Marra 1

Mina Marra
Professor Probst
English Composition 1
24 September 2015
Family
I heard my name, I thought I was dreaming. All of the sudden I was being shaken I
opened my eyes and saw my little brother Vincent there screaming, WAKE UP MINA ITS
CHRISTMAS! He than scurried to wake up my sister Gianna. I turned towards the window and
watched as the sun began to slowly brighten up the dull sky. The clock read 8:00 a.m. Im not
usually an early bird. But on a day like this, ive never gotten to sleep past 9:00 a.m. I sighed
aloud and got out of bed. Thats when I began to smell it. The bitter, yet invitingly warm smell
filled the atmosphere, making my taste buds ache for the creamy, smooth coffee I loned for. I put
on my blue fluffy robe and walked down the stairs into the living room then saw all the presents
under the tree. There was big, medium and small ones. One had a green and red wrapping paper
on it with a dozen reindeer smiling back at me. The name, Jane was written in black sharpie.
My mom called my name, I looked up at her and she was holding a blue cup of coffee for me. I
immediately started salivating and reached for the cup. I sat down on the single back leather
couch and waited to open our presents. After waiting for what felt like forever, we finally got to
open them. One by one we waited for our turn. The best part about Christmas day for my family
is we get all of our presents from Gesu Bambino (Baby Jesus) on the 24th. Although, on the 25th
we meet the rest of my family at my grandmas house for presents from them and homemade
breakfast. Its an italian tradition weve done for my whole life. Have you ever been influenced
by some important person that helped you be the person you are today? I have been. The people

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that have had influence on me are the most important human beings, my family. They helped
shape me by traditions like on Christmas, they helped in my development from child to adult,
and they taught me about responsibilities and how important they are in everyday life.
In every family there are different traditions. Some have existed for generations and
others have only just been introduced. Most traditions are kept because they are so much fun,
bring the family together, and offer a chance to create many happy memories with loved ones.
Throughout my childhood, my family had a bunch of traditions. As I stated previously, we
celebrate Christmas day on December 24th instead of 25th like other families. For Christmas eve
a tradition we stick to also has to do with our religion. For dinner, we do not eat meat only meals
of fish and seafood. This has to do with my religion because in Italian , it is called The Feast of
the Seven Fishes, also known as La Vigilia. The reason behind this is for the midnight birth of
the baby Jesus. For example, for weddings a tradition we do is called La Borsa. This is when
family and friends of the bride and groom help defray the cost of the wedding. The bride carries
a small satin bag and the guest place cash inside. Guests can even place cash inside in exchange
for a dance with the bride. What this tradition teaches me is to always help out your family. Even
if you dont have a lot to give, just giving a little bit goes a long way. This helped shape me into
the person I am today because it makes me appreciate the little things in life. Another tradition
my family has is when someone passes away. A funeral mass with last rights and a liturgy is held
with an open casket, so mourners can kiss the forehead of the departed. This is a very important
tradition my family has because it teaches us to enjoy life to the fullest and when your time
comes you will be gathered by those who love you that will give your spirit to God. My parents
taught me that traditions through religion are very important in my family because it is a huge
part of our culture and it gives us a way to lead our life. This has helped shaped me into who I

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am today because it offers me a sense of identity. Traditions provide positive, reaffirming selfconcept messages when society in this generation bombard everyone with negative and
confusing messages about themselves from their movies, magazines, and social media. A sense
of identity has helped me promote feelings of belonging and acceptance which I act upon others
because of it.
Development is a natural part of life, it allows us to grow, move around better, think
differently, and to make progress in life. My family has to do a lot with how ive developed.
They have helped me develop physically, intellectually, emotionally, and socially. Physical
development is the growth in children which gives them the ability to use their bodies and
physical skills. My parents put me in T-ball when I was two years old to help me get stronger
physically. By doing this, my motor skills growing up got stronger and have distributed to my
physical structure as an adult. Not only did putting me in sports have to do with me growing
physically but also the diet my parents introduced to me as a child. This has helped shaped who I
am today because it has made me eat healthy and grow up strong physically. Intellectual
development is the construction of thought processes, including remembering, problem solving,
and decision-making. This development is key from childhood through adolescence to
adulthood. My family gave me the opportunity to develop mentally by teaching me to make
decisions on my own and letting me deal with the consequences to come depending on my
decision. This has shaped how I am today because I am now able to know right from wrong
when making decisions as an adult. It gives me a sense of understanding what to do when set up
with a tough issue which will help me through adulthood. Emotional development I feel is the
most important. In order to love life and love yourself you need to be strong emotionally. My
family focused mainly on emotional growth such as always being positive, and sharing their

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feelings. This is because they learned that children respond and copy how they see other people
go about things. My parents helped by talking with me about their feelings. They helped me gain
control over strong emotions when they taught and modeled successful ways of coping with their
own feelings. Losing control is capable when having strong emotions, they taught me that having
strong feelings is a normal way of life. They also taught me how to deal with losing control of
my emotions which helped me as an adult because now I can share my emotions and I can know
how to problem solve through those emotions. Also, they lectured me about other peoples
emotions and how they can affect me. They said I need to be aware of others emotions because
sometimes those emotions can tie into yours which will make you defensive and can hurt your
feelings. Except instead of teaching me to shield my feelings when it comes to someone elses
they taught me to open mine up to others. When it comes to emotional development my family
simply taught me how to be patient, to listen to others, and have empathy which helps shape who
I am today. Social Development refers to how people develop social and emotional skills
throughout life. The relationship that I have with my family and that I am able to have with other
people is all due to my social development. My family made sure to get me involved with others
through school, and sports starting off when I was little. This is because in the future they knew
that I need to have social skills in order to be successful. Also, they taught me that being able to
have those social skills makes it easier for me to better manage my own feelings and needs and
to respond appropriately to the feelings and needs of others. This has helped shape who I am
today because now I can interact with other people in order to solve a problem, have a
conversation, ask a question, or anything that I would need in order to interact with others. My
family has helped me develop socially by giving me the chance to interact with others, physically
by giving me the nutrients and putting me in sports to gain my physical structure, intellectually

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by allowing me to make my own decisions and consequences of those decisions, and lastly
emotionally by sharing their feelings to help me control my strong emotions.
When you look up family in the dictionary it says, a group of individuals living under
one roof and usually under one head. While this can be true about a family, it is not the only
way or correct way that family can be defined. Family is more accurately described as a group of
people who might not be related by blood or marriage but who sincerely care and love each
other. My family is there for me every step of the way and they provide support that I cant get
from anyone else. How I define myself is through my family and the things they taught and
helped me with growing up. They helped me with development growing up from a child to an
adult. They did this by focusing on me physically, mentally, emotionally, and socially. The reason
behind this way because they knew those are key things in life to be happy and positive. My
family also has religious traditions that have lasted generations because they felt like it would
give me a sense of identity, and with that it gives me a way to live my life. So when people ask
how I define myself I say, I am religious because of the traditions my family provided me with. I
am happy because of the way I developed throughout childhood to adulthood with the help of my
family. And lastly, I am faithful to those around me that have filled me with such joy and delight.