Cruz 1

Jose Cruz
Ms. Marlowe
Expo P5
13 October 2015
A Stick in the Stream of Progression
Far and back beyond the passage of a stream that would be called life,
a child was born in the same thing he would later come to love above all
natural fruits, Orange County. He was born naturally, unlike his other two
brother/sister that had to be taken out from the womb directly from the stomach
area, after that point nothing can be recalled save for some cards. They might
have been the cards of fate, or some other strange force, perhaps an illusion in
the child's mind in which they never existed, but for now it is assumed that
this is the earliest memory he can keenly remember. There are many things this
child has said, done, and heard, that would produce the man, the bear, nice guy,
or whatever you want to call him that presents hisbeginnings to you. That guy
would be Jose Cruz, and this is a small recollection of things that have affected
my life from the start that developed into my mindset today.
The cards mentioned earlier were actually flashcards, combined of front
and back a word to pronounce and a relatively easy math question on the
other side. Even early on, I was preparing and enchancing my intelligence
before I had even attended schooling. I suppose that is why my instructors
regarded my so highly after seeing I was passing some basic placement tests in
school. I didn't even attend preschool, at first I thought perhaps I was too smart
for my own good, but it turns out I was put on a waiting list and never got
mentioned again. I'm still on that waiting list to this day. In the physical area,
my family lived in a small ground building complex just next to the main
town and lived next to a nice old lady. My brother and I used to run around
her house and play for hours until we were brought back home. I can
remember the fondest smell, a kind of smell in her house that felt very old
but smelled like a calming green tea and bitter memories. Other than the old
lady, at leastI didn't have much interactions with anyone other than my family.
This is why in my mind my family is the closest friends and neighbors that I
can really talk to, I feel as though everyone else are complete strangers.
No origin story is complete without some struggles overcame or "eternal

burdensupon your back that is hard to carry," so I say we get to the

interesting parts of this story. I never had the stabelest relationship with my only
sister, originally we got along just fine until we reached a certain age, 10 or
so, until we had a spike of tension. The earliest conflict I remember is that of
when she told me that santa claus was not real. I was devasted and in tears I
think, and told her to leave me alone for the next couple of weeks. It seems
silly, but I don't think I have ever forgaven her for this as she never
apologized either. The next and final action of conflict between us was at a
certain time and date and place in our house when I suppose that I had
annoyed her for whatever reason, and she hit me in the back of the head. The
head is another story I will tell in a second, but for now that is why my
mom grounded my sister andwe hae become distant from each other ever since.
I might as be so bold as to proclaim I do not have any experience in
interacting with my sister at all, we too seem strangers. As for the head
incident, my parents had previously bought a glass coffee table to relax outside
with. No sooner was I crawling under it horsing around, when I decide to slam
my head against the roof and shards of glass pierced my head. I don't
remember much after that, but my mom tells me I was bleeding profoundly and
had to rush me to the hospital. Who knows, maybe that's why I gained a new
mind after all,or it was simply a tragic mistake in buying glass near children. I
still have a small scar/bump on my head somewhere, but it is covered by my
rapidly growing hair.School is ironically where most of my problems come from
anyways, so there is no other way of avoiding it. The first problems I had was
an eating disorder and a speech impedement. I ate so much and gained so
much weight it gave me the riskof high cholesterol levels in my liver and
other places, I even ate from the garbage cans at one point because I saw so
much food go to waste in my view, and decided to grab it. Of course over
time I saw through disgusted faces and the doctor's scolding that this was
wrong, so I naturally limited myself and lost significant weight over the years,
though there is still some meat on these bones of mine. The speech
impedement wasn't too severe as I can recall, but I simply misprounced certain
words in both english and spanish that my parents felt I needed a little push
ahead. Perhaps I felt a certain shame in not speaking right that I hardly ever
talked at all, in fear that some would have no idea what I would be saying.
My first friend I ever had was back in elementary, I proclaimed him my best
friend but looking back I don't think heever quite felt the same. We had our
run in the school, then after that I said that we would meet again and told
him if we could be friends again. He said surely enough, we met again in
Moval high school. We glanced at one another, and itwas at that point I
realized we were no longer friends. He was with some other guy that I think

had some sort of resentment towards me for whatever reason, but he looked so
similiar to Luigi in appearance I eventually let it go out of the humor of
it.One other major event I would care to share is that of my first chance of
violence. It was back in middle school I believe, in the boy's locker room
where I had anothersupposed friend who was a pretty boy, very popular as I
recall as we had a one way friendship in which I would shamelessly cling to
his side. Just as pathethic as my previous friend who appeared as though he
would later on in his life join a gang of some sorts. I guess I don't always
have the best luck of meeting the right people in my life. Anywho, back to the
locker room incident, some boys were horsing around roughhousing as I was
changing in the corner as they all decided to pin the irnonsensical fighting
towards me. What I didn't state before was I was, perhaps still am, sort of a
crybaby obtained from most likely my mother's side of the family and at one
point cried in my elementary because I felt so alone there, and with this
random pin up against me, (they held me as another shoved against me), I
began to cry. All the boys stopped what they were doing and just stared at
me, which made me feeleven worse because I hate when attention is falsely
focused upon me. They quickly let me go, as I noticed in the background as,
sure enough, the pretty boy was simply staring at the whole event. I felt rage
against him too for not caring to step up for me,but I knew it was just his
persona and let it go as well. I am not too particularly holding grudges against
people or feel anger towards anything at all. As stated once I believe, an
opportunity to have my revenge upon the random bully as others held him near
the field and told me to take a good beating out of him as he attempted to
doso to me. I again let it go and simply walked away. We had a fairly
neutral respect towards one another afterwards, though I suppose he was simply
trying to avoid me ironically enough.
To a more personal degree, I can safely state I am very well mannered
and disciplined thanks to my parents. There is always this sense of fear you
sense whenever you face your parents on something, especially after you have
committed a wrong doing and have to face consequences. This was specially
true withmy father, at his prime he was he absolute authority in our family
whenever he was around and expected total obedience from his children, or else
faced the punishment of the sandal or belt. It was through this fear that I
behaved the best to my ability around the family and listened to my mother,
which reflected back in my school and future behavior. At one point my
mother had put me in a time out chair in the living room and told me not to
move until she said so, for that reason I sat on thatchair for about 2 hours
until I worked up the nerve to ask whether my punishment was over, and to
her mistake she tells me she completely forgot about it and toldme I could go.

This is another reason perhaps why I have never publically cursed/said a swear
word in public in my entire life, and have little hatred over anything. Having so
little trust in anyone anymore, it brings upon the fact that I have very limited
with any one else that I find worthy of my time, even so the rare friends
that I dofind eventually move physically or mentally away from me and leave
me in the dust tobe forgotten. This explains why I never had a girlfriend, but I
really don't want to bring up that subject. Most of those I have met were
either insane or not right in the head as well. Enough said, I hold high
expectations for myself and others I encounter, perhaps too high in fact that it
repells those who I generally meet.
That about concludes all that there is to my origin story, the good, the
bad, and all in between that represents the oddity of my life and what I hold
inside this big brain of mine that seems to hold all these memories in check
as they helped to define my character.