Christian Gonzalez
Personal Narrative Essay
Professor Hunt
English 101
31 March 2014
Appreciating Life In today’s world there is a great amount of people who are living a life of poverty. Which causes hunger or sickness to many of their lives. These people generally do not have a home, job, or even a family. From my personal life experience I have noticed that it is common for those who grew up with nothing to appreciate everything they have. The writer Johnathan once stated “Regardless of where we are, or what we may be doing, there is always something in our life worth appreciating” (Jonathan). The life people have to endure influences how people value the things that they possess, reveling those special things that bring happiness to one’s life. For example, those who have the blessing of being able to grow up with a family, friends, and an education in various occasions take for granted what they have. It took me joining the Army and being stripped of all this to teach me to appreciate what I had prior to enlisting. Growing up I was not a child who had everything in the world, but my parents provided me with what I needed to survive and live. It was just my brother and I, so we shared everything that was given to us. At that point in my life my parents were not making as much money as they do now, so my brother and I just had the basics. This gave us the ability to bond and grow closer as brothers. We shared a bed, clothes, toys, and the room we lived in. Our room was small, crowded, and old; almost as if a homeless person had been living in it, but it was what we had, so we dealt with it. As I continued to grow I liked to think of myself as a normal child. I enjoyed playing games, sports, and outdoor activities with all my friends. I faced many situations in which I witnessed most of my friends always having new toys and being spoiled. This caused me to feel many ways such as, envious, mad, and sad. I knew if I would throw a fit, I would be grounded and caused to do more chores. It was crucial for me to have self-control so I would not have to endure punishment. I put up with it and knew I would just have to save my requests for birthdays and Christmas. My parents providing just what we needed was a blessing in disguise, which later in life would teach me to greatly appreciate everything that I had. Going into high school was a life changing experience. The picture of crowded hallways, and students rushing back and forth to class is what comes to mind. Through the years I spent there I went through many phases. My freshman year was spent moving from school to school and starting all over again. It was difficult to remain focused, because of the constant changes I had to put up with. It felt like once I finally became situated I was forced to start all over again. It was almost like as soon as I was finished unpacking, I would have to repack all my belongings and move to a foreign place. All of the moving made it difficult to make actual friends and build relationships, so I spent my time not caring about school. Instead of participating in my designated classes, I would spend my time skipping class and focused on the skipping parties. Deciding to skip class and not remain focused caused my grades to drop a great amount, but I still managed to complete my first year of high school. My sophomore year came and I finally was able to permanently stay at a school. “Finally”, I said this was a sign of relief. The thought of getting settled in and not moving back and forth was awesome, but I still remained on the path that I started. It caused me not to attend school for my own interest, but just because I was forced to be there. It almost felt as if I were a slave to this place, causing me to want to rebel. Already struggling to care about school I spent my junior and senior year attempting to catch up. It consisted of getting into a program that the school offered to recover credit for classes. With so much