Alma

Chloe St.Onge
Language Arts per # 5
December 17th, 2010
Essay

Great Grandma Alma

My great grandma Alma was purely inspirational. No words could ever come close to describing how strong and independent she was as a woman. She went through things that no one in this time period could ever imagine; simply treacherous things. But, she never once complained about her life and the conditions she had to live in, because she was such a strong and grateful individual.
About four years ago my great grandma made a huge move from New York to Washington State, and that’s when I got to know her on a more personal level. Not once would I leave her house without hearing an earful of stories from her time period. My great grandma blessed me with the stories of her past, whether it had great meaning or not. 
My great grandma lived through the Great Depression throughout the 1920’s. As a young newly-wed, her husband left her to go serve his country in World War II, leaving her to fend for herself and three children. She got by, by sewing clothes and making food and money stretch as far as possible. Living on only a soldier’s wage, she had an abundance of hardships. Yet, she always seemed to make the most of what she had. The stories that she told even in her last days were about how blessed she was and never about hardship.
You could say my great grandma was old-fashioned. She was excellent at sewing, crocheting, knitting, tatting, and embroidery. These might seem like out-of-date talents now, but in her day she used them to make the most of what she had and take care of her family. 
Alma really opened my eyes to how fortunate I am to have so many luxuries compared to the day and age when she was raising her children. Present day, the world is very materialistic and commercial. In her day, it was about providing for your family no matter what it took. Those values might be rare today, but my great grandma’s influence on me always reminds me to cherish what I have, and the potential I have to give.

Strongly Bonded

I first met my cousin D.J. when I was three years old. I mean we had seen each other before but we were both babies. So that really didn’t matter. Not until we were both three years old, we had our first real meeting. We had a sleep over at my house. We have been air tight since then, for the most part getting a long too. He’s about three months older than me but he is a grade higher. He is by far my closest relative and that’s not including my little brother.

Since he has always been a grade higher than me he has always gotten to experience things first. So he has always been able to give me great advice on the stuff he has gone through, and also I know its current stuff. That has always helped me succeed because I have known what to expect. It’s always made me look better in our family since have tended to do better in school and stuff. Even though I got to learn from some of his mistakes, he experiencing stuff first in some things made it easier.

The most memorable event between me and D.J. was when I was in 8^th grade and he was a freshman. He came up to me one day and said,

“Aye bro I got something to tell you…” I replied,

“What is it?” he responded,

“I stole from my next door neighbors.” I didn’t know what to say after that. I tried to tell him to hide it and not tell his parents. So of course he did that. So one day when he was in the shower, his mom was looking for him. When she went in his room to talk to him, she figured out that he wasn’t in his room. So she decided to look around. Well she found a fancy pair of headphones that she didn’t know he had and she remembered how the next door neighbor’s mom was talking about her sons missing headphones. When he got out the shower she questioned him tough, knowing that there was a good chance the headphones were stolen. After a while he just gave and admitted.

D.J. was in so much trouble after this. He was grounded for the whole summer. That mishap made me realize that you should always confess and tell the truth. Also it made me realize how bad stealing is. So those series of unfortunate events helped me learn a bit about life. That is why he was a person in my life that impacted me a lot.