Janna L. Forsythe
Professor Ronald Murray
ENG 101
September 16th, 2014
My Momentous Memory The single most important life changing moment in my life was when I came to the realization that I was an orphan. My mother was a severe alcoholic; and gave my twin sister and I up to several family members up to the age of two, when my Aunt Pam and Uncle Charles took Power of Attorney over us indefinitely. My father was not the slightest bit interested in my twin sister’s or my existence whatsoever. He already had four sons through his promiscuity, all from different women, and to this very day I have met only one of my blood brothers.
So I was catapulted into a conundrum that would become my life without me having any control over where I lived from day to day, year to year, state to state, school to school, over and over again until I entered high school in 1995. At that point, I had just about had it with the realization that it literally took an entire village to raise my sister and I. My mother was always in and out of treatment and my Aunt and Uncle did the best they could to raise me right.
They never gave up on us no matter what, even though they had 8 children of their own to raise as well as running a 24 hour daycare serving 28 children in our humongous home we were so blessed to have in Wintersville, Ohio.
I soon realized that coming from the deep New York City area where discrimination is almost unheard of, set me up for failure in this new state and its severely racist views on people.
I almost immediately got into trouble in school for sticking up for African American students who were openly being taunted and bullied. My Uncle Charles, who became my legal guardian along with my Aunt, is of African American decent, a Retired Marine, and Biological Warfare
Chemical Specialist who served in Vietnam, took me under his wing to ensure I had a proper upbringing and taught me to respect all individuals no matter their religion, opinion, or nationality, for we are all God’s children.
The first time I incited a riot at school over my principle calling my best friend and church mate a Nigger, I literally blew my proverbial lid... Jumped over his desk and grabbed him by his necktie until he was almost blue in the face. I demanded he apologize to my friend that instant, to which he refused, and the spawn of Satan was then unleashed on this unsuspecting man. He saw me as sweet and innocent, not knowing the hard knock
