Leaving Home
On the surface it was just like any other hot August day in Nashville,
but for me it was a day with mercurial-like emotions ranging from the
high of the excitement about my son's departure, to a mid-level of
nostalgia and memories, and finally to a low of sadness and emptiness.
My first born, my son, having reached 18 years of age was leaving
home. He was going to college. This particular morning Todd was very
much on my mind as I arose early to help him get packed and ready to
go. I was not expecting this to be an overly emotional day, yet the
memories overwhelmed me.
I remembered the first day his mother and I dropped him off at
kindergarten and how we too felt strange and overly concerned and sad;
I remembered his Bar Mitzvah when he stood before his family, friends,
and community at the tender age of thirteen and recited with
perfection his portion of our Holy Scripture, thereby entering Jewish
adulthood. Then too, I noted a lump in my throat and a tug at my
heart.
I remembered the times we spent alone and the times we shared with the
rest of the family, and I was very proud of him. Todd was my quiet,
gentle, sensitive, skeptical, shy, and intelligent, computer wizard
son. He had survived his mother's departure from our lives when he was
ten years old, and despite his shyness and lack of athletic prowess,
survived the rigors of adolescence.
I knew it was time to go. The car was packed and Todd was ready. It
was I who lingered and who was procrastinating. I wanted to have one
more conversation with my son, one more attempt to tell him all he'd
ever need to know about life and the real world. I wanted to prepare
him for college life, and try and help him avoid mistakes I had made
at that time in my life.
But as I sat at the edge of my bed and he on the edge of his chair
I had stopped working after our daughter was born to be a full time stay at home mom, so it was just going to be me and her 24/7 for the next two weeks. For weeks leading up to his trip it was all I could think about and it kept me up at night. My husband had been in the Navy for almost 8 years at this point and had been on two Middle East deployments in our marriage so I was no stranger to being alone, but this time was different, this time I had another tiny human being that I loved more than anything in this world to keep
Then he woke up by the irritating sound of his alarm, he remembered everything he was thinking about last night and realized that he's come really far in the past two years. Montag rolled out of bed and went to put some bread in the toaster and sat on the couch next to Thomas.
There is no place like home is a well-known adage that the healthcare industry has recently embraced as it enters in the early years of the 21st century. According to the Joint Commission, the home is the best place for healthcare, and it has proven to benefit the patients in many ways, because the cost of care is lower, the patients are happier and the environment is friendlier (Dilwali, 2013). CMS defines home care as “prescribed services delivered in the patient’s home such as nursing care; physical, occupational and speech language therapy; and medical social services” (Dilwali, 2013, p. 269). Home care includes disease prevention, health promotion and illness related services (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2014). The goal of home care is to ensure that the client’s health improves while increasing the individual’s independence. This
When adversity stares people in the face, do they run away from it, or do they have the willpower to fight it head on? James Joyce, the author of Dubliners, at the young age of twenty-three, was able to take note of the struggles and hardships of the Irish people at a time when their once prosperous Dublin city was in retrograde. He took all the emotions and angers that his people had during this period in time, and summed it up into fifteen short stories. Throughout these stories Joyce places his characters into situations that leave them in constant states of dishevelment and agony. Some characters run away from and are left defeated by these situations and responsibilities, while other characters are depicted as being strong and confront and handle their crises. “The Boarding House” and “The Dead” are two stories in particular, where the characters find themselves longing to escape not only from Dublin society, but also from the obligations that they have in Dublin.
“I’m not concerned with your liking or disliking me… all I ask is that you respect me as a human being.” This is a very true statement that Jackie Robinson said. The first man to challenge the color barrier in Major League Baseball, Jackie Robinson’s upbringing led to him being one of the most well-known baseball players in history. Despite adversities, he fought for what was right.
According to Joan Didion's essay "On Going Home", continuing changes in life makes it almost impossible to remove memories of one's past. Especially when one has been away from a previous home, which that person was raised, then return to that same home a number of years later. In a home which family and friends shared memories of events, news, gossip and situations, whether it be bad or good. Old artifacts and various family heirlooms in the home that stimulates a memory of those old times when used. Surrounding areas of that old home are remembered just as well also. Being in a new home makes the old memories even more missed. These may be the strongest influences in why memories are kept and remembered.
