Boxing with My Father Essay -- Personal Narrative Writing

Boxing with My Father My father was 30 years old when I was born. The fact meant nothing to me for most of my young life, but took on a special meaning one day when I was fourteen. It was the day he decided to teach me to box. You might think that transmitting this skill was evidence my father and I had a close relationship, but our bond was distant, ephemeral, and bound together by a single if resilient thread. My parents had divorced when I was a kid, and my father had â€Å"visitation rights.† He’d show up at our front door every other Sunday and take me out with him. Our destination might be the zoo, a park, a baseball game or, more usually, his house in Far Rockaway, a half-hour drive from my mother’s place in Brooklyn. But it wasn’t where we ended up that elated me. It was getting there that made it a thrill. He wasn’t like the resident fathers of my neighborhood friends. Some seemed accepting and resigned that they had lost their youthful vigor. They worked in banks or delivered the mail. Others tried to maintain a certain urban toughness, but their deportment brought the image of discomfiting coarseness to my mind. I wasn’t too fond of either variety. On weekdays, around six, I’d see all of them amble home toward my apartment building, shoulders hung low, a folded copy of the Daily News pinched between thumb and forefinger. My father’s energy was of an entirely different nature. He was quick, strong, and lean, with sloping shoulders and a narrow waist. He had a certain grace of movement that made me feel secure, even pleasurable. Sometimes he’d visit after coming off work at the Brillo Soap Pad factory where he was employed as a machinist, and he seemed to be revved up enough to do a second shift. The way he talke... ...aying a Puerto Rican father trying to raise a son. Seeing the famous actor in person—without the intermediary of the camera—gave him a different demeanor. He moved about the stage in quick yet graceful strides. Suddenly I had a eureka moment. DeNiro on stage was just like my father: same movement, same stature, same speech. I turned to my mother whose eyes were focused on the performance. â€Å"Mother,† I said. â€Å"Doesn’t he remind you of my father?† My mother looked at me, then to the stage to render her opinion. â€Å"Yes,† she said. â€Å"He does. Like your father.† It felt good to feel my father’s presence once again, even if it was second-hand. Of course, it would have been much more fulfilling to have had that conversation with him, the one where he’d tell me what it was like in the old days. But, like so many people both today and back then, I take what I can get.

My First Car

Certain things in life usually form part of an individual memoir. Every one has them and usually one of the first things that is unforgettable or at least should be made memorable is your first car. My first car is not just a first car at that; it has been part of my history. My first car was a Chevrolet Impala 1965, with 2 doors 4 speed metallic blue. The 1965 Chevy impala is a stylish that is many to most people. From its strength, reliability, coupled with fuel efficiency and its powerful performance as a car. When you sample this you would probably begin to understand why most people and I probably rank first in that list scrambles for the Chevy Impala .model. Manufactured by general motors and one of the most successful automobile nameplate in the united, Chevrolet Impala car be described as full-sized built automobile. One of the features that I admired the most about this model was the aspect of fuel economy, like for any other consumer no one wants to buy an automobile that would be consuming more gasoline that you are ready to part with. It is supped with such features as the 3.5l v-6 Flexfuel that would cut down on your expenditure on gasoline and at the same it can run on ethanol or both. The Chevy impala is definitely one of the longest running as well as the best known names both in the underworld and the mainstream motor industry. This model has a dramatic, yet clandestine design. It is a longer and lower impala model with a carved. It is also design with a rounded body style with such features as spit grill in built with argent colored lower valence panels as well as a slim wheel opening trim. I believe there has never been a better model than this from general motors or to be specific from the Chevrolet impala series powered with a 396 cid engine with 425 hp, there was no can first that could match my taste for the kind of powerful performance that I so wanted.   I needed something that would be affordable, fuel efficient, powerful, sporty as well as classy and at the same time provided me with the kind of comfort that would be the envy of my peers.   With its 2 door and the chance to make it a convertible you would wonder why someone would opt for something else. The four speech function makes it almost unbeatable.   Considering my age, I would want something that would put me above my friends.  Ã‚   I would want to always be in front and never to be the one trailing.   The powerful 425 hp and the speech limit of the 1965 Chevy impala model first offers me the best chance to be lease at par on the road with any friends. At my age the last thing I would want to buy and own a master classic something that is respected, with rich history, but at the same time still manages to be impressive in the contemporary society and would still be appealing to most of the people of my generation. The automobile should be something I would want to keep for the rest of my life as souvenir.   With the amount of money that I have saved end I would want to make a real investment. With about $ 15,000 you certainly would think you might not be able to get the best burgains in the market. Any how when I talked to some of my friends and remembered some of the movies that I have watched, there was no better model to buy than the 1965 Chevrolet Impala. Reference: 1965 Chevrolet Impala Super sport. Retrieved on 10/10/2007   

Of Mice And Men And The Stranger Analysis - 831 Words

Of Mice And Men And The Stranger In the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, the brotherhood and the characters work together to fulfill a dream. George and Lennie are hard working men looking for a job and they are dedicated to get their own land. George and Lennie have faith in succeeding, dreaming about what they are going to do in the near future. While In â€Å"The Strangers† by Albert Camus, human existence in life does not matter. Meursault acts like he doesn’t really have a life goal and just goes with the flow of life. Meursault is just a passive, insensitive, and a non-religious character that is clueless to what is happening around. These characteristics make him more towards to a externalism character. In â€Å"Of†¦show more content†¦In â€Å"Of Mice And Men† felt loneliness or isolation once in the novel because everyone was by themselves and had no family to talk too. Everyone had one goal and that was to have money and wealth so they can have a American dream just l ike George and Lennie. In â€Å"The Strangers† the theme is an individual life has no rational meaning or order. Albert Camus uses the word and actions of Meursault to show how an individual does not care about life. He creates the character as a passive and things come upon him. The quote in â€Å"The Strangers†, â€Å"To another question [the director of the home] replied that he had been surprised by my calm the day of the funeral. He was asked what he meant by calm. The director then looked down at the tips of his shoes and said that I hadn’t wanted to see Maman, that I hadn’t cried once, and that I had left right after the funeral without paying my last respects at her grave†, This quote shows that Meursault doesn’t even have any emotion for his mother’s death and when he’s at the funeral, he act like a normal being, just moving on as it just happened. Meursault is really insensitive to things happening around him, he believes life will move on and everyone will die later on in life. Meursault watches a girl get beat and doesn’t do anything about it because he does not care and he beats the girls to. When he goes to jail for killing an Arab, he is sentenced to death but it doesn’t matter to him as he imagineShow MoreRelatedShould Smoking Be Banned Public Places?941 Words   |  4 Pagesof lung cancer and laryngeal cancer in men, a probable cause of lung cancer in women, and the most important cause of chronic bronchitis (cdc.com). According to a retrospective analysis of data from 192 countries approximately 21,000 deaths of lung cancer could be attributed to second hand smoking (Pallis, et al. 494). Emphysema is another smoking related disease, which is a type of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. 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