Tomaskovic 1

Shannon R. Tomaskovic
Tammy Davis
Composition 2
23 Jun 2014
Emotional Decisions at a Young Age Can be Life Changing
Many people in their teenage years believe they are invincible. Teenagers often make
their decisions based mostly on impulse and usually have no care for what happens to themselves
or others around them. These young aged teens seldom think rationally or consider the
consequences of their actions. Moments of just trying to fill an empty void in life can take you
down a long winding path. I, myself, learned the hard way at a very young age and had a life
changing experience that most teenagers might say could not or would not ever happen to them. I
am a prime example of this very idea and I wish to pass on my life experience so that my
children may learn from me before they ever make a emotional choice that may change their life
forever.
As a child I always wanted to be a step ahead of everyone. To me, the sun and the stars were
always at arms length, meaning there was nothing I could not do. On my track team, if a team
mate ran two miles in 20 minutes, I would make sure I ran three miles in 20 min. If my teacher
said to complete one lesson over the weekend I completed two lessons. I wanted to do home
school, so I could graduate early and begin collage. When my mom said clean the kitchen, I
cleaned the kitchen and the living room. I always needed that feeling of achievement. At that
Tomaskovic 2

time I felt it necessary to do what was needed to make me stand out in what I thought was a
normal family structured life.
I had two families; my father resided very far away in Washington D.C. with a very busy and
confidential career in the military. He was never able to make it to the normal functions parents
attend for their children. I used to call him my phone dad. In my mind I had big shoes to fill
being his daughter. I resided in Georgia with my mom, step dad, and two step brothers, with
whom I thought, I always had to be in competition with for our parents attention, or approval.
No matter how much love and praise I received from each parent it was never enough in my
mind. Something inside my heart was still missing. My moms famous words to me where
baby slow down, dont let life pass you by
Growing up, I really did not have a set plan on how things would be in my future as an adult,
or in high school for that matter. One thing for certain, I never saw marriage and a baby at age
16. When I turned 14 my mom allowed me to move to DC with my father, she felt I deserved to
figure out what I was lacking in my life. According to my placement test I was placed in high
school at the end of my sophomore year, I was the youngest in my grade and the youngest on my
basketball team. This made it hard to keep achieving high goals to my past standards. This left
me lost with my two families; I was now just average with nothing special to report back home. I
was still fighting for my phone dads attention, even though I was now living with him he was
still missing from the normal parent child functions.
As I ended my junior year my emotions were running, I had turned into that teenager with fifty
thousand raging hormones and the attitude I am right and you are wrong. And then it
happened, I met the hot kid of school that was every girls dream. He showered me with what I
Tomaskovic 3

thought was love and gave me a million promises. He gave me all the attention in the world and I
didnt feel like I had to fight to be noticed by him. He was doing what I now know I felt I was
lacking from my two families. He filled the void. Before I could barely blink an eye, I had
finagled and abused my mothers love for me and talked her into signing for us to be married and
when that was barely complete, I was announcing to all, I am pregnant. That was not quite the
achievements I wanted to call home about.
Needless to say I started a journey as a single, soon to be mom. My emotions at this point were
over the top. I put myself in this predicament over what I now like to call a lack of
communication with my parents. All three of them. I lost track of the path I was on in my life
over teenager crazed emotions.









Tomaskovic 4


Portfolio Assessment
Name ___Shannon Tomaskovic___________
Date ____July 24, 2014__________
Use this form to assess each portfolio submission. It is important to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the
entire portfolio and to focus on progress.

Exceptional - 4 Commendable -
3
Acceptable - 2 Unsatisfactory - 1
Understanding of
content Is there
evidence that you
understood the topic
you were writing
about?
Went into a little
detail about
changes in life
with emotions
involved

Evidence of Critical
Thinking Does this
piece reflect
thought?
Could have
supported my
title a bit more

Evidence of Content
Development
Yes, but not
enough, As
Ive read back
over it

Evidence of Rich
Variety of Style
Does this piece of
writing reflect your
personality?
Yes, explains
most of my
background
shows who I am

Evidence of
Grammatical and
Mechanical Control
Should have
proof-read it
more

Evidence of Self-
Assessment Is
there evidence that
you spent quality
time assessing this
sample before you
originally submitted
it?
No, I could
have been
more of a well
written piece

Evidence of Best
Practice choice is
this the best writing
sample you could
provide?
I thought it was
at the time, I
liked the story
but there are
changes that
need to be made

Tomaskovic 5