When certain populations are targeted for imprisonment, the same impoverished communities serve as pools of prisoners waiting for their actual sentence. For example, certain neighborhoods on the south side of Chicago house some of the poorer people of Chicago, and often these areas are regarded as unsafe and have a problem with drug selling. The Returning Home project, led by Christy Visher in 2002, found that former prisoners from these types of communities were more likely to return to prison after serving their first sentence. Many of these poor communities are filled with racial minorities, reflected in the fact that 90 percent of all drug offenders in Illinois prisons were black in 1996, a number that hasn’t fallen much since (Street,
Seeking Refuge The writer of the article entitled "Seeking refuge from the rhetoric" begins the article by stating factual information that he personally watched along with hundreds of journalists and witnesses the first plane load of Kosovan refugees arrive at Leeds Bradford airport. He then goes on in the article to express his own personal opinion of the events that went on to take place some months later. To sway the reader to his way of thinking he then proceeds to quote information he has found from another source to describe the conditions that surround this subject, he then quotes another article as saying that a "fight at a fairground in Dover resulted in a stream of anti-refugee rhetoric" from politicians and journalists. The writer then starts to use negative language that initial makes the reader feel that he is anti-refugee. He then uses statements made by commentators on this subject such as "Floods of refugees are swamping us" and also that this country has been "taken for a ride".
“They grow up so fast,” such a cliche expression but yet with so much meaning behind it.Unless, one has seen a person from birth to adulthood, one may never understand what this truly means. Linda Pastan does an incredibly good job to portray what this quote means with her poem “To a Daughter Leaving Home” published in 1988. It is a short poem about a parent training their daughter to ride a bicycle in a park. Although, the whole idea seems so straightforward, it is actually an extended metaphor about life. The actual motive of the poem is to reveal the pride and heartache of a parent watching their daughter gain the first step of independence. The author does not convey the identity of the parent, but most agree that it is from a mother’s
A home, many people spent their whole life in search of his or her home. It has many different definitions to different people. To some people it may be their home country, to some it may be where they were born, to some it may be where their family is. home's most basic trait is its ability to provide shelter from weather. Rain or snow, a house will always be there to shield the elements from the family. In the cold times of the year, the heater will be there to warm the house. The heat of the summer is no problem for a good home. The ideal dwelling definitely must have a dependable central air conditioner. When located in an area abundant with tornadoes and hurricanes, a home must have a safe place. A storm shelter or a basement is an excellent place to hide. But to most people home has more meaning than just dwelling it should be a place where their family is, where they could have family times together.
Everyone that have ever lived to adulthood, understand that difficulty of the transition to it from childhood. As of right now, I am in the prime of the “coming of age “transition. The overwhelming pressure of our society that forces the adolescence to assimilate the social norms is felt by many. Just as in our first steps, our first words or anything that is expected in our human milestones, coming of age is one of them. It may variety from different societies, religious responsibility or modern legal convention; everyone had to reach this point eventually.
Blake took a deep breath and slinged the last blanket on top with minimal assistance, and climbed into the fort. He was more intent in me having a pleasant time at his place than he was about being fatigued from his medications. He wanted a friend, he wanted to play, and he was upbeat even though at times it was a struggle. With his eagerness to be active when he was having an unfavorable day, his optimism for life showed through.
I scarcely snoozed at all, the day before; incidentally, I felt insecure regarding the fact of what the unfamiliar tomorrow may bring and that was rather unnerving. After awakening from a practically restless slumber, I had a hefty breakfast expecting that by the conclusion of the day, all I wanted to do is go back home and sleep. Finally, after it was over, my dad gladly drove me to school; there, stood the place where I would spend my next four years of my life.
I never thought this day would come. I mean, I did know it was coming, but I just never thought it would be this soon. Since birth, Lina has been my older sister, my companion, my confidant, and moreover, my best friend. As years passed, I acknowledged that we were getting older, and that the date of her departure was getting closer, yet, I did not want to believe it. Since last year, she had been in the exhausting process of applying to universities, and by the end of May, the University of New Orleans (UNO) granted her with a generous scholarship. With a smile full of pride and amazement, she accepted the scholarship and reserved her space in the Psychology field in the UNO. Overshadowed by the great news of her scholarship, we failed to foretell the gloomy days that were close to arrive.
After a quick breakfast, I pulled some of my gear together and headed out. The car ride of two hours seemed only a few moments as I struggled to reinstate order in my chaotic consciousness and focus my mind on the day before me. My thoughts drifted to the indistinct shadows of my memory.