Personal Narrative: Newark Tech Vocational School

In Gary Soto’s autobiographical piece “Black Hair,” he portrays a feeling of alienation. He describes a feeling of disconnection towards both his Hispanic coworkers, due to his language barrier, and feeling apart from the middle class family due he rented a room with, due to socio-economic status. Like Soto, I had a period in my life where I felt alienated from the environment I was in. My particular experience with this feeling of isolation took place in middle school, involving a group of girls that I had been friends with since Kindergarten. I had been glued to the hip with these girls since we were still wearing diapers, tapping away in our tap shoes at our dance classes together.

When I was 10 years old I moved to Chile that is very far away from the United States. It was hard to maintain contact with my friends from California. I would talk on the phone with them everyday but as the days passed by our phone calls shortened and started to be once a week,then once a month to never again. I tried to rebuild our friendship but it just wasn 't the same. As much as I tried to make it work the distance was just too much for both me and my friends.

The following year I did not even try to be on the homecoming list. My self-confidence was shot down. Everything seemed to be going wrong as I entered my sophomore year of high school. I was even in a P.E. class with the disabled students. I was partnered with a girl named Caroline, who, due to a severe case of autism, was wheelchair bound for the rest

I barely got through geometry, and I thought that I wasn't going to survive. I failed tests and retook them for a better grade, I pushed myself and told myself to keep going no matter what. At the end of the year when finals came around I was still struggling. My teacher told me that I might have to stay another year. I was freaking out and didn’t know what to do.

Throughout elementary school I kept a small group of friends and I never made any new friends with the exception of one kid, Matthew Peterson. There was a lot of kids throughout my grade school career that would come and live in St. Louis for a year or two and then go to live somewhere else. Most of these kids had parents that worked for Companies that would constantly transfer them to work somewhere else so their kids wouldn 't stick around very long. I was never friends with any these kids, until when i was in fourth grade when I met Matthew. He moved to St. Louis from Arizona and was a nice, kind, and very funny kid that was always had a big crooked smile that ran across his face and through his bright red cheeks.

I felt a bit nervous, and definitely scared. Mostly because I wondered what people thought of me as, because I’m not like other freshman. And, It was actually better than I expected. The classmates were friendly, they weren’t rude, and they welcomed me with open arms. So I guess I learned a lesson that year, other than just acceptance.

I started training at North Carolina Martial Arts College (NCMAC) in 2009 as a white belt. NCMAC is a karate school that teaches the Korean art of Tang Soo Do. As I trained in the art, I was promoted to the rank of 1st Dan, black belt, in 2012. After my promotion, I began to volunteer as an instructor at NCMAC. As an instructor, most of my time in class was teaching, the majority of my learning and practicing happened outside of or between classes.

The book by Jeannette Walls, The Glass Castle, tells about the hardships that Jeannette went through for the first part of her life. Jeannette’s father was unable to hold a steady job and this forced her family to move very often. Jeannette lived in many places and was often homeless as a child. While moving to those places, most specifically in West Virginia, Jeannette faced the problem of trying to make new friends while also being bullied. She also had the struggle of not knowing where her life would take her next or if they would stay in one place forever.

was born in Dayton Ohio on March 14th in 2003. I have 1 older brother (Wesley VanZant) and he is 15. My favorite football teams are the Denver Broncos and the Ohio State Buckeyes. My whole family loves to play and watch sports. My brother gets crazy when his favorite teams are playing and make a touchdown.

I moved once before, and that was hard because I had so many friends, I was little then so I didn’t have a phone and neither did they so I haven’t talked to them since sixth grade. It was good when I moved to Maricopa because it allowed me to start over, not be the chubby kid I was in elementary. Instead I was the new kid, mysterious, cool. I started a new book out of the one already in progress, same character, but a new story.

Most guys in the class just feel you are a girl and not to intelligent student that has something intellectual to contribute. Despite all this challenges, I still graduated top 20 in the

High school was an extreme thrill from the first day of my freshman year. As I stepped off the school bus and entered the building, I knew that Brewbaker Technology Magnet High School would be my home for the next four years. BrewTech was ranked the number five school in the state, so I knew I was among the elite and had big shoes to fill. As I began to stroll the halls to locate my class, I was greeted by smiling faces of students and teachers a like. With minor bumps in the road, I completed my freshman year in high school acquiring friends that I still have today.

Moving to California meant more than losing friends. Moving to California meant losing the guy I loved, Kevin Williams. My mom had forced me to move to a new junior high school and I was completely outraged over it. I just could not stand the thought of never seeing Kevin again.

I had to leave my friends, my family, my house, even clothes and how my life was up to that point. All my friends said we’d always keep in touch and that nothing would change. That didn’t happen. Over time you lose touch and people basically just aren’t the same long distance. .Everything is so distinct from here.

However, I did my absolute best. I submitted all assignments, participated in class discussions and received