My Life Story Tammy Johnson PSY 202 Katherine Barnett What was your family like? The baby of eleven children. One parent family, father past away when I was 7 years old. Becoming a teenage mother at age 17. What are some of your favorite memories? Being spoiled by everybody My mom trying to spend so much time with me. Raising my baby girl.
Do you have your own family now? I am married to my husband of 18 years I have a 22 year old daughter that lives on her own in the city. I have a 18 year old son that will soon be leaving home for college. I never thought that I would have this opportunity in my life again.I did not have a chance to go to college right after high school because I had a baby while in school, even though it has been stated “There is a wide range of interesting fulfilling, and profitable career options and that alternative education is important to open the doors to these possibilities”(Young, 2008, pg# ) .
I will be writing this paper about my life story and some of the events that has taken place in it. My family was the plain American family up until eleven days before 8th birthday that is when my family got turned upside down and became a single parent household.My father pasted away after having his 4th heart attack at the age of 48. I was the youngest of eleven children and I was also my daddy’s baby girl, so it was really hard for me to understand a lot of things that were happening but I did know that my daddy was gone to heaven to be with god. There were times when it would be hard for my mom to raise all of us with no father figure in the house, but I think she still did a great job of being mother and father. I was last one at home and the one that greatly disappointed her, when I got pregnant at age 17.
That is when my whole world just went crazy because I had to quit school and get my GED, because there was no one else there to keep my baby while I went to school. There were a lot of fun memories for me as I grew up, because I think my mother and my sisters tried to take the place of my father with spoiling me rotten. There was never a time that I wanted anything that some one in my family did not go out and get for me. Then there were days when my mom would get off work early to come home and just spend some time with me while everyone else was at work or where ever they would be.
Then there were times when she would come home pick me and my baby up and take us to the park or some where to have fun just so that she could make sure that I was being taught to be a great mom to my baby like she was to me and “According to Bandura, “learning may also occur as a result of watching someone else perform some action” (citied in Boyd & Bee, 2006, pg 31). Also she wanted me to understand that even though I disappointed her by getting pregnant at an early she still never stop loving me.I had a lot of responsibilities to take on and learn but after all that I had watched my mom do for me it was not that hard for me to do. My educational experiences were not very fun for me, but I am glad that I have made it as far that I have.
When I first started school at age 5 I hated it because I thought that I was only suppose to go to school on the days when my mom did not have anything to do, if I thought she was going to the grocery store or some where else I thought I should stay home to go to.After I got past that little stage school was actually really fun for me and to me because I had a lot of friends and I liked school. My senior year in high school is when I had to drop out and get my GED after I became pregnant, but I went straight into the classes and I got my diploma when every one else in my normal high school class did. After working in the educational field for approximately the past 6 years I finally decided that I want to try going back to school and getting my Bachelors degree in education at which time I started taking classes through Kaplan University.When I first started to take classes I don’t think it was actually sinking in that I was really in college because now that I look back at it I don’t think I took it serious enough, but now I am ready for college and I am really eager in learning. I have made up in my mind that this is something that I really want to do so I have buckled down and every chance that I get I am reading a book or looking up something online that will help me further my education.
I became a wife at the age of 20 and my daughter was 2 years old at the time and a few months later my husband and I became parents again of a little boy. My husband and I had been together for almost 4 years before we got married. One month after my son was born my husband was sent to Desert Shield Desert Storm (1991) which was also 5 months after we had gotten married. That was another one of the hard times that I went through in life with new baby and my husband being sent to war not know if he would make it back home to us.
Now everyday I thank god that he has blessed us with 18 years 11 months and 22 days of marriage and he was safe and sound made it back home to us. Our family has now grown to be a happy normal family with my husband, my self we have a 22 year old daughter that is living on here own in the city. Then we have my baby my 18 year old son who is in his first year of college and just eager to go off and see the world.I am happy now that I decided to go back to school and get my degree, and so are my kids and my husband, matter of fact me decision had such an impact on my husband that he also has started to take classes himself to get his degree in Criminal Justice. I also have gotten so many more opportunities that I probably would have never gotten before as far as working with special needs kids at the schools and in the community because everyone seem to like the way I know how to handle them.
Most of all I am proud of myself for taking the first steps toward getting my degree and doing something positive for my family and myself, now I just look forward to finishing school and having my degree and finding a good job and being a positive point in kids lives. Lori T Young. (2008, April). But If I Do not Want to Go to College: A Guide to Success through Alternative Education. Review of medium_being_reviewed title_of_work_reviewed_in_italics.
Career Planning and Adult Development Journal, 24(1), 37-39, 12. Retrieved May 18, 2009, from Entrepreneurship database. (Document ID: 1517881871).
