Everyone has a story to tell. Our stories fill the world with knowledge and can change the course of a life. What's your story? Tell it with vivid verbs and colorful adjectives. Draw your reader with compelling figurative language and make your point. Your story is important, too.
Your writing assignment: Select either #3, #9, or #13 from page 88 for the topic of your narrative paragraph.
My response:
I have been a Christian for 23 years. I attended the same Pentecostal church for 18 of those years serving in many different capacities. I have read the Bible through several times, and tried to align my life with my beliefs. Perhaps the most difficult thing I have ever done is to open my home to people outside my small family. I laugh now when I think about my first husband bringing home drunks and drug addicts and wanting them to stay the night; I thought his intention was to expose me and our young daughter to the "seedy" side of life. I resisted with all my strength then. I interpreted those actions as a way to turn our home into a drug hangout where our meager personal possessions, along with our self-respect, would disappear with the wayward. Now that I am older and my daughter no longer lives at home, however, and now that I am married to a man who, like I, believes that our faith must be more than a mental construct, I find that I am doing just that. We have, over the past four years, opened our home to three different homeless people. Not at the same time, mind you. And not to just anyone off the street, either. We were in relationship with these individuals prior to allowing them access to our home. Most importantly, we both agreed that God had asked us to become their surrogate family and to mentor them during the time they spent with us. RB lived with us for one year and probably had the greatest impact on our lives. She was the first person to whom we opened our home. She taught us much about living like real Christians -- she became our sister in every sense of the word. We often jumped in the car and delivered dinner to her at her night job, giggling ahead of time about the surprise we knew would overtake her. We prayed together, worshiped together, and shared birthdays and holidays, even taking her to the homes of other relatives for family celebrations as well. Yes, our blood family often looked askance at us, wondering if we had finally lost our minds. The joy of obeying the Lord, and knowing that whatever we have done for our earthly brothers and sisters God sees as our having done for him has been such a blessing. We have a concrete understanding of what it means to love our neighbor as ourselves.
Your turn: Be sure to post your narrative paragraph no later than Tuesday, the 31st, at 5:00 p.m.
An incident that provoked an intense emotion that resulted in rage that converted into a brawl. Once upon a time there was a young guy who was tired of all the problems he encountered. At the age of 13 he found himself analyzing life and trying to figure it out. He tried to prepare himself for everything life would throw at him. He did not prepare himself for betrayal from the one he trusted, which led him to a confined facility, where he encounters ignorant people. One morning he woke up relax, but ready to let out some steam so he began to do pushups, as he stood up from a push up he noticed an argument between an old Cuban man and a man with dreads. He told himself to ‘mind his own business’ plus they’re arguing about the television, next thing he noticed 5 other guys started to surround the old Cuban man so he change his mind and made it his business by walking up to one of the 6 guys and striking him with his right arm making the guy fall to the ground and a brawl started. At the end of the brawl the young man received 3 minor hits, the old man received many hits, yet he walked away and one of the six guys was unconscious, another had a fracture jaw, another had a busted lip, another had a bloody nose and the last two received minor hits. Nevertheless violence is not the answer but sometimes it solves problems and it teaches lessons. People will never be prepare for everything that life throws at you, but don’t forget that rage will only result in something bad so it’s best to drink tea and jog it out.
ReplyDeleteOn April 15th, 2003, the life I knew changed dramatically. My grandmother, who raised me until I was eight years old, passed away from a long battle with emphysema. She was the closest thing to a second mother one could have. Even after my mother met my stepfather and we moved from her house to a new house, she played a huge roll in my life. She was there for that intimidating walk down the hall on the first day of school, with my hand grasped tightly in hers, comforting me with her kind words and warm embrace. My grandmother rode shotgun for that first hectic drive with me behind the wheel; I’m sure she had her eyes clinched shut throughout the whole ride. When nobody believed that I would graduate on time, she was first in line to congratulate me and never once waivered in her belief in me. On the days preceding her death, we passed the time reminiscing about the times we had shared. In those days, I never felt such a rollercoaster of emotions from the joyous recollections spent with her, to the devastating realization that she was leaving me. The grief after her passing would come in waves. Sometimes weeks or months would pass and I would feel nothing, then like a haymaker from a heavyweight, a sudden pang of grief would engulf me for days. I am not sure if the grief will ever completely leave me but with each passing day the pain is slowly replaced with acceptance and gratitude for the times spent with her.
ReplyDeleteAn encounter with prejudice? Only one? Since my feeling on this topic seem to differ from most, I suspect that there will be some tone of prejudice within it.
ReplyDeleteI think it was around the year 1974 when I had my first (known to me) prejudice experience. I had witnessed many before this, but always felt little prejudice directed at me ,I did not know what prejudiced was. I was very naive.
So here I was at orientation, first day of high school. The crowd was unorganized and the people in charge showed signs of distress, they were overwhelmed. there was a new Dean taking over as head administrator. He was a tall, handsome man with big broad shoulders and an airer about him that commanded respect. When the meeting came to order the students took their seats and the faculty settled into their places. This man walked onto the stage,stood proudly behind the podium, looked out over the crowed and announced his name. The silence that overtook the crowed was one of uncomfortability, of uneasiness. the kind of uneasiness that you only feel when something real big is about to happen, then it did.
