A Personal Experience Of Growing Up With Foster Parents

In 2014 it was recorded, at familystudies.org, that 45% of children in the U.S grew up in a single-parent household, and as many as 650, 000 children grow up with foster parents. I conducted my own research with friends who grew up with divorced parents and spoke with children who grew up with foster parents to understand their perspective on life and who they perceive as influential people in their lives. It was interesting to discover that the children, who were suspected of growing up with little influence, actually took a difficult predicament and allowed it to take presence in their upbringing An influential figure to them, is anyone who decided to stick around in their lives, to make an impact and show them the care that they long for. …show more content…
Questions lead to stories, and the stories lead to unexpected answers I was unprepared to hear. It showed me how little interest I had in my family 's hardships and history, and how much more I 've now come to appreciate them. My family would always point me towards the right path in life generally, and especially for school; they wanted to see me do well in life, but I would disregard all that they did and said. I didn 't see all the good that could 've come from their advice; they only wanted to help me. I now look back on all of their criticism, especially when it came to my studies for school, and I now see it more as an influence, rather than a burden. To me, an influential figure isn 't so much a definition, but more so a person, or people who motivate me to be the best person I can be. It 's difficult choosing the single most influential figure in my life because each family member individually makes up a piece of the whole. Together, it helps create the well-rounded representation of who I aspire to …show more content…
I didn 't take all that I was given for granted, and I took every past situation my family had to make a better and more mature, Marina. Instead of putting myself down with what my brothers ' did, I used it as motivation; seeing them as influential figures, one day hoping I can be at the same level as them. I saw my grandparent 's hardships of immigrating to America and losing everything they ever knew as a major influential part of my upbringing. I took in all that they told me and used it to create a stronger and more headstrong self. I didn 't let much slow me down, if I wanted to get things done I did it right then and there. It was at that time I saw a new self-form before my very