Personal Narrative

Personal Narrative

Jordan Vandermeer
Mrs. Finkbeiner
Composition through World Literature
10-30-2012

Throughout life we always think that there is only one culture, one way to life, and one way to live it. In the last few year I have personally taken two mission trips to other cultures, the first being an Indian reservation in Mescalero, New Mexico. The second trip was to Schoharie, New York to help flood victims of Tropical storm Irene. While both trips differ from my very own culture here in West Michigan the one that affected me the most was my trip to Mescalero.
While there we interacted with kids around my own age. One of the things I learned about their culture is every person that we interacted with had lost somebody do to drug abuse, suicide or murder. One example would be of a boy who told us about how the only stable male role model in his life was his football coach and how his coach promised to always be there for him. Days later he had received word that his football coach had committed suicide and it threw the boys life into a downward spiral because he had no one to trust because he did not go to church at the time and his father was no longer in his life. Also we took a tour the night we got there of the local area and we saw so many run down shacks or house’s that people were living in, and in the middle of it all was this huge gorgeous casino resort which was the largest employer in the area. It was common to see many people walking down the street drunk or high. Several hundred yards away from the church we were staying at there was a dried up creek bed where at night many people got raped and abused by local drunk men.
Talking to these kids made me aware of the affects of drugs, alcohol, suicide, and neglect and what they can do to a family. While I understand that even though we have drug and alcohol problems in West Michigan, they do not impact families as severely in my community. Although I do realize we still suffer with all these things, but...

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