I was born July 18, 1999 to my parents Joel and Kathy at Forrest General Hospital in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. I was a month early, but I was such a large baby that the doctor said “if he came on time he would have driven us home”. My mom was thrilled to have her first and only child; she named me Dylan, after the son of Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee. My name was strongly debated by my Irish Catholic Great Grandmother, who insisted I be named after a saint. After a failed attempt by Father Tommy Conway to convince her of the great Saint Dylan, my mother agreed to give me the middle name Thomas. There is possibly one thing my mother loves as much as me, Southern Miss football, and from an early age she passed it down to me. At less than two …show more content…
We would go and do all kinds of things together and those days account for some of my earliest memories. As her first grandchild, we developed a great relationship that we still have today. When the time finally came for me to go to school, it was tough for my Nana to not have me at home every day, but for my parents they couldn’t be more proud of their little boy. My first years of school were great. I was fortunate to have my mother as my kindergarten teacher, but when first grade came so did my first life changing experience. On August 23, 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck the Mississippi Gulf Coast. That day I woke up, the skies a haunting grey, as the storm moved inland reports of flooding, strong winds, and even tornados came over the television, as my family prepared for the storm’s impact. Sadly, Hattiesburg got the worst Katrina had to offer. The eye of the storm moved directly over us, and when the eye wall struck is when my entire family wondered if it would be our final day on this Earth. At this point, the power had gone out and we sat in an eerie darkness, only equal to that of a war zone. The only sound we could hear was whipping of the wind and pounding of the …show more content…
I came home one day to see both of my parents sad. As a third grader, I didn’t completely understand at the time, but my father had been laid off from the job he’d had since his teenage years. My father had started at the age of eighteen as a student worker at Southern Miss, and after years of hard work he had been promoted to the manager of shipping and receiving on campus. When the recession struck, the need to save money resulted in his position being terminated. My father was without a job. My father loved that job and when he lost it, he changed. He found a new love, alcohol. He let his love for alcohol become an addiction. He would do anything for alcohol; he even had secret stashes when my mom had removed all the prior alcohol from the house. Quickly my father became a violent drunk and began to routinely beat my mother and me. He became unstoppable; no person could get him back on track so my mother, in an attempt to keep me safe, removed him from the house. Even my mother’s best efforts weren’t always enough, as my father constantly broke into our house. One day my mother and I came home and my father was waiting in our den with a gun. We walked in, he pointed the gun at us, and then back at himself. He couldn’t decide to kill my mother, himself, or just all of us. He had more hatred in his eyes
The emotional abuse that I have suffered through cannot be consigned into words. I believe the worst part of it all was never being enough for my father; I was never a good enough reason for my father to quit drinking. The abundant of support that we gave him wasn’t enough for him. All that agony has made me into the persistent and self-reliant man that I am today. From my dad’s experiences, it made me realize that he’s the type of person I don’t want to be. His disease made me able to find the many benefits of being raised by an alcoholic
Imagine just coming back from evacuation to your house looking great on the outside but when you walk in it is a horror. When hurricane Katrina was on her way here, my family and I evacuated to Chattanooga, Tennessee, which only took about a good eight hours, but with traffic it took about twelve. Once we were cleared to go home we came back, which thankfully only took about ten hours. I will be writing about how after Katrina my family and I had to stay in one house for about a week and a half.
Over a recent long weekend, I went to New Orleans, Louisiana with my best friend Sylvie. It was amazing to see what a different place New Orleans was, then the peaceful calm, Boulder Co. Day 1 In New Orleans we went to Cafe Du Monde, one of the most famous places to go while in New Orleans. On that day, I ate 6 beignets. After that we went back to where we were staying, an original part of the French Quarter, almost 300 years old. In the back of the house, we saw the slave quarters, an untouched piece of history.
At five years old, I remember the catastrophic event that Louisianans know as Hurricane Katrina. Since I was so young at the time, it was important to get a perspective from my mom who had a better understanding of what was going on. As we talked, it opened my eyes to the struggles my family faced during that pause in time. Before the hurricane hit, my mom decided that it would be best for my siblings and me to stay in town with our great-grandmother who was because of her age. My aunt who had just graduated high school stayed with us as well. As the storm progressed, my mom witnessed trees fall from heavy winds and an electrical box spark fire. She mentioned the fear of not knowing what to expect was prevalent throughout the days of Katrina.
When so many people were trying to escape from New Orleans, escape this place that tore their lives apart; I was doing all I could to get in; to get into this place that I believed could put all the pieces together for me.
It was the time my sister and I first got forced on the boat and away from our family in Africa. Three white men put chains around our legs and arms mostly dragging us across the dry sand, leaving cuts on our bare feet and ankles. The ship ride was a long 5 months from Cape Town, Africa to New Orleans, Louisiana.
