The Journey of the Life - Essay Example

Journey of My Life "Life to me is a journey - You never know what may be your next destination". (David Russell) The journey of my life has been like a roller-coaster ride. People say that childhood days are the best days in anyone's life, but my childhood - I don't even know its meaning properly; leave apart knowing its significance in life. I am Vanessa Cadet. I was born in Haiti and have three siblings - two elder brothers and one younger sister. Though I can hardly call them a family since my parents separated when I was at the tender age of two.

While my mother moved to New York, my father took the responsibility of raising us. However, I never got along well with my brothers, specially the eldest one. For some reason, they always picked on me and I started to hate my childhood. Though I made efforts to do whatever was in my reach to defend myself, but it never worked for us. If I look bad at all those years, I think that my life as a child wasn't that bad as I thought it was but many a times I felt I had nobody I could talk to. I felt very lonely in life.

When I was at the age of 11, I visited New York and there I decided to stay with my mother to finish my education. But, unfortunately, my mother also did not understand me. I felt so frustrated that I started to make more and more friends and began to socialize as much as possible to be able to speak out my mind in front of my friends. Whenever I felt the need to vent, I spoke or met my friends and felt light at heart. At least, I had few people in life whom I could turn to in such times. The adolescence age according to Erik Erikson is an age when we try to find our identity amidst social issues which surround us.

That is the age when we discover ourselves as individuals. We try to fight with the world and with moral issues and if by chance we are unsuccessful, we experience "role confusion." (Harder A, 2002)Harder has quoted: "It is human to have a long childhood; it is civilized to have an even longer childhood. Long childhood makes a technical and mental virtuoso out of man, but it also leaves a life-long residue of emotional immaturity in him." - Erik Homburger Erikson (1902-1994)At the age of 19, when I found my compatibility with my mother fizzing out completely, I decided to leave her house and lived with a friend of mine in a two bedroom apartment where we shared the rent.

By that time I had started to work as a nurse, while I was studying simultaneously. Though I could not succeed much, I was glad to meet the man of my dreams at the age of 20. My life was changing for good and I started loving it. What a drastic change it was. He strongly believed in God and His presence and was extremely optimistic in his approach. I took no time to fall in love with him and felt the world around me had suddenly become so beautiful. We tied the knot and got married and gave birth to my two beautiful children, a son and a daughter.

I feel so blessed to have such an understanding family and such loving husband and children. What I craved for during my childhood, I am having now and when I look back I realize that had I not seen those bad times, I would not have understood the importance of having such closely-knit relationships. My family is my world now and I would do everything possible to give my kids the best of education, which I could not get. I now realize how important it is to complete school which I could not. It not only brings in a lot of confidence but also allows for a high paid job.

References:Journey Quotations. David Russell. Retrieved from http://www.finestquotes.com/select_quote-category-Journey-page-0.htmHarder A, 2002. The Developmental Stages of Erik Erikson. Retrieved from http://www.learningplaceonline.com/stages/organize/Erikson.htm