Hospital wall, where I was born.

“ We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty.” I live in a bubble: wealth, comfort, education, and love. Not everyone in our world lives like this, not even everyone in our country lives like this. I knew there were people that were starving, homeless, abused, or ignored; what I didn’t know was how many.

In Richard Louv’s book, Last Child in the Woods, nature deficit disorder is presented and explained. Defined as dwindling encounters with nature paired with increases in diagnoses of ADD, obesity and depression, nature deficit disorder explains a problem that is facing today’s youth. Louv argues that children are lacking a solid relationship with nature which is required for their development especially with a focus on educating the whole child--academic, emotional and social. This concept goes back to biophilia; because we were at one time hunters and gatherers, we need to nature to survive. Louv (2010) writes,

I threw the hoe against the ground with all of my strength for what seemed like the hundredth time and pulled it back up to rip the grass out.

Swimming throughout all the caves, created by the giant rocks found along the shore, and looking at the ocean floor, watching all of the tropical fish swim around you. From the bright blue fish to the long gray ones, you can see the schools of fish swim right under you, or even the occasional sting ray or turtle hiding under a rock. As I swam around a rock, as far as the eye could see there were hundreds of fish swimming with their schools, darting back and forth, trying to avoid the chaos of the open waters. As the fish dart around, the sunlight shining through the water reflects beams of light in all

The one graduation present that I’ll never forget was from my dad and stepmom. They went above and beyond to surprise me with the best graduation present to go on a cruise.