Autobiography of Iviannette Figueroa
In this paper, I will describe my life and how my life experiences have shaped the person that I am today, how they have impacted my dreams, and what I intend to do in the future. In this paper I explore my childhood and how the difficulties that I encountered in that childhood have helped shape the woman I am today. The woman that I am today is a mother, a wife, and a student working towards admission into the respiratory therapist program. Generally, I have worked hard to put a difficult childhood behind me. As a result, I have to acknowledge that an autobiographical paper was very challenging for me. I do not like to think about how my childhood has impacted the woman that I am today. While I am generally self-confident, I realize that the things I like the least about myself are those things that remind me of my father. As a result, while this paper was a challenge for me to write, I believe it has served its purpose and provided insight into my own social background. If I do not understand that background, I do not think it is possible for me to bring understanding to future clients.
Description
My name is Iviannette Figueroa. I am a 37-year-old woman. I am married with four children; a 19-year-old son, a 12-year-old daughter, and 5-year-old twin daughters. I am happily married, but my husband and I are currently living apart while he works as an instructor in Afghanistan. This has placed me in the role of a single mother, which has proven challenging, especially as I am a student and pursuing my education has been difficult while simultaneously trying to pursue my own education. We currently live in a normal middle-class household, though having my husband absent has led to prioritizing things so that not all of our chores are always done and our household might be messier than we would like at times. Despite the challenges I face every day, I am very happy in my current life. In fact, even though I faced difficulties in my childhood, I feel as if everything in my life has brought me to where I am today. Because I am happy with where I am, I would not change anything about my prior experience, even if there are negatives in my past experience. I think that this ability to acknowledge that even negative experiences can turn into positive learning experiences is one of the reasons that I am an optimistic person.
My current middle-class existence is significantly different from my childhood. I was the oldest of three siblings. My little sister is 32 and my little brother is 28. We were raised in a wealthy dual-parent household. We lived in a large house in the city. While both of my parents were present, we were primarily raised by a nanny. My nanny was a loving caregiver, and I believe that I felt as if she were more of a maternal figure to me than my own mother was. I know that I had a great deal of affection for her and that she still occupies a very important place in my heart. I think that much of my affection for my nanny was because she provided such a stark contrast to my parents. My mother was not very affectionate. Looking back, I believe that she was scared of my father and that her fear dictated much of her behavior, but as a child I simply experienced her lack of affection as coldness. In contrast, my father was not cold. Instead, he was a very hot-tempered alcoholic man. He was verbally abusive to every member of his household, constantly insulting us and treating us poorly. His abuse was not limited to verbal assaults; he hit us frequently as well. However, the status of the family was important and we were all expected to keep his abuse secret. It was a very stressful childhood. What is ironic is that because I do not see abuse as discipline, I would characterize the household as one that was undisciplined. My nanny tried to instill us with a sense of right and wrong and teach us how to behave appropriately, but my parents were so wrapped up in their own personal drama that they generally failed to import any moral goals or guidelines to their children.
Personal Experience
Obviously, I had a strained relationship with my father because of his abuse, and I also had resentment towards my mother because of my belief that she failed to adequately protect us from him....
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now