Memoir

     Families come in all shapes and sizes. Family isn’t determined by how many people are in your family, or how many set of grandparents you have or even if you have both set of parents in your life. It’s about so much more than that. Family is about having those people that you know at the end of the day no matter what the situation they are there for you. They care for your wellbeing and anything that you could need they are the ones to be standing there in the middle of your darkest days with open arms to relieve the struggle. 
     It truly took me some time to grasp that concept. It took situations to occur in my life to realize that you don’t always need so many people in your life to consider that family. That’s what family should be there for is the worst and always fight to find the best in something together. Sometimes under the worst circumstances, those are the moments that bring you closer than you ever thought imaginable. For at those moments nothing means more than the people that surround you and the moments you share together as a family.
     One the morning of March 6 2003, I truly learned what it meant to be a family. It had been what seemed to be a normal day. It was the middle of winter and snow had started to cover the streets of Fall River. I remember it seeming as peaceful as could be as if there was not a worry in the world to pass the mind. I remember being excited because that day at school it was a so called “relaxed day.” My fourth grade teacher wanted to reward everyone for doing so good on our tests that we had taken a few days before. Chips, drinks, games, and movies were shared all that day to reward us for our hard work. That day had been going so perfect, or so I had thought.
     I had been called down early from the main office saying I was going to be picked up from school early by my mother due to the inclement weather. Excited at the fact of going home early, I did not ask any questions and quickly hurried to see my mother and have that relief consume me. There had been something much more waiting for me in that office. As I walked into the office I arrive to my mother standing in the hallway with my older cousin Nathan, both with their eyes overwhelmed with tears of sorrow. Suddenly panic began to fill through my body. Frantically the thoughts started to run through my head. Keeping one important thought most prominent than any other. I began to think about my grandfather because at that moment I knew he was lying in a hospital bed waiting on that moment for God to open his arms and take him from the ones whom loved him most.
     I softly uttered the words, “Please tell me Vavo is okay.” I remember the steps which seemed like forever of my mother walking towards me and taking my hands into hers and saying, “He is with God now sweetheart, I am sorry he did not make it.” The words that I had just taken in hurt like daggers penetrating the emptiness of my little heart. No consoling could have patched up the wounds from the words that had been spoken to me. My world had completely ended at that very moment and it was unimaginable to think how we would ever move on from this. How a family could be a family when the glue that held us all together was gone.
     Walking up the stairs to my grandparent’s house and as I grasped the knob to open the door the rush of disappointment that would overwhelm me that he would not be sitting in that very chair which was known to everyone was his. I envisioned and wished to see that comforting face sitting there playing his card games and the moments when he got excited whenever he would win. Entering through that door and seeing nothing but an empty chair and a house full of pain and tears, the reality had finally started to set in. This had really happened and he was really gone. The only comfort that I had was that everyone in that room felt that same pain and sorrow as I was feeling at that moment. I truly at the very moment learned the meaning of family. What it really meant to love and be loved as a family. It wasn’t about how many gifts you got at Christmas or how much money you got in cards on your birthday, but the moments you share that make you love a little more than you did the day before.

Rhetorical Analysis

          The setting of the advertisement is in a modern family home at the family dinner table. The lighting is bright and it seems like a warm comfortable setting with a friendly caring atmosphere. The bright colors in the ad are being used to show happiness amongst the family. There is a family of five being shown in the ad. A father, mother, two boys, and a young girl are shown. The parents are about mid too late 30s. The oldest son about 12 years of age, the second son about seven years, and lastly the daughter looking about five years of age. The youngest daughter is wearing a fairy type costume with a wand and the rest of the family members are dressed I casual everyday clothing. Everyone in the photo is smiling and seems generally a happy loving family. The advertisement shows that they are happy to be having dinner together as a family. It seems as if it was their favorite time of the day to be having dinner together at the family dinner table. The ad seems very uplifting with happy bright colors being used to show happiness and joy amongst the family members. I noticed that neither of the parents is on their cellular devices or any other type of electronic device while dinner is going on with their children. The children are not arguing with one another. On the other hand, laughing and smiles are being shown shared between the family members. Every person involved in the ad looks as if they fully enjoyed their day and would like to share their individual stories with one another.

            The company whom is providing the advertisement is Stouffers. This company makes quick and easy dinner options for families who would rather like to spend more time at the dinner table together rather than spending so much time preparing dinner. The company may want to show how their product can bring a family together around the dinner table unlike other competitors. Other families would be happy like this following family appears to be. The audience could be anyone trying to purchase this product, trying to bring the family together, or maybe just trying something new. I believe the aid is affective because it’s showing a happy family enjoying one another’s company over dinner and the happiness being shown across the table amongst everyone in the ad. The advertisement reflects an influential affect to any audience viewing the ad.

            “Every family dinner is a great story waiting to happen.” Family dinner is time to share stories about how everyone’s day was and what was not so great about it to solve and talk about it as a family. Meaning conversations seemed to be shared best around a family dinner table. The message seems to be as a family, dinner time is one of the most important times of the day. That is your personal one on one time with each other as a family. It’s when you share the topics and stories of your day with one another and express how each member of the family may be thinking/feeling. The ad appeals to the logical mind, the emotions, and the values of the target audience by showing that this could be your family. It may make you want to feel the happiness that is portrayed on their faces. Now ask yourself, is this how dinner time is in your family?

Choosing a Theme

     Family is the most important part of my life. That is why I feel like this would be a good topic for me to write about because it is something that I enjoy speaking about. For me, I have the outmost respect for single parents out there because my mother was a single parent. My sister and I would see our father twice a month but for the most part it was our mother. I could not imagine that being easy to do on your own. Hence is why family is so important to me. I feel that I am so close with my mother because my parents had divorced when I was at such a young age. Naturally, I clung to my mothers side. Having no father around twenty four seven did not immobilize me in anything I wanted to do. It was a tramatic event that occured in my younger years but I would not hold it accountable to why I could not do something just so I would have an excuse. I feel that some kids (mostly teenagers) like to point the finger at their parents for why they have not been successful in whatever they have wanted to do. Which I know first hand is not the case. I would like to compare the succession rate between a child growing up with a set of parents compared to a child with only a single parent in their lives. For my argument I would argue that having two parents does not necessarily mean a better/ happier family.



Other options:


Technology:

• Is technology doing more bad than good?
• Is it more benefical or harmful?
• Observe how internet has impaired certain skills humans should have & how we depend on internet to tell me.
• Argue paper vs screen

Food:

• Food is a huge part of my family & my culture.
• How food brings a family together.
• My grandmother being born & raised in the Acores & coming to America with the recepies she has learned to make while being in a different country & passing them onto her children.
• I would talk to my family members (grandmother, mother, aunts, etc.) & see how they like cooking & learning new things & sharing them with everyone to enjoy.
• I could argue between foreign cooking from different countries vs modern day cooking.