Laraia 1

Alyce Laraia

Professor Jizi

UWRT 1104

13 February 2017

Personal Essay: A Situation That Made Me Who I Am

When thinking of what to write for this assignment, it was hard to think of a life

changing event that made me who I am today. I havent had many life changing events in my

life, but one in particular stood out. Im not sure if it made me into who I am today, but I know it

had a huge impact on my life at the time. My mom is a mechanical engineer. Being a woman in

the engineering field, it is hard to find jobs. Also, we live in central Pennsylvania, which also

doesnt have many mechanical engineering job opportunities. Over the years, my mom has been

unemployed multiple times. First, she worked at a company called Abacus. I remember visiting

her work as a little girl; I was about 5 or 6. Someone gave us big pretzel sticks to eat and little

squishy apples with the Abacus logo on it. I always would use that apple when I would play

house with my sister. We had a kitchen where we would cook our family dinner. After Abacus,

my mom tried to start her own company but it didnt work out. I remember I liked that because

she was at home more. She briefly worked at a company called Triangle but I dont remember

anything significant about that. Then she was unemployed for a while and decided to try

substitute teaching. Next, she worked at a company called SAIC. She worked there the longest; I

think it was 8 years. The time my moms unemployment had the biggest impact on my life was a

few years ago, when I was in middle school and she was still working at SAIC.

The company had a job opportunity open, but it was in Virginia. It was in

Alexandria, which is located near Washington D.C. It was a government job and was considered
 Laraia 2

top secret. The company my mom worked at essentially gave her an ultimatum: take the

government job or be laid off. Of course my mom took the government job. We didnt know it at

the time, but she would be working in Virginia for two years. My mom stayed in Virginia during

the week, but drove home every weekend to see us. It was about a two-hour drive one way. It

was hard on all of us to not have my mom with us.

Every person in my family was impacted by my mom leaving. Usually, my mom

cooked dinner every night and cleaned the house, but now my dad had to take on that role. As I

mentioned earlier, I was in middle school when this happened. I believe I was in 6th and 7th grade

and my older sister was in 10th and 11th grade. My mom leaving left an emotional impact on the

both of us. My dad and mom were polar opposites; when she was kind and understanding, he

would yell and fight with us. My dad and I would constantly get into arguments over trivial

things. I am a stubborn person, so I would refuse to back down when we started to argue. There

were a lot of nights where we would get into fights and I would end up staying in my room for

hours. I started to become closed off and didnt really want to talk to anyone. My sister started to

become easily angered and would constantly pick fights with me or my dad. We both missed our

mom and dealt with it in separate ways.

When my mom finally came home, everything didnt immediately go back to

normal. In fact, it never got back to the way it was before she left. I believe I was luckier than my

sister because I had my mom with me throughout high school. She helped me deal with my

problems the way only a mom can. If I needed help with my homework, she was there. When I

started the college application, she was there. If I started to stress out about a test I had coming

up, she was there. My sister was about to start senior year when my mom came back and I think
 Laraia 3

that drastically affected their relationship. To this day, my mom and sister still get into arguments

all the time about the smallest stuff.

I didnt go back to the same person I was before my mom left, but I dont think

thats a bad thing. Although it was a hard time, I learned a few lessons along the way. A major

one that Im thankful to have is a go with the flow attitude. If plans change last minute it

doesnt affect me. Another important lesson I learned is not to stress out over little things. Life is

too short to worry about that one C I got in that one class in high school. I think a lot of the

lessons I learned were self-taught. Since I didnt have my mom there through hard times I had, I

had to tell myself not to worry or tell myself not to stress out. I know my mom blames herself for

any emotional stress she put on us, but I dont. She did what needed to be done for our family

and although it was hard, she stuck with it. My mom is one of the strongest women I know and

Im grateful for everything she does for me. Even though this was a difficult time for myself and

my family, I truly believe I came out stronger on the other side.