My journey seems, at least from my point of view, to be something of an amalgamation of family history and adolescent resistance amounting to conformity. The world I knew as a child exists only in my memories. While drawing from my life experiences, I made the active choice to change the path I have taken. I am taking positive knowledge from this life to better provide for the family I have now. Highlighting a few points from my childhood that have made me the man I am today is the fact that I come from a lower middle class family. This plays a major role in how I process information. I grew up with a father who was distant at best, working long hours day after day in a cannery, a mother who suffered from multiple health problems, including diabetes, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, and an older sister who in my youth I idolized him. These factors provide the foundation for the future to come. My parents had a very unhealthy relationship and had separated at one point and my mother continually threatened to leave my father over the years. (TCO 3 & 5)From 5 to 11 years old, I was raised by my grandparents. They were a couple who worked hard during the Depression and maintained that mentality throughout their lives. They were loving, but harsh in the way they raised me. In this way, they taught me respect, moral ethics, the value of hard work and achievement, the value of education, as well as rituals and tradition. (TCOXXX)I had a passion for the arts and animals. My grandparents supported a love of animals because it also reflected their affinity for them; however, they regularly told me to practice my art as a hobby, because as they p...... middle of paper ...... where your life goes. I am a stronger person, although protective and distant, which are undeniable masculine characteristics within the household due to my life experiences. (TCO 5, 6, 7 and 8) In short, I am establishing the breaking of a dysfunctional cycle for the men in my family. I have been part of the homeless, working poor and middle class, as such I do not accept class distinction. No, I dispute it. I am a loving and supportive father and son. I overcame my own handicaps to achieve moderate success and continue to progress. I have traveled the entire spectrum of social mobility up and down the ladder. In conclusion, I am a more balanced, critically-thinking person who doesn't do my best to support family ties and instill healthy traditions by highlighting my own life as an example for those who follow. (CTP 3 & 5)