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Delaney Stouder

Dr. Bonnie Whitener

English 102-020

January 22, 2020

Oh, the places you’ll go

Throughout high school, I was always asked: What do you want to be when you grow

up? Where do you want to go to college? I changed my mind several times throughout my high

school career of what I wanted to be, partially because almost everything that I brought up to

someone would be knocked down by them saying, “There’s no way you can live off of that. You

have to have a real job.” Starting off I really wanted to do photography, however after being

discouraged by a number of different people I really stepped back and thought about it. As much

as I wanted to do photography and how much I loved it, I realized that maybe I should start

looking for something else.

One thing that I have always had a passion doing is helping people. I started looking at

psychology and helping people. My number one inspiration for this was my nieces. Around my

8th grade year, I had come home from a beta club trip and was struck with the news. As I stepped

off the bus, my dad was there in the shiny black Buick that was quite a new addition to the

family. As he rushed me into the car, I could tell something had happened, but I wasn’t so sure of

what It could have been. I rush into the car. “Well, while you were gone stuff has hit the fan.”

My immediate responds were “what happened? Is everyone okay?”.

My dad goes on to explain that my 1 and 2 year old nieces would be staying with us for a

little while because my mother had went over to my brothers apartment to see the kids while he

was at work and Melanie, my brothers girlfriend, was at home watching the children. She walked
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in to find her passed out on the couch, from taking some pills, and my nieces, eating the shrink-

wrapped cheese behind a curtain in their bedroom. The fridge was left wide open and the poor

children of course did not know what to do, all they knew was that they were hungry, and their

mother would not wake up to feed them. After hearing this, I was immediately taken back. Why

in the world would a mother not watch their children or even pick to do drugs rather than making

sure that her children were well fed and okay. When we got home my parents sat me down,

explaining that things are not going to be the same. As a family, we are all going to have to

sacrifice things, in order to make this living arrangement work with the two newest additions,

whether they were staying for a short time or a long time. Days with my nieces living with us

turned into months that turned into years. Still to this day, they live with us. Although, I had to

give up free time and somethings that normal high school girls got to do, I would never wish for

them to be in a bad living situation or with someone who is not in my family.

Through these things, my nieces began to see a psychiatrist, and this was the moment

that I knew this is what I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to be able to allow people to come

to me during some of their hardest times and allow me to try everything in my power to make

them feel as though everything will be alright.

My Writing Narrative:

Throughout my years taking English classes, I have always loved writing. I feel as though

it was a time to gather my thoughts a put my feelings in to words that could be heard and

understood in a way that maybe I could not necessarily express. I am generally good with the

flow once I get going in my writing, however one thing that I struggle with is structure and

organization. My high school teacher always told me to make an outline and for some reason I
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never found outlines easy either. I like to be able to write the way I want to and do not typically

like writing using an outline, not to mention the fact that even if I made one more often, I would

find myself shying away from the topics in the outline. This semester I would like to find a way

to organize my writing in a way that works for me. I would also like to outside of this class, be

better at talking in front of a large crowd and feeling comfortable with sharing my opinions. I

would also like to not be afraid or care as much about what others thing and feel about me. As a

teacher, the best way to support me would be to generally just give me the comfort and

reassurance that I need to know that I have the potential and that I need to just calm down every

once in a while and focus on the tasks at hand.