Personal Narrative Outline:
Place: My old house in Bay Colony , family room
What place are you writing about? Why? Write a paragraph describing what the place looks like—the physical description.
I am writing about the house that my family moved into right before my parents got divorced. I am writing about this because it was a very hard time for me and my strongest memories are from this time period. Our house was one story in the shape of a U with the back yard in the middle. The house was painted a light brown color with a lot of greenery. In the family room is where my siblings and I were told that my parents are getting a divorce and that room would be the center of the narrative. The room had a very open concept with dark wood floors. You walk down two granite tile steps into a large room with one big couch. The couch and coffee table sat on top of a dark light brown rug, facing our huge TV. Behind the couch was a built in unit with a bunch of shelves that held books, phot albums, pictures etc. This room also had French doors so you could see directly out to the intercostal and our backyard.
Outline at least THREE times you’ve been in this place and what happened.
Who was there? What are their descriptions?
What was said?
What was done?
What did you see? Hear? Think? Feel?
How old were you?
1. December 18, 2014 was the first day of our winter break my sophomore year of high school, making me 16. I walked home knowing that my parents had to talk to us after school. This was the first time that we had a super important meeting in the family room. My siblings, parents, and our dog were all sitting in the room and they explained to us why they were getting divorced.
2. The next time was in April of that school year when we found out that my mom picked up and left our house. However, this time it was just my dad, us 4 kids, and the dog. My mom was already gone. We spoke about what happened, why this happened, and what’s going to happen from now. Because the real divorce was setting in
3. One of the last times that we sat on this couch was June of 2014. this was the day that we were moving out of the house. My dad finally was able to sell the house and find another place for us to rent. It was time to us to say goodbye to everything. We weren’t bringing anything with us that has been with us for the past 15 year. Especially that couch who has been though everything with us. Once again this conversation was also only between my dad, us kids, and our dog.
- My feelings were the same during all of these situations: anger frustration, confusion , and sadness
- Everyone in my family looks similar: dark brown eyes, dark hair (except Rocco is dirty blonde) , and olive/tan skin
Draft One (500 Words):
Divorce, a word that no one likes saying out loud. Many people shudder when they hear this word being used because it always comes with a negative connotation. Unfortunately, I am one of the millions of teenagers whose parent have gotten divorced. These days’ divorce is normally inevitable and the percentage of families who get divorces are sky rocketing in America. It is almost becoming the norm in todays society. Divorce is defined on google as “the legal dissolution of a marriage by a court or other competent body.” However, to me it is when parents decide to stop loving each other and drag their whole family through hell until they both get exactly what they want or one person gives up. This process began in my family starting in 2014.
All of my life I knew that my parents didn’t have a normal relationship. They never went on dates, or told each other they loved one another out loud. However, I didn’t think that much into it until we moved to Fort Lauderdale when I was in the 9th grade, which was in 2013. During this time both of my parents were under a lot of stress and their fights started to become more visible. It became much harder for my siblings and I to focus on our school work and we never spent much time as a family together anymore. I knew something was going on and that my regular routines and family dynamic were about to change, and I was right.
December 18th, 2014 the “D word” was said out loud. That was the first day of our winter break and we were told to all come home immediately after school and we couldn’t have plans with our friends that night. The whole day at school my heart was racing, my brain was spinning, and all I could thinking about was the talk I was having after school. This seemed like the longest school day of my life and 3:38pm couldn’t have come any slower. I rushed home and sat anxiously in the family room when I got there. One would think that because it is called the “family room” that it would bring people together. But no, that is not the case for my family. This is the room where all the bad conversations go down. For example, when I would get a bad grade, I would sit with my dad on the big couch in silence for hours or when I would give back talk I would get punished in that room. So I knew that when I went in there the conversation was not going to go over well. Finally, everyone came home from their practices and work and we were ready to have a conversation and talk.
My mother opened the conversation by saying “you know that your father and I both love all four of you children very much.” I immediately cut her off and said “get to the point!” In what was probably a very harsh tone.
