Monthly Archives: February 2014

Persistence by definition means a continued effort; to keep trying. I would say I have always been very persistent in life. This would be a trait I seem to get from both my parents. I grew up in a middle class family, where both my parents never finished high school or even went to college. Over the years of growing up they have taught me how to be understanding, smart and persistent.
It seems like it was just yesterday I was only 12 years old laying in my bed because I had school the next morning but I couldn’t sleep so I was up just listening to my mom and dad talk in the living room with frustration, it was silent all around the house both my brother and sister sleeping. It was so quiet you could hear a pin hit the wooden titles down the stairs and I was wide awake in my room in bed stirring up at the ceiling trying to overhear my parents talking in their frustration. I was trying to understand why my mother and father would always stay up late for during the night in the living room talking for hours about money and how they were gonna manage it. Many thoughts were going through my head trying to understand why they worried about money all the time if both of them had jobs. It was when I decided to get out of my bed so I could go down stairs and ask them what was wrong? and if everything was ok? As I made my way to the stairs my dad heard me walking down the stairs and had asked why I wasn’t in bed. I told him I wanted to know if everything was ok but my mom interrupted and said “everything was fine and not to worry about it”. She then demanded me to go back to bed and get some sleep. As I was walking up the stairs slowly trying to avoid getting to the top, I was confused and didn’t understand why they said everything was fine if they talked with frustration. I then realized my mother and father were going through a struggling experience I didn’t understand why if they both had jobs and worked long hours and were always providing for us. They were struggling with everything between bills, putting food on the table, working long hours, and taking care of a family never mind putting money away to save . They never quit they continued to do anything they both could do to get through each day. Even with paying the bills and putting food on the table, they still managed to save money on the side for holidays, birthdays and special occasions like little vacations or incase of an emergency. The challenges with this were hard because of putting money away there were always other expenses to like gas for the car, car insurance, money for laundry, and household essentials. As I grew older I became to understand more about life needs and how everything costs money.
The challenges they faced lead them to never give up and saving money was always a smart idea even at tough times. This smart idea to save money made me smart with money. It made me think before I spend. This impacted me for a lifetime lessons ahead because I have got this trait from my mother and father as I was growing up over the years. . I’ve learned to be smart I wanted my license and a car and to do so I needed a job I got hired at age sixteen and worked at Taco Bell, I started to work every other day after school and even on weekends. My paychecks would go into my savings account and wouldn’t be touched. My goal that I strived was to get enough money in my account to take classes and road lessons to earn my license. Once I had enough money to pay for all of that, I strived to save more money in my account to soon by a car. After working many hours and many weekends of saving a lot of pays I finally had enough money to buy my own car! My persistence to save money on my own has been a great mind set to achieving my goals.
Over the years of growing up I’ve learned to be persistent I had a experience in my life that has happened to me when I broke my ankle right after the holidays, when I just spend so much money buying gifts for my family and girlfriend. I wasted so much money on gifts that my money I’ve saved up over time was getting low. I didn’t expect to break my ankle. This was the worst downfall in my life so far, because of my ankle I couldn’t work. Just because I couldn’t work didn’t mean my bills would disappear, I still had to pay my car insurance, phone bill and my gym membership. I was persistent and smart to have had money saved up and put it on the side like my parents did. My effort to had saved a lot of money helped me in the end. I had enough saved to pay my bills for two months of my injury.
Growing up over the years my parents impacted a lifetime lessons that I will never forget. I have understood that just because you have a job doesn’t mean you make enough to get through life. I was also smart like them to always have put money on the side incase of anything happened.Persistence is the key to a solid foundation of achieving your goals, whatever they may be. Whether they are big or small. My mother always has said, ” You have never failed until you quit trying”. Persistence is the opposite of quitting, I believe because of my persistence one day I will have a better paying job, own my own home, be able to hopefully live life without struggling. Theses three main components I have learned will be with me throughout life.

Persistence by definition means a continued effort; to keep trying. I would say I have always been very persistent in life. This would be a trait I seem to get from both my parents. I grew up in a middle class family, where both my parents never finished high school or even went to college. They were teenagers when I was born and not much help from their parents.Then they were in their early twenties and also had my sister Taylor and my brother Ryan.

