For fifteen years, I put my heart, effort, and soul into my band Murky Waters. I made it into a career that supports my wife, my stepdaughter, and my parents. Murky Waters is what saved my family and me from poverty in the ghetto of Warsaw, Poland, and it’s what saved me from giving up on life entirely before I met my wife. I met her only a year after Murky Waters began and she was introduced to me by my best friend and drummer, Tony. Anka was two months pregnant with my stepdaughter, Antonia, at the time we met.
Crackle, pop the fire sounded as I placed new logs on top of the hot embers. This was the fire the children of my village sat around and told stories before they went to sleep, and tonight was no different. All of their eyes stared at me expectantly as they waited for me to start telling them a story. “Two Rivers Running, tell us the Story of the Great Battle again,” the little ones asked. All eyes were on me as I sat down next to them, everyone silent as I told them the story of the Great Battle.
True Courage in To Kill a Mockingbird Defending a man. Killing a dog. Quitting a drug. These events look like they share nothing in common, but in the book To Kill a Mockingbird, they all push one central theme. Set in a small 1930’s town in Alabama, the book is significantly influenced by the setting.
The transition from eighth grade to ninth grade is one of the most difficult but unforgettable things a student must do in his adolescence. For me, it was filled with new opportunities of taking Ap classes and joining clubs. One of these cubs was Youth and Government (Y&G). For as long as I can remember my brother, Riad, has boasted about how amazing Y&G is and how it has changed his life. My brother is three years older then me, so as a freshman he was a senior in Y&G.
CHAPTER TEN Bonus Points for the Most Painful Crumple Shadow Mountain was shaped kind of like a cone that spiraled upward to form a sharp snow capped peak. There were lush green meadows on either side and a river of fire spanned by a rope bridge. It rolled to the edge of a gaping pit, and dropped off in a glowing red cascade, splashing hot sparks into the air. Colorful Firebirds fluttered in enormous twisted oaks while hundreds of stinky skunk apes foraged for plum-colored worms in a grassy field rippling with pink and white wildflowers. They were tall—at least ten feet—but crooked, with bowed legs, gorilla arms that shot off in angles, and curly matted orange fur, glinting gold in the midday light.
I had one assault charge whenever I was really young, I got detained for a few days then went on my merry way home. About 7 years later, there's another assault charge put against me - whenever someone had spit on me (Hey! That's an assault on a minor!) , I had grabbed their throat and put it against a wall - then let go after realizing I just flipped shit. I already knew what was about to happen, I had dealt with police before but never had any charges.
"Waking Up from Abuse" Awakening to the reality that your entire life has been a lie is about the harshest wake up call you can get. I speak from experience. I've actually done it twice now. The first time I "woke up" was when I finally realized I was the survivor of childhood narcissistic abuse.
Every Friday I should take trash in, so I rolled the two trash bins into the garage. I went in the house and realized my mom didn 't come back from work yet. My brother only comes from school about 15 minutes after I arrive. I rushed to play NBA 2k 16 on my XBOX. After some time, my brother came home and as soon as he saw me playing on the XBOX, he started grabbing the controller from me and changed the game to multiplayer.
As a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, I experienced incredible generosity when I received free therapy throughout my high school years via non-profit organization. While in college I began to consider myself “healed” and I decided to become a volunteer advocate at my local hospital to in some ways pay that kindness forward. This meant that I often walked into the ER to find tragic cases of rape and domestic violence, and was often asked by close friends if I was being triggered. The simple answer was no, each case was different and unique and not one I could necessarily relate to. However, there were times were the patient I had to advocate for had completely different views about reporting rape; this was triggering because I dealt with
In my brief life, I have overcome a lot of adversity. My mom fled Mexico with her three young children to escape domestic violence. When we came to this country we had only a few personal belongings and the promise of a better future. We came to this country and lived in a small trailer with no toilet other than a bucket, and no shower except for the one that was lent to us from the kindness of a stranger, our new neighbor. As a single parent, my mother had to work day and night to support us.
My dad looked at my brother and said, pointing towards me “this is what a nurse looks like”. I felt so happy that my dad said so then, I looked at my brother making a funny face, making him realize not to mess with me when
so i decided to go over my friends house my friend is small skinny and has brown hair and is super funny. Him and i were hanging out messing around over his house when about two o’clock my dad called and asked “ do you and your friend want to go out on the boat fishing in the lake” so as bored as we were we said “yes” without any hesitation so before we went back to my house we went to get my friends things which at first we couldn't find what we needed but within ten minutes we were able to find his pole and some lures and hooks. As we were about to leave his mom stopped us and gave his some sunblock and then pulled out some seasickness pills and joking around i said we're not going to need those but she gave them to us anyway.
and I was working my way up the pole and pushing it up and I couldn’t lift it up anymore because I wasn 't tall enough so I was going to drop it. I yelled at my little brother to get out of the way and he ran and got out of the way so I kind of threw it up as hard as I can I quickly drop to my knees. The basketball hoop was in the air for like 4 seconds then it came down and the rim of the basketball hoop smashed my middle finger on the tip of it. When it hit my finger I instantly screamed because I saw my nail all crooked and blood was everywhere and my brother looked at me and said, “Are you gonna die”.
Words Can Hurt Bombarded by the bullies and lies, it all started in 6th grade by being called a “slut” from my so called friends. I would go home after school to be put down once again, I was “dumb” according to my family. By then I had no faith in myself and the world came crashing down on me. I was getting D’s and F’s in school. I would go home and lock myself in my room trying to get away fro the name calling but that didn’t help.
My first beating occurred when I was only seven years old. I came home one day with a devastated look on my face; I knew what was going to happen to me next. My father asked for my report card, looked at the first grade and threw it at my feet. One B in my grade book earned me a slap to my face and no television for the next two weeks. I returned to school the next day.
