To make it make more sense, I donвЂ™t expect anyone to be at my graduation except my mother and maybe my aunts. To be honest, I wish I had more fulfilling relationships with people of my family, but this is the way it has been since my great grandmother and grandmother passed away. She always looked out for me, and helped my mother whenever she could. My grandmother was like my dad, or my second mom. My grandmother is also included in this list even though she has left us for a better life in heaven. I am close with my mom, my two aunts, and a few cousins. Moving along, I do not get to spend much time with my family from home these days because I am away at school most of the year, and most of my cousins have grown up, moved and went their own ways. Our relationship has been rocky ever since I came to college and I started speaking up for myself because I do not agree with the way he treats me. I do not have much of a relationship with my dad, but it is by personal choice. I come from a single parent family, and I am the only child, so it is just the two of us and we are like best friends. It has always been a special bond between us because we have the same birthday.

I was supposed to be born in the middle of September, but my mother went into labor in August at my cousinвЂ™s birthday party, and now we share the same birthday. My mother was eighteen when she was found out she was pregnant with me. My family is primarily from the Westside of Chicago with some family members living in Tennessee, Minnesota, and Hawaii. I come from an African American background.

Family of origin