Personal Narrative: Growing Up In Detroit Michigan
This passage demonstrates the trouble that the author Wes Moore’s family and their friends go through to help send him to military school. Once Wes makes his first attempt at escaping from Valley Forge Military Academy he contacts his mother in an attempt to come home, she then divulged all the sacrifices she’d been making to send him there and steer his life in a better direction. From this, the author hopes to show that people who are supported throughout their lives have a greater chance of success in the future if they strive to reach goals that they set for themselves. The first two paragraphs of this passage show how determined Wes’ mother was to help him change his life.
The upbringing of a child contains many factors, many of which correlate to where a child grows up. The people, culture, and experiences of someone’s childhood are the greatest determining factor for what kind of person they will become. So how does the nature and nurture of one’s upbringing impact the decisions that they make, and their life in general? Author Wes Moore explores this question in his memoir, The Other Wes Moore, as it relates to two lives in particular. Moore main purpose in this book is to explore the overarching impact that a collection of expectations and decisions, not always one’s own, can have on someone’s life.
Growing up in San Diego was fun. The beach was near my high school and it was the ultimate after school hangout. At the beach, you could enjoy the best homemade ice cream at Mootime Creamery. When my friends were hungry, we would head out to the closest taco shop. My favorite dishes are rolled and fish tacos.
Like the classic saying has it “You can take the kid out of Brooklyn but you can’t take the Brooklyn out of the kid.” Same goes for Chicago this is my story. I was born in the windy city, on the south side. I wasn’t there for that long I was there till my fifth birthday, and then I moved to Boston, Ma with my mother, sister and I. However, I believe that south side raised me because every winter and summer vacation I would visit my grandmother or as she liked to be called “Mo-Mo” While visiting her I’ve seen some pretty harsh situations.
Growing up in southwest Atlanta, Georgia, I have been surrounded by ‘black success’ instead of just ‘success’ for the duration of my life. The blacks in my area are equally as successful, if not more accomplished than, the non-blacks, but we are always titled separately and put into a captive box. The box we are held in told young girls that they should aspire to be athletes, cosmetologists, or plain unemployed. The same box told young men that they could only be considered “somebody” if they were able to catch a ball well. These are occupations we would ‘best be suited for’; these are occupations that perpetuate the box.
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.
I have lived in Michigan for my whole life. The state of Michigan itself is a very unique place, but even more unique is the upper peninsula of Michigan. The UP is barely more than three percent of the population of Michigan. We 're known as Yoopers, many people think of us as rednecks that sit around and hunt all day. Though the opening days of hunting season means most of the teachers are gone for hunting, there is a lot more to the UP than hunting.
At the beginning of this assignment, I choose inner city culture because I was under the impression that I knew at least a little about it. I live in the suburbs of Chicago, and my parents have often worked in the inner city, and so I have heard many stories. However, completing this project has shown me how little I know about other cultures, and how important it is to research before meeting a client. To begin, I have often been told that violence and poverty in the inner city are partially caused by bad parenting and drugs. While those can be a cause of problems in the inner city, just like they can be anywhere, none of my research identified those aspects as ultimate causes.
The way I felt about my city and my surroundings had a strong correlation with the way I felt about myself. Prior to this realization, my dreams and aspirations for the future were minimal. I performed well throughout elementary school, and I was moved up a grade because my reading and math skills were advanced. However, when I began attending middle school, the new atmosphere combined with all of the new awareness I gained as I started transitioning from a child to an adolescent ended up in me lowering the expectations I had for myself. Once I regained my optimism and saw that Oakland is not what people say it is, I began seeing life in an optimistic way as
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.
Moving to Cleveland was one of the worst days of my life. My mom told us to pack our bags because we were moving to one of the best and most beautiful places in Ohio. I was an idiot and thought Ohio would be just like The Woodlands. I thought they would have winning teams, lots of trees, and comfy neighborhoods with parks, but it was exactly the opposite.
My family has always been the center of my universe. They’ve taught me the importance of being united and taking care of one another—because in the end, all we truly have is each other. My parents have raised me to be a good daughter, sister, and citizen. They’ve shaped me to be respectful, responsible, and virtuous, knowing these values will last a lifetime. But above all, my parents have instilled in me an appreciation and eagerness for education.
As a young girl, around the age of 10 I lived in the Perry projects with my mother. Previously to moving there I would visit often to see my great-grandmother. When I would visit my grandmother there were not many other people that were African-American. The Commodore Perry Projects had been actually made for white people.
Growing up in America and having a parent from another country comes with many perks and stories. In case you haven't read the title or wondering which parent is from another country; My father is from a small island in Central America named Belize. To give you the brief history about Belize, Belize first inhabitants were the Mayans from the beginning of time until the fourteenth century due to them mysteriously declining in population. The Mayans had a huge roll in the Central American countries. This due to the fact that they developed the idea of hieroglyphics, which back then was the only fully known writing system of the pre-Columbian Americas-as well as for its mathematics, astronomical system, art, calendar, and architecture.
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.
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