When I was younger I really didn’t realize how much they had to struggle, but as I became older I can see how hard they tried to make sure we always had food to eat and a roof over our heads. My dad always would worked hard jobs with long hours, just to make sure all three of us had all the new gadgets and electronics. Just like all the other kids had, he never wanted us to feel left out, but to achieve that he would work from before the sun came up and didn’t get home until after it went down. My mother later returned to school to receive her GED, then took classes to study to receive her license to become a certified nurse aide. This was another job with long hours and much labor. She still managed to work a full time job and still have the time to be the best mom to all three of her children.

My point is growing up I have seen how persistent both my parents were. When everyone else doubted them, they still managed to make sure the bills were paid and the food was always on the table for all of us. We always managed to get what we wanted for Christmas (except the time I asked for a Porsche. . . I was 12!). And yet we still was able to go on beautiful family vacations.Our first, was a family trip to Hershey park in Pennsylvania . We even went on cruises to places like Ocho Rios, Jamaica and Cozumel, Mexico and the Cayman Islands; we did it multiple times. I guess that’s when I really started to realize I was fortunate because a lot of my friends never even had the opportunity to leave the state never mind travel abroad, visit other countries and see other cultures – an experience I am truly grateful for. I was able to do those things because my parents persisted on making sure we had those opportunities in our lives. No matter what they had to do to give it to us, even if it was working late or working extra hours, they did anything they could to give it all to us.

I get my persistence from them, they inspire me, they push me to work hard, to stay in school and make the right choices. They have shown me what persistence does, and how it does not matter where you come from or how little you may have but rather the harder you work the bigger the payoff is. I have had the same job since I was sixteen, I moved up from crew member to crew trainer. I have saved all my money, sometimes never even touching my pays just to be able to pay for my own licence and buy my own car. Which I did, I bought myself a Pontiac Grand Am 1999 all on my own with my money. I even save money aside after buying the car to get a radio system and have money in the bank in case anything happens to it. It took a lot of persistence to get those things on my own. I didn’t want help instead, I wanted to do it by myself. I also wanted to show that I had responsibility. I also graduated high school even though I struggled my four years. I received my diploma and graduated in the trade of Auto Mechanics at Diman Regional and now I take classes to work towards being involved in law enforcement at Bristol Community College.

Persistence is the key to a solid foundation of achieving your goals, whatever they may be. Whether they are big or small. My mother always has said, ” You have never failed until you quit trying”. Persistence is the opposite of quitting, I believe because of my persistence one day I will have a better paying job, own my own home, be able to hopefully live life without struggling. Even one day be able to take my parents on a vacation paid by me. It would be my way of saying thank you for everything they have done.

Have you ever had an experience that happen to you that made you put something off to the side? Or told yourself that won’t ever happen to me? Maybe even laugh at someone else because they experienced something you wouldn’t think it could happen? When something unpleasant happens to you in life you must stay strong and be persistent to find a way to overcome it. I been through many experiences in my life when I had to keep moving forward. This one experience that I am going through in my life has brought everything downhill for me.

It all began on December 27,2013 after the holidays going into the New Year. It was an average Friday, I went to the gym with my father like every other morning it was are routine to start the day off. After a good gym session, I went home to freshen up for the day. I then drove to get my scheduled haircut appointment I had at Shear Genius for my Friday night out with some friends. Later on after my haircut I picked up my girlfriend from her first job at the YMCA and drove her to Burlington for her second job because she didn’t have a car at that time. While driving, we had a conversation in the car I had asked about how her day was at her first job. She then told me about her day with the children in her group and how she had fun playing soccer with them. After talking we then arrived at Burlington and she said “you’re lucky, I have to work both jobs and one being late while you go and have fun. Make sure you pick me up tonight at ten o’clock” as she was getting out of the car. I replied “don’t worry I will be there at ten o’clock, have a good shift”.

