Personal Narrative-Quinceañera

In my heritage, when a girl reaches the age of fifteen there family throws a symbolic party for them, the celebration is called Quinceañera. It is viewed as a way in which a girl becomes a woman. The photo above was taken during my Quinceañera in August about a little over a year ago. This is viewed as a girl’s true becoming interconnected with the outside world. Before reaching of age, girls are viewed as a humble and fragile object that needs the care of the family to survive. During the celebration, the girl is changed from flat shoes to high heels signifying her “rising” into society. It usually takes a couple months to find a dress, shoes, etc. Everything done has to be perfect during the girl's party, because her party indicates how …show more content…
I may be able to take pictures yet I am not in them, especially while I am smiling in them. But during the whole party, there was only one time that I had smiled and my cousin was able to capture it in a photo. I will always treasure this photo until I can no longer remember the day. This was the only photo with me smiling. I do not usually smile in the photos, especially with the news I had received only two days before the party. When a girl celebrates her Quinceañera, it signifies the girl becoming a “woman” and soon could leave the comfort of the home to make her own family. It is supposed to mean that she is to receive a family, her husband, and children. Yet for me that is impossible because of the news I had received two days before my “special” party. I remember the day so clear as it was yesterday. I remember that my cousins would be arriving soon to help my parents to prepare the food and then get the tables. I was getting ready to leave when I heard my mom’s phone ring. I thought it was my father. But it was the hospital telling me that my doctor had seen my blood results and that I had to go to the office to talk to her. When I arrived, my family was given the news that I had a condition. The nurse said it would most likely leave me unable to have a child because of how long the condition has gone untreated. How ironic, days before the party that was to symbolize me growing up into the “role of a woman” and having a family, I would receive the news that the children I would hope to have I would most likely never be able to have. I think back to the day, I do not remember who was more surprised my mother or me. All my family revolves around family and children; what I thought to be normal no longer is possible for