My Autobiography Essay
My life has always been so interesting and unpredictable. I often think about whether I am a lucky person or not because many bad things happen to me all the time. It all started when I was a bit more than a month. (By the way, I was born in October 29, 1988 in Yerevan, Armenia) It was in December, 7, 1988 when my mother took me with her to visit her parents in her hometown Gyumri, Armenia. After some days there was an Earthquake that resulted in the death of a number of people, among them there was my uncle (mom’s brother). Can you imagine, my mother and I came there just for a visit and there was an Earthquake? We were lucky to be alive. However, my grandparents suffered a lot as they had lost their son. Especially my grandfather was depressed. He was a talented engineer, painter and a philosopher but his son’s death took a part of his soul and he didn’t want not only to work, but also to live. My mother was really upset as he couldn’t even smile and was in deep depression. So, my mother and I had to move to Gyumri permanently to take care of her parents.
There was the second bad thing in my live. My parents divorced because my father refused to leave his prestigious job of an architect in Yerevan. He chose his job to his wife and son. He used to say that my mother and I were the sense of his life but he gave us up so quickly and without even hesitating. As for me, I think if you leave your family it means that you don’t need it any more. As a result, I used to believe that I was the main reason my father had left us and I often used to think what I might have done wrong. I wanted to find any reasons why my dad didn’t want to see me.
Anyway, now you know why I spent my childhood with my mother and grandparents in Gyumri, a city were electricity was very limited. Now it sounds so strange to live practically without electricity, nevertheless, I have experienced such a thing in my life.
My first memories are from the music school. When I was a small boy, I think I was about 3, my grandmother would always take me to school in Gyumri with her where she was a violin teacher. I spent a lot of time there so as you can suggest, I have a lot of different memories from that time. But as I have mentioned before, the schools in Gyumri at that time were different from the up-to-date schools due to the earthquake and the collapse of the USSR that resulted that there was no heating and electricity at schools. Can you imagine children at school were freezing? I remember getting lost in the sounds of Vivaldi when the students played with frozen hands during the wintertime. I was looking out of the window and dreaming how I would play the violin. I wanted to grow up as quickly as possible so that I could take the violent lessons myself. The time passed and when I grew up that dream vanished away as it became obvious that I don’t have any musical talent. Unfortunately, it is so. At that time I realized that I want to be a doctor, not a musician and in addition, I had a talent for that and since my childhood I have always adored the medical programs.
As to the other memories, I also remember very vividly the philosophical debates under candlelight between my grandfather and his friend. As I was too small, now I can hardly remember what these debates were about, however, I remember listening to every single word they said. I watched the sadness in my grandfather’s eyes but at that time I didn’t understand it. It was only within 5 years that I realized that it had been the sadness about his child (my uncle) that he had lost in the earthquake, who was only 22.
So, I went to school 7 years after the earthquake but not much had changed. People still had difficult time those days. There was still very limited electricity in the city and besides, we could have it only 2 hours a day. As a result, it was under the candlelight that I had to do my homework most of the time. In addition, as school didn’t have heating, during the wintertime at school we would sit with gloves on because it was extremely cold. However, I should admit that it didn’t even bother me much as I considered it to be normal and I was accustomed to such cold. I loved my school a lot and I was a diligent student. Besides, my favorite subject was biology.
Practically at that time I had a terrible shock when my grandmother got sick, she had epileptic seizures. I kept on saying she would be ok; however, terrific pictures along with scaring thoughts occurred in my mind. What will I do if she dies? Will she suffer? Will I ever see her again? What if it is the last time I ever see her? What if I wake up tomorrow and she will be no more alive? I tried not to think in such a way but I couldn’t. I was extremely scared and would pray to God for her to be alive and healthy. I tried to spend as much time as I could with her. I remember sitting next to her bedside for the whole night.
Fortunately, my grandmother recovered and after feeling better her violin was the first thing she would ask for. She used to say that violin was her oxygen. And I loved when she was playing. I don’t know why, but each time she played I imagined something good and my thoughts became positive, even when something bad had happened before. I remember once when I was about 5 years I had fallen and hurt my elbow and was crying greatly. My mother and grandfather tried to calm me down but they didn’t succeed. Then my grandmother came with the violin and began to play. I stopped crying at once and began listening to the music. While she was playing I was absolutely happy.
Some time later, when I was 9, my mother decided to remarry to a man who was an attorney. Everybody thought that he was deeply in love with her. However, I never liked him and didn’t want that marriage. I used to imagine how my dad would come back and my mother wouldn’t marry that attorney. I needed my father a lot and was sure that my mother and I could be happy only with him. Unfortunately, that never happened and they married. After their marriage, my life changed completely because he turned out to be an emotionally abusive person and as a result, I was often traumatized as a child.
As it was mentioned above, my stepfather was an attorney and he worked for the government, so he knew a lot of secrets. When the government in Armenia changed, the new government did not want him to be there and they would threaten him constantly to leave the country. Hence, in 1996 he came to the USA and promised my mother to take us also to America. My mother suffered a lot without him and was waiting all the time for the day she could be with him again. As a result, it was in 2003 when my stepfather brought me and my mother. My mother was happy but I wasn’t as I didn’t want to leave my country.
Anyway, after our arrival to the USA, my mom and I could not believe what my stepfather had turned into. He was always drunk and almost all the time he spent in casinos. Both my mother and I suffered a lot. I remember my mother crying at night when he came home absolutely drunk and behaved badly and noisily. I also remember putting the pillow over my head, hoping that I could not hear him cussing and I was doing my homework with a flashlight under the pillow.
In addition, I still thought about my father. I even have tried to find and get in touch with him for many times. I thought that he was my only hope out of the misery, but all my attempts failed. Every time I begin speaking about my father, my mom closes this topic. I understand her and moreover, I think she still has not forgiven him for leaving her and thinking only about his career and making money while both she and I needed him the most. As for me, as I grew up, I understand that my father doesn’t worth us as he had left us when we needed him much.
Yes, I had a rather difficult life but I have always known that I will overcome all the difficulties. I have studied a lot and moreover, I like learning something new, so I graduated from the high school a year early with the high honors and now I’m at California State University Northridge studying biology. I know, hope and believe that I will become an optometrist.
