After taking her vital signs, they gave her various medications to keep her heart rate down. ... That is when it really hit me that she was deceased. ... I did not understand why it happened to my family and me. ... They helped me by offering encouraging words, informing me that my mother is now in a better place, providing me with hopeful thoughts and advice on how I can live a successful life. ... I can honestly say it was hard at first, but knowing that God is always on my side and that my mom would always be proud of me, are motivating factors that have made me the person I am today....

• Word Count: 1101
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

Divorce is an ever growing problem in the United States, and according to statistical figures, the rate will soon climb to a 50 percent divorce rate, and the rate of divorces couples with children is around 28-32 percent (Debrod). ... Although the relationship has tremendously deteriorated since he left, I still worry that he will leave me, and no longer care about me. ... Hearing them yelling at each other only made matters worse, and made me more frightened. ... Who would take me to live with them? ... And sometimes I felt as though their anger was directed at me. ...

• Word Count: 1897
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

While there can be a variety of reasons as to why a young male could become delinquent (such as race, income, intelligence, etc.) family structure or lack thereof was rated as the main reason. ... It is even more telling that males who live with just their father have a such a low rate of crime and delinquency. ... I believe that it has been firmly established that those who come from two-parent households have the lowest rates of delinquency. ... These include crime rates, high school dropout rates, unemployment, income, etc. ... I firmly believe that those interviewed trust me and gave ...

• Word Count: 4534
• Approx Pages: 18
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

There is now a divorce rate according to Kreider of 50 percent. ... This family structure was more than enough for me, and it was fully capable of instilling guidance and love. ... My other mother raised me as if I were her child while my bloodmother carried out other single parent duties. ...

• Word Count: 589
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

When I was young and weak, the memories often took over me and tormented me. ... Let me take an example. ... They were so aggressive because not only the place had a high crime rate and other bad things, they were the guys who always got beaten up in class for various reasons and were trying to find a way to release their stress. ... The experience in Korea made me tougher against people who tried to harm me in any way, both physically and emotionally. ... But this is certain for me. ...

• Word Count: 1323
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

Her actions always left me feeling sad and disappointed. ... I vowed that my children would never see me like that. ... She was losing weight at a rapid rate because she would choose alcohol over food. ... Something clicked inside me that night. ... My mom hugged me and said, "I want to thank you because if you did not put me there we probably would not be having this conversation today. ...

• Word Count: 1030
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

Our society should take the blame for the high divorce rate in this country. ... The easy access of divorce in our country results in a higher rate of broken homes. ... My experience gave me structure in life that changed my outlook and belief that my children will not go through the same situation that my step kids had to experience. ... Banning divorces in this country could minimize the rate of broken homes, unless there's a valid reason for getting a divorce, such as family abandonment, alcoholism, and abusive relationships. ...

• Word Count: 1253
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

Each person is made of five elements, she told me. ... The girl staring back at me was angry, powerful. ... I had new thoughts, willful thoughts, or rater thoughts filled with lots of won'ts. ... But by the time she told me this it was too late. ... How good my parents are to me. ...

• Word Count: 1322
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

So how anyone believes someone does not have the right to make a decision about his or her own body is beyond me and it strikes a very personal chord. ... Unfortunately something changes with a binding document, and it ruins a lot of things, maybe it's something on a subconscious level that no psychiatrist has diagnosed yet, I think as a society we over rate things and when we experience them for ourselves we are disappointed. ... I do not ever want to let myself be in the position where I have to rely on someone else to take care of me again, physically or...

• Word Count: 891
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

The divorce rate in the year 2010 was 10.2% and I just so happen to have been included in that 10.2%. ... My dad looked at me and said, "You're staying here.... She hugged me and we walked to the living room. ... "Why would she do this to me? How could my best friend do this to me?...

• Word Count: 1581
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

For me, since my mother never had a boyfriend or any other male role model in the home I found myself in a dark psychological place from the emptiness that seemed to have a bottomless pit within me. ... I was sure that he did not love or care about me and my very nature was unlovable. After all, the one parent that I did have barely took an interest in me for most of my childhood. ... It took me years to figure out what I was doing to continue these painful cycles. ... It all started one day when she was crying to me saying that she lost...

• Word Count: 2758
• Approx Pages: 11
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

In the new Millennium today, because the divorce rate is at it's peak, thousands of dollars are being funded for such things as child support, counseling, and many people emotionally unhappy, which is all too common. ... It seemed at times I felt like my mother didn't want me anymore, and that I had no mother. Once the divorce was final, my father got to keep the house and managed to get custody of me. ...

• Word Count: 926
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

He is "trusting they'll stop and watch me, their unsuspected saint" (Updike 1029). ... He is reminded that he shouldn't "do this to your Mom and Dad," yet he goes on and stops at any rate (Updike 1029). ... As Updike finishes the story with our saint Sammy gazing at an unfilled parking garage, Sammy's last line is, "my stomach sort of fell as I felt how hard the world would be to me from this point forward" (Updike 1030). ...

• Word Count: 958
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Cruelty and coldness consumed the family, but, as she had learned, blood is thicker than water; her blood relatives rate higher in her life than anyone else. ... When my dad finally left my tiny white house, my mom took care of my older brother and me. ... I certainly did not trust my stepfather when I first met him and disliked him greatly, but, as I got to know him, he gained my trust and love from simply being there for me when I struggled- whether it was my school work or my friendship drama. ...

• Word Count: 1268
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Me I am Mexican. ... I don't like them to tell me what I have to like just because I'm Mexican. ... We came to America in May of 1987 as a family (my mom and dad, my sister, my brother, and me.) ... This migration and Mexico's high rate of population growth have helped cause overcrowding and a shortage of jobs in the cities. ...

• Word Count: 1638
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

This hilarious comedy about a family with a dozen children kept me in stitches until the end! This family, run like a well oiled machine, took me on Sunday rides through the country, battles in the family court, summers at the sea, Father's theories on motion study, and the economic removal of the whole families tonsils. ... The fact that the stool is off balance forces me to twist my body, which can become uncomfortable after a long duration of time. ... At any rate, we can see that times have really changed and that women are really taking strong roles in today's economy...

• Word Count: 1862
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

"You"re tearing me apart." ... Teen suicide rates steeply increased in the fifties and kept going till the late seventies, where they topped off at a youth in America dying by their own hand every seventeen minutes. ...

• Word Count: 1332
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

But I chose it because I did not see for me, a way of doing more, which doesn't mean I didn't want to or I don't want to." ... "In America, the principal reason the divorce rate has risen so high is because the tendency of partners to backslide into traditional roles when their children are born, this destroying the equality and friendship they previously shared." ...

• Word Count: 1384
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

After I let go of the resentment I had for my mother, I could allow her to show me the ropes on how to be a parent and also how to be a woman. ... Although my "friends" ended up throwing me a baby shower after school one day in the cafeteria we were never really close again. ... Just recently my daughters father contacted me and has seen my daughter twice. ... Her response was beyond me. ... It is said to have reduced the pregnancy rate of teens since it aired. ...

• Word Count: 2751
• Approx Pages: 11
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School