...PERSONAL NARRATIVE 1 When taking a look at how my life has changed over the past five years I can truly and honestly say that I would never have expected the things that have happened. Back in June 2007 I was separated from my husband and moved into my own apartment. I was in the United States Navy for six and a half years at that time. My divorce was finalized in January 2008 and I deployed to Afghanistan in March 2008, for eight months. After coming home from a long deployment, I had orders to move to Lemoore, California. This area is nothing but farm lands and I did not like that at all. I was born and raised in Southern California and enjoyed the fast-paced life that I was living. It is amazing how things have changed. In July 2011 I was honorably discharged from the United States Navy and I moved back in with my mother and two younger sister. Growing up we lived in a condo in Diamond Bar, California, but that all changed over time. The same time that I got out of the military, myself, my sisters and my mother had to move out of our condo and into a two bedroom apartment. Talk about a huge change in life. This move has not been easy for any of us. There is no privacy and we all have to share the living space. I share a bed with my middle sister and my mother shares a bed with my youngest sister. I never thought that I would be unemployed for this long, but it has been over a year since I got discharged. It seems like nobody is hiring right now...
Words: 834 - Pages: 4
...In E.B. White’s “One More at the Lake” and Judy Brady’s “I want a wife”, both authors write on personal encounters they experienced. The author chooses two different methods of writing styles. E.B. White utilizes a nostalgic reflective descriptive piece, whereas Brady uses a more sarcastic narrative. Arguably both writers do a great job in their story telling skills. Both stories are respected and pleasing, yet similar but different at the same time. The authors’ choice of writing style is what gives one story more of an advantage to the other. Though descriptive and narrative essay have identical intent – to tell the reader a story- narratives are more effective in capturing the audience because the uses of different voices, they bring ideas into perspective and they are relatable. There are special components that both style of writing possesses. Narrative writing usually does not stress adjectives to give the physical details of characters, setting or events in the story. Nothing like descriptive writing, narrative writings are written in the first person in order to convey the author's attitudes, beliefs and memories. Narratives are conventional, while descriptive writings content often emphases on a single event, object or place. Occasionally, writers utilize narrative writing style to tell about the past or the future in broad terms. A narrative often reflects personal experience, clarifying what happened during some sort of incident. Narrative essay topics include...
Words: 1576 - Pages: 7
...historical narratives is to report as accurately as possible what happened at each particular place and time in history. But each of the writers in this unit (De Vaca, Bradford, and Equiano) went beyond merely reporting the facts; they had other, more personal reasons for writing what they did. Each of them had a personal agenda. Equiano’s personal agenda in The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano was to shame his white audience into abolishing the slave trade by describing the horrible events that took place on the ship. While he did state facts about the ship, Equiano described personal experiences to persuade the audience more. For example, Equiano describes the smell of the hold as being “…so intolerably loathsome, that it was dangerous to...
Words: 781 - Pages: 4
...Koenig Personal Narrative Personal Narrative 1 I think the younger you are, the more dramatically different you are from each year to the next. Infancy through young adulthood holds so many milestones and life-changing events. Those are the years when you can really tell how a person has changed since the year before. I think the difference between age 1 and 2, 12 and 13, 19 and 20, etc, is so much greater than 34 and 35, 46 and 47, 80 and 81, etc. For me, the past 5 years have been from ages 37 to 42. If you had asked me what the meaning of life was at a younger age, I probably could not have told you. I still can not probably tell you the answer to that question. Can anyone truly answer that question? Everyone has a different meaning to life that is their very own. As a teenage, like most teenagers, I thought I knew it all and had control of my life and it's direction, and found out I was wrong. I had made some mistakes on my life journey but I had learned from them. I became a mother at the young age of 18 which put my life in a whole new direction. Did I lose my youth? Yes. Would I have changed it? No. I ended up having three children by the time I was 23. That was the time when I thought my life had true meaning. I had three little human beings that depended on me for everything. Did I make mistakes along the way? Yes, what young mother doesn't? As they grew, I grew with them. At the age of 32 I went down...
Words: 778 - Pages: 4
...through Theatre This paper sets out to explore how processes of theatre making employed by The Mothertongue project, provide spaces for women to remap their personal narratives. Mothertongue works from the premise that the development and subsequent performance of stories in theatrical processes affords women the opportunity to re-write and remap their personal narratives and in so doing insert their voices into the landscape of South African Theatre. In an attempt to redress the gender imbalances and androcentricism prevalent in post-apartheid theatre, this paper speaks to the relationship between theatre, liminality and communitas. I am interested in unpacking how collaborative processes of theatre-making provide spaces for women to remap their personal narratives. Remapping in this instance refers to processes of transforming lived experience through story. I address how, through engaging in ritual activities that are central to the stories performed, actors, audiences and the owners of the source stories are invited to physically participate in remapping and transforming lived experience. Linked to this is the choice of form(s) and how this affects or impacts on the performed stories as well as on the construction of performed rituals and ultimately on the processes of remapping personal narratives. I focus specifically on Mothertongue’s 2004 production, Uhambo: pieces of a dream. The production was an integration of theatre and visual art in the form of performances...