Draft Two (800 Words):
Divorce, a word that no one likes saying out loud. Many people shudder when they hear this word being used because it always comes with a negative connotation. Unfortunately, I am one of the millions of teenagers whose parent have gotten divorced. These days’ divorce is normally inevitable and the percentage of families who get divorces are sky rocketing in America. It is almost becoming the norm in todays society. Divorce is defined as “the legal dissolution of a marriage by a court or other competent body.” However, to me it is when parents decide to stop loving each other and drag their whole family through hell until they both get exactly what they want or one person gives up. This process began in my family starting in 2014.
All of my life I knew that my parents didn’t have a normal relationship. They never went on dates, or told each other they loved one another out loud. However, I didn’t think that much into it until we moved to Fort Lauderdale when I was in the 9th grade, which was in 2013. During this time both of my parents were under a lot of stress and their fights started to become more visible. It became much harder for my siblings and I to focus on our school work and we never spent much time as a family together anymore. I knew something was going on and that my regular routines and family dynamic were about to change, and I was right.
December 18th, 2014 the “D word” was said out loud. That was the first day of our winter break and we were told to all come home immediately after school and we couldn’t have plans with our friends that night. The whole day at school my heart was racing, my brain was spinning, and all I could thinking about was the talk I was having after school. This seemed like the longest school day of my life and 3:38pm couldn’t have come any slower. I rushed home and sat anxiously in the family room when I got there. One would think that because it is called the “family room” that it would bring people together. But no, that is not the case for my family. This is the room where all the bad conversations go down. For example, when I would get a bad grade, I would sit with my dad on the big couch in silence for hours or when I would give back talk I would get punished in that room. So I knew that when I went in there the conversation was not going to go over well.
Finally, everyone came home from their practices and work and we were ready to have a conversation and talk. My mother opened the conversation by saying “you know that your father and I both love all four of you children very much.” I immediately cut her off and said “get to the point!” In what was probably a very harsh tone. The conversation felt like it was taking forever even though it was only five minutes. Finally, I heard the word divorce slowly roll off of both of my parent’s tongue. I stood up and screamed “ I hate you! How could you do this to me!” Tears were rolling out of my eyes faster than I thought was possible. It felt like my world was crumbling around me and I couldn’t do anything to control it. I ran to my room and slammed the door and just sat there for what felt like hours crying and crying. Eventually my youngest brother, Rocco coerced me out of the room and brought me back to the “broken family room.”
I could tell how shaken up everyone was and I felt pretty guilty about that being my reaction because I can only imagine what my parents were feeling. By the end of the conversation everyone was just trying to comprehend what was gong on. My younger sister Biddi kept asking, “I don’t understand why this is happening?” Over and over again and no answer was settling her. My parents tried to wrap up the conversation by hugging us, but, nothing felt the same. My family room is no longer a safe place, it feels more like an insane asylum. Whenever I walk in I am internally screaming every single time knowing something bad is going to happen but my body just can’t control it.
The rest of the year was really depressing for everyone in my family. Slowly things started to become more realistic with their divorce and I felt like I was almost living two different lives. In April of the follow year my mom moved out abruptly. My father broke the news to us, once again, in the family room. He said “Kids your mother found a place and packed her things and left. We have created a schedule with our lawyers that we see as most beneficial.”
Final Draft:
The “Family Room”
Divorce, is a word that no one likes saying out loud or thinking about. These days divorce is sometimes inevitable and the percentage of families who get divorces are sky rocketing in America. It is almost the norm in todays society. Divorce is defined as “the legal dissolution of a marriage by a court or other competent body.” To me, divorce is when parents decide to stop loving each other and drag their whole family through hell until they both get exactly what they want or one person gives up. This process began in my family starting in 2014.
All of my life I knew that my parents didn’t have a normal relationship. They never went on dates, or told each other they loved one another out loud and I never saw compassion between the two of them. However, I didn’t think that much into it until we moved to Fort Lauderdale. It was 2013 and I was in the 9th grade.During this time both of my parents were under a lot of stress and their fights started to become louder and more visible. It became much harder for my siblings and I to focus on our school work and we never spent much time as a family together anymore. I almost immediately knew that something was going on and that my regular routines and family dynamic were about to change, soon I found out that I was right.
