Youth affected by upbringing
By: Stella Fahey
Embedded Files
If a family was perfect, what would that mean? Both parents home? No fighting? Nothing to disrupt the seamlessly perfect facade? Well nobody's family is perfect, and to be frank every person has their own struggle.
Struggles transition from minor little noticings to big drastic changes that shift the dynamic in family and other relationships. Stories range from being personal to just rumors you hear.
Families not only deal with events that tear their connections apart but they also inherently have ones that bring them together, make them closer, change their lives more than was thought possible. This article touches base on traumatic and uplifting stories as well as anecdotes from family, celebrities, and different historical events that impacted the youth then and now.
Growing up without your normal family dynamics or growing up raised by a different person, not your parents, can affect how you view the world, and how it views you. My grandmother, Consuelo Fahey but when she was younger she was known as Consuelo Perez. My grandmother was born in New York in 1946 and then moved to Key West, FL with her grandmother when she was around two years old. Her parents had gotten divorced and fought for custody, after her father won, he realized he wasn’t fit to raise a child alone. Her grandmother, Consuelo Gomez, took over and raised my grandmother till she was nineteen, which is when her grandmother passed away.
“Living and being raised by a grandmother was different but not difficult.” My grandmother says, “It taught community and loyalty to each other and both were there for each other when the highs and lows of life struck.” My grandmother taught her the ways of the world while her grandmother taught her how to be a person and how to live. My grandmother’s families were constantly fighting, there was a heated rivalry between her mom’s side and her dads. My grandmother's mother took her sister and lived with the rest of their family way up north, while it was good there her sister was always wanting to leave and be with my grandmother down south in Florida.
My grandmother wasn't the only person to grow up differently than others. Celebrities like Charlize Theron and Gordon Ramsay both had very difficult and traumatic childhoods. Both share a family where community grew from unlikely circumstances.
Many celebrities and other important people have had struggles that not only impacted their childhoods but impacted their lives today. One example is Charlize Theron. This academy award winning actress uses her struggles to benefit her career.
Charlize grew up in Benoli, South Africa, and when she was fifteen her mother shot and killed her abusive, alcoholic father in front of her in self-defense after he threatened them with a gun. She and her family faced severe poverty due to her fathers domestic abuse. This event affected her view on survival which impacted her role as Andy in the Old Guard and other survival based movies and series she was a part of.
Gordon Ramsay, a decorated and world renowned chef and Michelin star restaurant owner of roughly seventeen restaurants, and currently has eight Michelin stars in his career. He’s a tv show host, a celebrity food judge, and has twenty-five tv series. When you hear his name, when you see his face you know him immediately; but would you guess he has a troubling past? Would you guess that his older brother, Ronnie Ramsay, had a severe heroin addiction? Most likely not, but that doesn't take away from the fact that his childhood struggles have shaped him into the person he is today.
Gordon Ramsay at the significant turning point age was accustomed to domestic abuse from his father and his brother's addiction. His father would commonly break gifts his mother would receive and abuse her as well. Gordon being the older of the two brothers made his role in the family quite different from others. When Gordon was forty, his younger brother Ronnie, who still struggled with addiction, was arrested in Bali after officers found 100 mg of heroin on him. From constantly moving, an abusive household, poverty, and dealing with an alcoholic father and addict brother made Gordon's upbringing was very different from what most would expect, but that didn't stop him from pursuing his passions and fulfilling a life of incredible accomplishments.
If family relationships and dynamics weren’t already a struggle, historical events like COVID-19 and 9/11 also impacted families and the youths' outcome. COVID-19 affected every family differently as well as 9/11 but COVID was more targeted at select people while COVID affected a whole nation and then some.
To date early 2019, COVID-19 broke out and many families were left with little to no resources to help them survive this pandemic. The National Library of Medicine states that COVID-19 not only added to family chaos but inevitably added to the natural stressors of family dynamics. Social distancing and quarantining became natural and something of everyday life for those either growing up during the pandemic or just living through it.
COVID-19’s didn’t just affect families it also affected those who didn’t, at the time, know anything but masks and social distancing. Constant tests and elbow touches. The different communities affected from this mass spread disease went through so much just to never be the same again. Many families, who for example, have members that would be in more serious health risks if they got sick and parents who worried for their young children's safety every time they might feel slightly different.
Families went through so much with each passing day and each passing struggle. From growing up raised by someone else, abuse and traumatic times, and sicknesses passed around threatening the well being of everyone. Households grew apart and stronger, some improved while others were hindered with quotidian hardships, many were met with opportunities that flourished their lives and careers while others let the trying times get the best of them. After learning so much about all these different celebrities and my own family as well as the affects of diseases this broadened my horizons on these issues and showed me how much it not only affects youth but how they grow from it.
Page updated
Report abuse