Words: 7672 - Pages: 31
...Which Essay is Better: A Narrative or A Descriptive? Ever read a story and say to yourself, “What’s happening?” Whenever I read a descriptive essay, that’s what I would say. In this essay I would be comparing and contrasting two types of essays, a narrative and descriptive. I have chosen “Are the rich happy?” by Stephen Leacock 1916 and “Sister Flowers” by Maya Angelou, n.d. By writing my essay, I want to give my views on each and decide which I would rather write. Narrative Essay A narrative essay reflects a personal opinion that is based on your own experiences. This helps you bring a reader into your very own mind and shows him/her the topic you’re writing about through your eyes. Telling a story or event the way it happened for you. It also could provide a sort of lesson or moral to be learned from the outcome of the story as well as what the writer did that contributed to it or not. It’s more on a personal level that any one reading could say that happened to them or that they learned from the story by not doing whatever it was that the writer did. In Stephen Leacock’s “Are the Rich Happy?” the author writes about his experiences with his friends, with of modest income. Most of it, all in his opinion, points out the problems or troubles those with an existential amount of funds in their bank accounts. He goes on to give some examples that he encountered several of his friends going through. “A friend of mine who has ten thousand dollars a year told me the other...
Words: 1095 - Pages: 5
...STUDIES IN PROFESSIONAL LIFE AND WORK Mike Hayler University of Brighton, UK Autoethnography, Self-Narrative and Teacher Education examines the professional life and work of teacher educators. In adopting an autoethnographic and life-history approach, Mike Hayler develops a theoretically informed discussion of how the professional identity of teacher educators is both formed and represented by narratives of experience. The book draws upon analytic autoethnography and life-history methods to explore the ways in which teacher educators construct and develop their conceptions and practice by engaging with memory through narrative, in order to negotiate some of the ambivalences and uncertainties of their work. The author’s own story of learning, embedded within the text, was shared with other teacher-educators, who following interviews wrote self-narratives around themes which emerged from discussion. The focus for analysis develops from how professional identity and pedagogy are influenced by changing perceptions and self-narratives of life and work experiences, and how this may influence professional culture, content and practice in this area. Autoethnography, Self-Narrative and Teacher Education Autoethnography, Self-Narrative and Teacher Education STUDIES IN PROFESSIONAL LIFE AND WORK The book includes an evaluation of how using this approach has allowed the author to investigate both the subject and method of the research with implications for ...
Words: 18203 - Pages: 73
...Through narrative therapy a counselor can help clients gain access to preferred story lines about their lives and identities taking the place of previous negative and self-defeating narratives that destroy the self. Presented in this paper, is an overview of the Narrative therapy and the Social Construction Model and several facets of this approach including poststrucuralism, deconstructionism, self-narratives, cultural narratives, therapeutic conversations, ceremonies, letters and leagues. A personal integration of faith in this family counseling approach is presented and discussed also in this paper. NARUMI AMADOR’S FAMILY CONSELING APPROACH Introduction Narrative therapy is found under the Social Construction Model. Using the Narrative approach, the therapist will not be the central figure in the therapeutic process, instead he will be influential to the client, helping him/her internalize and create new stories within themselves to draw new and healthier assumptions about who they are. This process enables clients to distract from focusing on the negative narratives which defined their past, redefining their lives into future positive stories. Narrative therapists define the problem as the problem instead of defining the client as the problem. The therapy process begins redefining the problem, externalizing it and getting it out in the open. The narrative therapist uses the questioning technique and creates alternative narratives to connect...
Words: 3218 - Pages: 13
...Family narrative Wes Moore, had a strong family presents that supported him in being successful in work and in personal life. “The single most important thing you can do for your family may be the simplest of all: develop a strong family narrative”(Feiler 2) The family narrative influences the child’s ability to be successful, the three narratives are ascending, descending, and oscillating. Ascending is the example of "Son, when we came to this country, we had nothing. Our family worked. We opened a store. Your grandfather went to high school. Your father went to college. And now you. ..." ( Feiler 3) Ascending is negative and the child is giving a common expectation of success. “ Second is the descending narrative: "Sweetheart, we used to...