December 18th, 2014 the “D word” was first said out loud. It was the first day of our winter break of my sophomore year and we were told to all come home immediately after school and that we couldn’t have plans with our friends that night. That whole entire day my heart was racing, my brain was spinning, and all I could thinking about was the talk I was going to have after school. This seemed like the longest school day of my life and 3:38pm could not have come any slower. I immediately rushed home and sat anxiously in the family room when I got there. One would think that because it is called the “family room” that it would bring people together. But no, that is not the case for my family. This is the room where all the tears come out and bad conversations happen. For example, when I would get a bad grade, I would sit with my dad on the big couch in silence for hours, or when I would give attitude I would get punished in that room. So, I knew that when I went in there the conversation was not going to go over well.
Finally, everyone came home from their practices or work and we were all ready to have the conversation and talk.
My mother opened the conversation by saying “you know that your father and I both love all four of you children very much.”
I immediately cut her off and said “get to the point!” in what was a very harsh tone.
The conversation felt like it was taking forever even though it was only really about five minutes. Finally, I heard the word divorce slowly roll off of both of my parent’s tongue.
I stood up and screamed “I hate you! How could you do this to me!”
Tears were rolling out of my eyes faster than I thought was possible. It felt like my world was crumbling around me and I couldn’t do anything to control it. I ran into my room and slammed the door. I sat there for what felt like hours crying and crying just thinking about why my parents would do this to me and my siblings. Eventually, my youngest brother, Rocco coerced me out of the room and brought me back to the now broken family room.
I could tell how shaken up everyone was and I felt pretty guilty about my reaction because I can only imagine what my parents were feeling. By the end of the conversation everyone was just trying to comprehend what was going on.
My younger sister Biddi kept saying, “I don’t understand why this is happening?” No answer that either of my parents were saying was going to be able to settle her.
My parents tried to wrap up the conversation by hugging us, but nothing felt the same. My family room is no longer a safe place in my house, it felt more like an insane asylum. Whenever I walk into the room my body clenches up really tight and all I can do is just stand there like a statue and cry.
The rest of the year was really depressing for everyone in my family. Slowly details in their divorce started to become more realistic and I felt like I was almost living two different lives.
In April of the follow year my mom moved out abruptly. My father broke the news to us, once again, in the family room.
He said, “Kids, your mother found a place and packed her things and left. We have created a schedule with our lawyers that we see as most beneficial.”
No one knew what to say. We all just sat there with our mouths wide open. I stared at my siblings and I could tell that their brains were spinning just as fast as mine was.
All I could think of was: “How rude of mom to do this to us! Am I not going to grow up with a mother? Where did she go? Why didn’t she tell us?” I was fuming.
That night I didn’t even move from the “family room” couch. I slept there for the whole night. Except, I wasn’t doing much sleeping; it was more constant thinking with my eyes shut or waking up ever couple of minutes with a nightmare.
The rest of the school year went by extremely slowly. My siblings and I had to take things day by day due to not knowing what to expect. Eventually, we were able to see my mother again and got into the routine of switching houses. Our schedule was: Monday and Tuesdays we are with my dad, Wednesdays and Thursdays we are with my mom and we switched every other weekend and holiday. It was very aggravating to have to switch our things all the time. However, in time, we learned how to make this work as smoothly as possible.
Their divorce slowly started to simmer, or at least I thought it did towards the end of this school year. I knew that this wasn’t the end of all the fighting but most issues were pretty stable for now. Until, May when my dad started to look for a new place to move into and he had no idea how to do anything without my mom around to help him. He immediately became dependent on me.
For the third and final time my dad called us all into the not so family room at the end of May.
My Dad said, “Kids, please come in here I have to talk to you about something.”
My heart started to race again and I felt my face getting hot and flustered. As soon as we walked into the room I felt like all I wanted to do was cry.
He opened up the conversation saying “I’m going to need a lot of help from you kids this summer.”
But really I knew that he just meant me because everyone else was going to camp. I told him to cut to the chase rather than just make us sit here and think about what he is going to say.
Finally, he was able to say that we were moving and he found another house for us to live in. I didn’t mind this that much because I knew that we were leaving the place where our family crumbled into pieces. However, when he started to talk abut the house, that’s when I got really upset.