You see Dean Bigmouth had come from a place where prejudice was "the norm". He had only known struggle and difficulty in his race, and the area that he fought his fight was not like the area he was in today, I suspect He did not know exactly where he was today.He was a black man who had lived with prejudice most of his life and had come to expect it.
My high school was in the middle of a tremendous growth spurt; however, it was in a very peaceful, loving, and caring community. prejudice was not often displayed or openly discussed because it simply was not used. Then came the bomb shell, the shot heard round the community, Dean Bigmouth cleared his throat and made the announcement, " let me make this clear, I will take no crap from any of you white sheets". And so began the food fight as well as the decline of human relations in my high school.I did not feel slighted because I had a way out. I came from a place of peace where canibis and mushrooms were abundant and I knew I would soon be back there.
L. Spann
ReplyDeletePg. 88
An incident that provoked an intense emotion in my life as a young girl. I have been back stabbed behind my back since I was very young, I was bullied while going to Gove Elementary School, so now I am scared of meeting new friends. I don't even like deaf person due to my painful past. Only person I trust would be my best friend David, I hasn't seen him for two years but then I found him again in high school, I changed so much that he doesn't remember me and ignored me. Whenever I make a eye contact with hearing stranger, I get scared. Only thing I watched what people said to me was, "ugly, fat, and annoying. messed up girl, I don't want to be her friend because she's deaf" so I grew up with pain everyday, I decided to stand up for myself. I don't even wear make-up anymore because I believe in "True Beauty" and I have losted ten pounds in six monthss, I was never fat but chubby or husky.
"I was never more scared than the day I was taken into the operating room.” I remember thinking to myself, “what if I don’t wake up?” everything was going in circles in my head. I have never had any injuries or surgeries in my whole life before this past September, so I think that anyone would be as scared and nervous as I was. Even though I’m back to my old self and obviously woke up from surgery; I have learned to never take anything for granted with my life, with my friends, or with my family.
ReplyDeleteIt all started happening when I was on vacation this past July, I was having a wonderful time with my family but was not feeling my normal self. I specifically remember waking up around 4 am on a Wednesday morning with excruciating pains in my lower stomach. It was a feeling that I never experienced before and automatically knew that something wasn’t right in my body. I tried to suck it up being that I didn’t want to ruin my families’ vacation; even though mine was already ruined. Later on that day, the pain got so bad I could not even stand straight anymore and finally told my mom. We rushed off to the hospital, next thing I knew they were doing ultrasounds and MRI’s on me, not fun. My attending physician ended up admitting me until they got back all my labs and ultrasound reports, which was 24 hours later. The weird part about it was that everything came back normal; they let me leave as if nothing was wrong with me. Eventually the pain went away and I continued on with my vacation.
Well, it was now September 17 and everything was going great until the pains started getting worse and worse. I had just begun my fall semester at school and was getting busy with a lot of school work. As I was walking to my car after one of my classes, I completely blacked out by my car, it maybe lasted for about 1 minute, but when I got up I couldn’t even stand straight. The pains were so bad that I could hardly breathe, it honestly hurt to breathe. In the hospital I was again, repeating labs and ultrasounds; this time it was definitely more serious. If I didn’t think anything could get worse in my life, it did that day. My doctor came in the next morning and informed us that my appendix had erupted, and because it had happened a few weeks earlier, the infection was spreading throughout my body, which could be fatal. Within 12 hours they prepped me for the operating room and nobody knew the outcome of the surgery. I was absolutely terrified that they wouldn’t be able to save me or that I would never wake up; there is no worse feeling than not knowing what was going to happen. Thankfully, I was a lucky one; everything went as planned throughout my surgery; I was put on strong antibiotics to prevent the spreading of the infection.
My life was in a way put on hold due to the recovery process; I could not work, couldn’t go to class, couldn’t drive, and had to be on 24 bed rest. Not only was I incompetent for a few weeks, but had to undergo another minor surgery. I developed a really bad infection that caused a cyst to grow in the middle of my incision; so basically it made my recovery process twice as bad. I’m finally back to what I would like to call “my normal self”, after almost 2 months of feeling like I was in a prison and would never escape.
I look at this experience as a reflection of my life. It has only been 9 months since everything started but I could honestly say that it has changed my life in so many ways.
On October 31, 2007 my life change for every! I was a freshman in high school, being the outcast at the school I had no friends I guess because I wear all black and is a little weird you can say. I was always the main topic in my math class after lunch, look at the way she dresses and looks! Why does she only wear black? Is she a witch? The same questions I hear every day! I knew the perfect way to get them all back it was Halloween day I had such a rage that whole day! It was after lunch and I was ready to do it, I walked into the room and just looked at every body for a final look knowing what was about to happen. After being in my seat for about twenty five minutes I reached into my backpack and pulled out the gun and just stared shooting everyone. All I remember is riding in the cop car to the jail. Now I’m in prison for the rest of my life.