It was November of 55’, me and Lee were headed to the gas station while bumping some Elvis. Now November in New Orleans is hurricane season, so our mothers were on full alert. We pulled into the gas station, Lee’s uncle worked there, so we normally just got our stuff for free. I loaded up on Mars bars, and Lee just talked to his uncle. See me and Lee were off to go shooting, Lee was the sharpest shooter one could ever meet. Down in the old mountain side we would park and set up shop. Having recently rained, the path there was awfully muddy so we decided just to grab our stuff and walk. On our way up to our spot we ran into our good friend Rafael while he was jogging. Rafael had never gone shooting, so we invited him along. Rafael turned out to be not much of a shooter, he said, “I’ll just stick with Lee for my safety”. We left, gave Rafael a ride home, and called it a day.
On August 29,2005, Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. My home in Ocean Springs, MS. was flooded. This life changing event taught me humility, endurance, strength and the power of God’s love first hand.
A. Our trip to New Orleans was a long trip. First when we woke up we packed our suit cases, which were in theliving room, into the car. Then we made sure that he hadeverything then we left. We stopped at a gas station and we got sodas for the road. Later, some of us had to go tothe bathroom so we took a little stop and we took pictures at a giant chicken statue. When it was getting dark we went to Mc Donalds for dinner and then it started raining cats and dogs. In the car we watched a movie the pass the time and we saw that we were passing the Mississipi River then we knew we we in New Orleans. B. A living room consists of many things. When you first walk in and you look to your left, you will see a couch (or sofa) and if you look to your
One day,I was waiting on my owner .Finally,Baylee came home and let me out.I started playing and all of a sudden a storm flooded.At that second,I was swept away by the flood water.I climed onto a near by roof.Then,I heard a walkie talkie and I looked around and I saw a lady.The lady was coming to get me.She said “hi’’ and read my tag “Bay Bay come with me.’’so I went with her and she said’’once we get to the docs you can eat and then we can find your owner!’’I barked loudly, she laughed. as we arrived I saw millions of people. I never knew that many people lived in New Orleans I thought . I heard people saying’’that I was glad to surived hurricane katrina!’’Then I reconized a face it was my owners face I heard her yelling “Bay Bay’’Bay
So, we continued basking at relocating and being favored with such inspired blessings. It all seemed heavenly at first. But then, our worse fears would once more become reality. We soon learned that relocating alone, even with all of its accolades, would prove unable to defeat my disorder and our victory celebration, would once again be short lived. Even though I understood the role that vigilance played in the battle, I never anticipated that a brief failure to recall and respect such an incubus addiction, would prove to be so ruinous. It turned out, the exact tragedies it brought into my life in New Orleans, would ascend to my new home's front door steps, in Atlanta.
It was the afternoon of my 7th birthday when it happened. We were out at our favorite park in Brooklyn, the weather was nice, and everything seemed fine, except for one thing; my father wasn’t sober. It was the first time my father had ever brought a bottle with him on one of our birthdays. I never found out what caused him to find the need to take a swig, but ever since breakfast that morning, the smell of alcohol had gotten stronger on his breath. My mother complained about it, and one thing led to another and he slapped her in the face. But instead of yelling or crying, my mother turned to Maggie and me, said she was sorry one final time, and jumped off the beautiful park bridge, falling into the rock filled river below. In that moment, I realized at once why she had kept apologizing to us; she knew that if she was ever going to escape my father’s torture, she was going to have to leave
My grandfather is this bishop of his own church so I was raised in the church. Even though my personality is not on the shy side at all, whenever it came to worship, I always had this shyness about it, until my Pre-K graduation. At my Pre-K graduation we performed a dance to the song “The Storm Is Over Now” by Kirk Franklin and since I was the valedictorian, I danced the lead. Most of the pieces performed at my graduation were liturgical pieces. Liturgical dance is a type of dance incorporated with worship. That’s when my family saw the worship side of me that they’ve been waiting on but they wouldn’t see that side of me for a while. I then moved onto elementary school and participated in the dance program at the school, but it felt like something
I began life on October 6, 2000 in Mercy Medical Center in a city located in Northern Iowa, that city is called Mason City. From what I have been told I had three name options, Thomas, Henry, or Marcos. I don’t know that my parents were thinking with the first two options but I am glad they picked the last one. My father said ,“I picked you up and looked you in the eyes and said that you look like a Marcos Miguel Cervantes.”
My father's abusive and alcoholic lifestyle was not what I think a normal dad's should be. My father drank at least a case of beer a day. By the time he turned forty-five the combination of stress and his lifestyle caught up with him. He suffered a heart attack, but surviving this heart attack only caused more abuse. Depression set in and for the next year and a half, he became meaner and more physically abusive than ever. I was not allowed to speak with my mouth full at the dinner table. If I did my father would slap me. After his heart attack, he would find reasons to make me talk. My father would wait until I took a bite of food, and then he would ask me a question. If I answered him, I spoke with my mouth full, so I got slapped. If I didn't answer him, I didn't "Speak when spoken to," so I got slapped either way. All day and night I would sit in my room just to avoid crossing him in the house. If I was unlucky enough to pass him, any conversation we had turned into a two-hour Nazi lecture followed by a street fight in my living room. His lectures consisted of him screaming two inches from my face, and bringing up things that happened years earlier. I can't