He said, “Kids, this isn’t going to be where you want to live or the place that you are going to want your friends to come to.”
This made me confused and I didn’t understand why.
He continued to say “We are renting this house temporarily, it is in a bad area and is extremely small and only temporary, but please don’t make this make you want to only like your mother now.”
Immediately I knew that this conversation was not about living in a new house, it was about not picking favorites between my parents. This was because my mom lives in a newly fully furnished house and my dad is moving into what seems like a dump.
The time came in mid-June where we had to pack up all of our stuff and move to the new house. My dad and I spent days moving things from our family’s old house into just his new house. Right before they took the couch in the “family room” out of my house, I sat on it for one last time and just reminisced on what had happened here. All I could think about is how I’m never going to have a “family room” couch in my house. I sat their quietly for a minute as tears slowly rolled down my face.
Things to Consider for this Paper:
1. As of now I woudl say that I have half of the details needed. I described the family room really well but I need to add more details to the outside of the house and how it is laid out.
2. I establish myself as credible based on the background information that I give and how I support the idea that I am trying to get across. Also I think the amount of detail that I add will make my paper sound more factual and credible.
3. My place is my family room and it is different from all other family rooms becuase it is broken up. We dont feel like a family when we are in there. it feels like more of a talking space where I know something bad is happening.
4. The intended audience would be other teenagers or young adults who have recently experienced there parents getting a divorce. I also want to be able to show this to my siblings when I am done.
5. I assume that my readers value family and friendship. And that they will understand how hard this was on me and my siblings but becuase we had each other we were all ok in the end. I am tapping into these feelings and values by not only showing discussions in the family room. I am going to prove that there is support within the children of the family. I also assume that the readers value honesty. This is because going through divorce one of the most important things is being able to be honest with your kids about what is going on.
- Character Description:
Character Full Name: Samantha Hope Solomon
Gender: Female
Age and Date of Birth: 19, July 24, 2998 . In this story she starts off at the age 16
Birth City: Aventura , Florida ( Born in South Miami Beach )
Parent’s Names: Irl and Helene
Siblings: Jacob, Sydney ( Biddi ) , Benjamin ( Rocco)
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Pets: Sunshine ( Sunny ) Golden Retriever
Education: College Student but at the time was in High School
Favorite Movie: Bring it On
Favorite TV Show: Greys Anatomy
Favorite Book: The Secret Garden
Favorite Food: Sushi
Favorite Day of the Week: Friday
Favorite Hobby: Hanging out with friends
Favorite Drink: Raspberry Lemonade
Favorite Band: Lynyrd Skynyrd
Favorite Song: HYFR
Favorite Halloween Costume (if s/he celebrated Halloween): Slutty Student
Religious affiliation: Jewish
Political affiliation: Republican
Love interest(s): just out of a relationship , rocky state
Physical DescriptionEye Color: medium/dark brown
Hair Color and Style: dark brown and curly but sometimes liek to straighten it
Height: 5'4
Weight: 160
Skin Tone: olive/ tan
Facial Description (does s/he have a unique nose, forehead, eyes, ears, lips, ect.?): small facial features - small nose, mouth, eyes, nice full eyebrows and lashes , small ears
Clothes (what s/he is wearing or usually wears): school uniform or jean shorts and a t-shirt or tank top
Other Physical Characteristics (booty, busty, muscular, corpulent, scrawny, disproportioned, ect.): Nice butt , Good size boobs, a little wider/ kinda big boned, nice muscular legs
Defining MomentsThe one childhood instance—good or bad—that indelibly affects who this character is now: when my parents got divorced I think that that changed my perspective on a lot of things going on in this world and it changed them for the good and for the bad
The character’s proudest moment: When all of my siblings were born, when we got our dog
The character’s most embarrassing moment: the first time I broke my ankle in front of my crush
The character’s career goals of future aspirations/ambitions: open my own psychology office and become a pediatric psychologist and get my PhD.
Whom the character would most like to have dinner with (past or present) and why: Drake or Lil Wayne and becuase I am obsessed with their music or Reese Witherspoon because she's amazing
Three adjectives the character would use to describe him/herself: passionate, determined, caring