Words: 1270 - Pages: 6
...Personal Theory Exploration Sarah Haeck Bowling Green State University Growing Awareness “Knowledge is power.” -Sir Francis Bacon Knowledge is indeed powerful. It allows one to see things in more comprehensive ways. Knowledge doesn’t let one settle. It molds and evolves within someone. Knowledge pushes one to betterment. It can come from outside sources but always is processed and implemented within. As a counselor, knowledge is vital to the wellness and development of the client. Knowing who we are, where we come from, what influences us, and what makes us who we are, these are just some of the questions that help us discover ourselves. I have spent a great deal of time and effort understanding who I am and what goes into that. As well as how the situations and people around me have made impressions on my life. Then beginning to dealing with the issues that have come up because of these things. At the end of the day, I believe a few things to be true: relationships mold our existence, our spiritual lives affect us, and a holistic view and self-awareness are keys to growth. As I have traced the steps of several theories, one sticks out as primary to who I am – Existential-Humanistic Theory. Taking the essence of this theory and combining it with aspects of Developmental Counseling Theory and Family Therapy, I hope to have a comprehensive fit to my personality as a budding counselor. Adaptable and Practical Being highly spiritual makes Existential-Humanistic...
Words: 2374 - Pages: 10
...they feel like it is too restrictive in nature. That is merely just a common misconception though, there are several different styles of essays and the two that are going to be discussed are descriptive and narrative essays. The narrative essay's main purpose is to tell a story using characters and a plot, where perhaps a problem is given, and the events that unfold eventually explain a solution to the problem or issue presented. In contrast the descriptive essay can be very powerful in the fact it is written using the five senses (visual, audible, taste, tactile sensations and smells) this allows the author to bring a scene or object to life in the mind of the reader. While narrative essays are almost like a movie that is played out in the judgment of the reader, the descriptive essay paints a vivid photograph or place the reader can experience and this is why descriptive essays are the superior of the two styles. One of the best qualities that narrative essays are able to offer over descriptive essays is they are structured to appeal to the simplest of mankind's urge to share a good story. There are various forms in which we can find a narrative writing example such as a poem, play, novel and the obvious essay. There are times when the purpose behind a narrative essay is to simply hold the reader, providing an escape from the everyday stresses of work, and then there are times when it is the author's intention to share a valuable lesson learned that might help others...
Words: 2121 - Pages: 9
...were my favorites. However, there were also some few topics that even though were interesting to read were my least favorite. The body of this essay is going to be talking about my three favorite as well as my three least topic, essays, forums and reading throughout the course. My first is Anti-Slavery and Slave Narratives in week seven forum, some of the challenges Linda Brent faced while she lived under Flint. While reading, “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” it actually made me feel very sad for this...
Words: 820 - Pages: 4
...Maus: A Survivor’s Tale, Art Spiegelman presents not only his father’s Holocaust narrative but also his own personal narrative, especially with regards to his relationship with Vladek. Readers learn that Artie and Vladek do not always get along, and there is a palpable tension between them. Vladek seems frugal and argumentative, while Artie appears self-centered and uncaring. In both cases, the characters’ faults are not glossed over. They are portrayed realistically, with positive and negative traits on full display. These portrayals accomplish two different goals for Spiegelman: one, they emphasize Artie’s interest in accuracy as opposed to sentimentality, and two, they allow the audience to discover Artie’s own personal trauma—namely,...
Words: 692 - Pages: 3
...with the humiliation of a blind beggar sitting in the dust. It ends with his sight restored as he follows Jesus on the way up to Jerusalem. In a unique way, this story concretizes the power of the faith of persons who are oppressed by physical or mental handicaps, patriarchal social structures, racial discrimination, and economic systems over which they have no control. It is an invitation to allow our own personal and communal humiliation to be seen in the context of Bartimaeus's faith in Jesus as the Christ. The Story And they came to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great multitude, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" And many rebuked him, telling him to shut up. But he cried out all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" And Jesus stopped and said, "Call him." And they called the blind man, saying to him, "Take heart; rise, he is calling you." And throwing off his mantle he sprang up and came to Jesus. And Jesus said to him, "What do you want me to do for you?" And the blind man said to him, "Master, let me receive my sight." And Jesus said to him, "Go your way; your faith has made you well." And immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way. Learning the Story Verbal Threads "Jericho." The first episode is tied together by Jericho: "He came to Jericho"/"as he was leaving...
Words: 6815 - Pages: 28
...Work/life balance is at best an elusive ideal and at worst a complete myth, today's senior executives will tell you. But by making deliberate choices about which opportunities they'll pursue and which they'll decline, rather than simply reacting to emergencies, leaders can and do engage meaningfully with work, family, and community. They've discovered through hard experience that prospering in the senior ranks is a matter of carefully combining work and home so as not to lose themselves, their loved ones, or their foothold on success. Those who do this most effectively involve their families in work decisions and activities. They also vigilantly manage their own human capital, endeavoring to give both work and home their due over a period of years, not weeks or days. That's how the 21st century business leaders in our research said they reconcile their professional and personal lives. In this article we draw on five years’ worth of interviews with almost 4,000 executives worldwide, conducted by students at Harvard Business School, and a survey of 82 executives in an HBS leadership course. Deliberate choices don't guarantee complete control. Life sometimes takes over, whether it's a parent's dementia or a teenager's car accident. But many of the executives we've studied men and women alike have sustained their momentum during such challenges while staying connected to their families. Their stories and advice reflect five main themes: defining...
Words: 680 - Pages: 3
