Family History Paper

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West Orange and Livingston neighbor each other so I always grew up around suburban people. I started work myself when I hit fourteen and worked for people my mom knew around the mall for a little money. The mall has shaped my life because it has given me a different way of life than anyone else. An average kid in my school would go home, play, do some homework, and go to sleep. For me, I would have to come home and go to the mall so I wouldn’t be home alone. I would do most of my homework at the store too while my parents would work. As a kid, I would have to learn how to time manage myself and learn that social life isn’t your only life. I was basically ten going on twenty-one. Overall, the mall has shaped me to learn how to be an adult at a young age.

I started dancing at age six with Arya Dance Academy, an international dancing academy, which is the main reason why I been to so many places and brought me to half the places I been too. I do competitions around the world in countries such as Switzerland, Italy, India, and Brazil for three different types of dancing: Indian, Club, and Hip-Hop. I excelled in club dancing over the years just because I live in Essex County, and would compete against street teams as a high school student. I would promote parties as a freshman for teen clubs such as Club Abyss and Club Bliss and that brought me to promoting in Newark, as I got older. There are four main dancing crews in Newark that go by CTE, Jersey Crew, Cartel, and Emphamouz. Emphamouz is higher than most because they were in the Jersey Club Awards and are known in other states. We have plenty of videos all over YouTube of competitions and shows we would do. During this time period, I danced at plenty of Newark schools such as West Side HS, Barringer, and Weequahic. In all honesty, since I grew up in a suburban town and was around suburban people all the time, I was honestly scared to get into “business” with Newark teams because of the reputation that town has. I’ve grown to see different points of views though because you can’t always judge a book by its cover. A Newark student could be rich one day vs. a Suburban teenager that dropped out of school. Where they’re from, never really tells what their capable of doing in life.

In conclusion, my life has always been a battle between my parents and myself for friends, a social life, education, work, etc. My parents and I have finally came to an understanding where as long as my grades are up and I let them know where I’m at twenty-four/seven, I will be able to go out. Living differently than everyone else was a challenge for me growing up because I had to learn everything myself with the generation I’m in compared to the generation they’re from. My life was one big roller coaster though and still going, and I am excited for more places to teach me more things.

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