Afterward, I went home and call my buddy Khoury up to ask about tonight’s plans. I asked him if I should drive up to his place in Westport or he would come to my house in Fall River to pick me up. Khoury told me to drive up to Westport at his place because he wasn’t out of work yet. His job is a family owned company with his father, it’s a Limousine company – Salon Salon Limousine. He had to wait to make sure all the limos were ready for tonight and all customers were taken care of before going out. Its like a 15 minute drive up to Khoury’s place, when I got there I parked my car in the parking lot. Then I went to look for him and double check that everything is done before we left for the night. He said “yeah, bro everything’s all set just give me a minute while I lock the doors and meet me in the Chevy Suburban”. He then came to the SUV and told me that we are going to pick up are other friends that we went to highschool with plus some new friends we met. Once we picked up everyone, we were all hungry because it was already seven o’clock and none of us had eaten. So we all agreed to McDonalds. We then arrived to Mcdonalds, parked the SUV and we all went inside to order. Me and my friends love McDonalds, it was our favorite place to go to after school for a quick bite. We loved Mcdouble’s ordered like ten of them for all of us. You can’t have burgers without fries and drinks we ordered some large fries and go some drinks. After getting our food we sat down, and began to devour our food. Once we were all done with eating, we got back in the SUV and starting talking. My friend Randy said “Guys, I need to go home because I got work in the morning”. Khoury then said “Alright bro, ill bring you home. Anybody else needs to go home?”. Everyone had work in the morning so he dropped everyone home after Randy.

Khoury started driving to Randy’s house in Somerset , its like a 20 minute drive from the Mcdonald’s we were at. I was sitting at the end, near the door behind the driver side and Randy was in the middle. Once we got to his house, I had to get out of the SUV to let him out. When I opened the door and got out of the SUV, I didn’t step on the hitch step up which is if a vehicle is too high off the ground the hitch step is used get up from the ground to the inside of the SUV or high lifted trucks. Instead, I jumped right out of the SUV on to the cement not knowing that it was icey out. I immediately fell on black ice, I fell so hard it hurt really bad. When I fell I got right back up and starting running around saying “Ouch,ouch, ouch” and used some vulgar language. I sat back in the SUV, telling all my friends I think I broke my ankle as I am rolling up my jeans to look at it. My friend Gary and Cameron both skateboard and had sprained their ankles many times, telling me “Coti, it’s not broken it might be sprained , it don’t look that bad”. Khoury then drove me back to his place where my car was parked so I could go home. Before leaving, I immediately called my mom and told her everything that happen. She told me to drive home because it wasn’t my driving foot but I felt dizzy so I asked Gary if he could drive my car for me. We were going to go straight to the hospital to check it out. But it was already 9:45 and I still had to pick up my girlfriend in 15 minutes. As we were driving to Fall River, my girlfriend called me asking where are you? I told her just to walk home because I have to go to the hospital for my ankle but she wanted to come with me so Gary drove to her work to pick her up before going to the hospital.

My mom then called me telling me to get home first so my sister will drive me to the hospital. Gary drove me home with my girlfriend then we got in my sister’s car and drove to Charlton Memorial Hospital. After checking in at the hospital, they took me in immediately and did x-rays on my foot. They gave me ice after the x-rays were taken of my ankle. A few minutes went by and the doctor came back with the results. She said “Coti, it’s severely sprained. I am going to give you brace and some crutches. Please stay off of it and ice it.” I asked what about work? She said “You’re not going to work for the next four days.” After getting all this bad news, my sister brought me home and my girlfriend slept over that night.

The next day, I was just thinking about how stupid I am because I didn’t get out of my friend’s SUV the correct way. A few hours later, around noon – the doctor from the hospital called me and said she read the x-ray wrong and it’s broken. She also say that Monday morning I must go to Dr. Rock and check it again. Monday came and I went to him he gave me a air boot for my ankle. Ever since then I been having this air boot on my foot, I haven’t been at work and I had to do physical therapy so my ankle could heal.

This being the worst event in my life because I wouldn’t think something like this would happen to me. I would always laugh at people if they fell on ice but it now happened to me and its been terrible experience. Persistence helped me through this event because since I ain’t working and can’t leave the house. I still have bills like my car insurance and cell phone. Before breaking my ankle, I would save money every week from my paycheck just to save in case of an emergency. My persistent of saving money helped me alot because I am not bringing in a income, my saved money helped me for the past two months to help me get through the challenges of paying bills and get by without working. Also, my family and girlfriend has helped with things like food, gas and other needs.