ReplyDeleteI remember the days of my childhood when my mother always told me these amazing stories about my brave grandfather. Apparently, one day my mother was walking with her three sisters along on a side walk, all of them in their teen years, while my grandfather was walking beside them. Then, a truck driver was passing them by and all of a sudden he decided to whistle to my mom and her sisters. This made my grandfather in a serious mood. What my grandfather did was he jumped in front of the truck, the truck driver stopped, then my grandfather dragged him out of his seat to the ground. Next, my grandfather pulled out his gun, pointed it to the mans face and said "If I ever see you doing that again, I am going make you regret it!" The truck driver filled with fear, hurried in his truck and never bothered with my grandfather again or his daughters ever again. My grandfather showed that using a little bit of force and a warning, to ward of people he did not like.
ReplyDeleteJohn Oakley
ReplyDelete05/25/11
Enc0010
My respond:
An encounter with Prejudice
One of the encounters that I remember that deal with prejudice was in the year 2000. During that year I was employed by the City of Boynton Beach, as a Fleet Technician. As I began working, with the Fleet Department my supervisor starting asking me to do job which I was not hire to do. That job duty was not in part of my job description. Also they would ask me to do job that was so dirty because I was the only black African American that was working there in that department. Later on I did found out that I was not the only person of my race that had endured such treatments. I did found out that there were others before me. The other people had the same complaints, but nothing was ever resolved. As I went to complaints to my supervisor, he told me that if I had a problem than I needed to quit. My supervisor was not helpful. Everyday I was harassed by him and other workers. He would call me by many racial names. One day, he burn a doll hair and spray the body black. He had tied a noose around the doll neck and hangs it next to my toll box. Everyday that I saw the doll, I did more frustrated because I could not believe that a job such a government job would have ever had such racism. I did file a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity, but as soon I file the complaint I did get fired. The Equal Employment opportunity did go after the City of Boynton Beach, and the case lasted for six years. During the six years the City try to offer me back my job, but I wanted justice. However, I did lost the case because they saw that I had become successful during the years so they said that the incident did not have an effect on me. Also I had lost because the lawyer never had a racial case before. The case did have an effect on my life because I did suffer many shortages. I did not receive Unemployment from the Agency because they had refused to pay me unemployment. However, I never regret the fact that I file the complaint because now I did fight for what I believe. Also because of my case someone will not have to go to everything that I have gone through.
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ReplyDeleteThe time when my sister found out that she was pregnant....
ReplyDeleteMy sister was happy and scared. The reason she was happy because this was her first child and she was in love. On the other hand, she was also scared because my mother is a true Catholic believer. My mother always told us that marriage comes first then a child. Time was ticking and it was time to let my mother know what’s going on. One day my sister and I were sitting in the living room thinking of ideas of how we are going to let my mother know. We both said lets tell her while she at work. The day came my mother went to work, i remember we were sitting on my bed having the phone in the center of the bed and putting the phone on speaker. We called her and the words just came out "Mother I am pregnant" it was quite for five seconds, then she reply and said "What" in a loud tone of voice , I’ll talk to you when i get home. When my mother got home we had a long talk about reasonability. Then she got over being upset and got happy again because my mother loves children.
An incident that provoked an intense emotion that resulted into troublr grief. It was on April 26,2011, when the life of my sons's father whom I was with half of my life since I was fifteen years old, had passed away. My life had dramatically changed for the best. We shared everything together, we we both young when we had meet but we kmow we wanted to be together forever. This incident really put a hurt on my life and my heart. Each and every moment, and day I think of his smile and wonderful personality, I just break down. It feels like a piece of my heart is lost. He left me a beautiful little boy that will always be my angel, pride and joy. He would always push me foward in life and encourage me to finish school and become the wonderful nurse he'd want me to be. The grief would come and go and would feel like christmas with no lights, a firecracker with no sound. I've felt such days without no sunshine or a chance of rain without no showers. I kmow one day I'll get through this pain but right now I'll just hold him close to my heart and remember all the wonderful things and times weve shared together.
ReplyDeleteThe most intense thing that happended to me emotionally was when my mothers grandmother died. i have never been so empty inside every in my life than that day. my mothers grandmother Carmen Vera was her rock and her life. so when she passed away, a huge piece of my mother was taken with her. things with my mother hasnt been the same since, and i dont think i have ever felt that way before. on that day i was just torn apart and didnt think of nothing but sadness and just heart break. she has done so much for me and my mothers and sister. i hope i never have to feel that hurt and just emptyness inside me again.
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ReplyDeleteOne of my most important family stories is that my grandmother,my mother's mom,is a veteran of the War Warld Two.I cannot even imagine a life of the young girl,17 years old,be on the war,and the fight for the freedom of your country. My grandmother fought on the war,for 5 years,and unfortunately she lost a lot of family members during that time.Many people life's being ended and destroed.After the war waas eneded,most of the homes was destroed,people lost their lives,homes,friends,and families.People was comming back to disaster,hunger, and poverty. The entire nation was needed to rise from the ground,rebuild their lives back.It was haed times,and I hope that would never will repited again.
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