Some personal beliefs and values I was able to experience while looking through the assignment and completing it was my belief that one modest event, whether blissful or cheerless, can effect the way a child reacts during the time of growth. I was also able to understand why I am the person I prove to be now. I acknowledge the fact that I had a difficult time throughout my childhood, but that didn’t stop me from growing stronger. Through my sufferings I persevered and because of this, I am proud to be myself. I am proud of my childhood.
Childhood experiences help to shape us into the individuals we are to become. Some of these experiences have little impact on us while others impact us greatly.
Assignment five entitled Gaining Acceptance allowed me to ask questions about why children look to others for praise, recognition and acceptance.
For this assignment I read a story about the conflicting relationship between a child and his parental ghosts. I call them parental ghosts because it almost seemed like they never cared about their youngster, and that aggravates me to high degrees. I then had to ask myself why some children look for praise and acceptance. I had no answer, but to look back on my childhood for a second time.
As a child and throughout this assignment, I was able to experience, not only my little hearts outburst but other youngsters as well. I was the type of child who never really cared about being accepted; I just wanted to have excitement because that was something I could never really do, as you have heard me say before. But those other children were sometimes ones who were motivated to act in an extreme matter, to achieve acceptance and happiness among their gentle souls. In my instance, I feet confident enough, that acceptance was not a primary concern to me. I also learnt that those who are not concerned, like I was, dare to go against others and embrace their individuality creating their own sense of pride and acceptance.
It is important for a child to ask questions to his or her self. If they want to care about what people make them out to be, or what they make themselves out to be. I would choose what I am able to make myself become, as I have done.
Assignment six entitled Parental Influences allowed me to view critical events in another perspective, a parental one.
In this assignment I read a poem about a father who drinks and abuses his child. The assignment asked me to interpret the feelings and tones the poem gave away but all I could think about was why, why do parents do this to a child who loves them so?
Before I continue on there was a quote that caught my heart and I want to share it with everyone “You beat time on my head With a palm caked hard by dirt, Then waltzed me off to bed Still clinging to your shirt.”
So why do parents do this, why do they hurt people who love them? No matter what, I cannot answer this question from my childhood, but I can answer the parents.
A parent, a guardian and a friend. That’s what an adult should become, but some hide and take love for granted. Some are afraid to love back. To be abandoned. When they do not realize they abandoned themselves, they abandoned their children. They hurt them. That’s my answer to parental ghosts.
During this assignment I also wrote a journal entry from the child who was being abused and allowed him/her to talk about their sufferings. I made sure that they knew that they could persevere because not only his/her body and heart have undergone this torture, but so did others. I made it clear that the child would not fall into depths of despair and that everything they go through would only make them stronger.
The role a parent has with a child can have a significant influence on the improvement of the child and it becomes a complex part of the fabric that is woven into the individual as they develop into adolescence and adulthood.
Within a memory of a child there is only one perspective in which an adolescent may view things. So in the midst of my words, the teachings of an instructor and the learning of a student, I declare my life. I declare my childhood and innocence.
