Anthony Sieckmann
Honors English III
Mr. Jennings
December 4th, 2011
Family Essay: Jidu
My family is one unlike many others. Well that’s what you would expect to hear at the beginning of an essay about family. My family is unlike many others, but that sentence isn’t just used to fill up space. It is true. How many other families do you know with a mother who works as a church book keeper, a father who is a land surveyor, a grandmother who is a retired nurse, a grandfather with a Ph.D in Byzantine history, an Aunt who works at ATT™ and an Uncle who is a personal caterer? Probably only one. But some might say “Well that’s unfair, there are hundreds of thousands of jobs, how could they possibly match?” Well to them I say, I guess it’s not fair, but I guess that’s what makes my family unique. But there is one person who my essay is centered on, my grandfather.
He is known by many names: Souhaiel, Fr. Michael, Dr. Michael, Jidu, and Dad. My grandfather was born in Grand Rapids, MI. He was born five years after my great-grandparents had come over from Lebanon. He was given the name Souhaiel Michael Azkoul. He had, after Grand Rapids, moved a total of seven times. He lived in Grand Rapids, Boston, New York City, Spring Valley, IL, Youngstown, OH, Lansing, MI, Boardwalk, OH, and finally settling down in the “quaint” town of St. Louis, Missouri. He first moved to Boston to attend seminary (school required to become a priest) at Holy Cross Seminary. There in Boston he met his wife, Theodora Samara. She was originally from Worchester, MA. There they fell in love and eventually got married. He then moved to New York City, NY to attend school at St. Vladimir’s Seminary. He then moved to Spring Valley, IL where they had their two children, first, Diane Azkoul, then, Paul Azkoul. He had moved next to Lansing, MI where he went to University of Michigan. There he stayed for two years and he finished his dissertation, which then earned him a Doctorate of Philosophy in Byzantine History. After that, he had moved his family to a small town in Ohio by the name of Youngstown; there he had a job as a priest at the local Greek Orthodox Church under the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. Then he moved to a small town on the outskirts of Youngstown for an unknown reason. Then he moved to his final house in St. Louis, Missouri, where he converted his lower floor into a church, St. Katherine of Sinai.
That short biography covered the main points of his life. But there is so much more to it than that. Remember that list of names? Well he was born Souhaiel Michael Azkoul, but he changed his name because he thought that Fr. Souhaiel, wouldn’t go over well with the bishop. So he made his first name Michael. But to his grand children, we call him Jidu. Jidu is the Arabic word for grandfather. And to us he has always been Jidu.
He is known more commonly as Father Michael because he is a priest. From my farthest back memory I have called him Jidu, and never grandfather. When my sister and I, and my two cousins, were little, we would always go over to Situ and Jidu’s (Grandmother and Grandfather’s) house in the summer. We might stay home some days but most of the time we would be at Situ and Jidu’s.
His ideals and values were passed down from him, to my mother, and then to me. I admire my grandfather for all of the amazing things WC that he has done and put up with in his life. Just in college alone he had done so much work, that it astonishes me that one single person could do so much. He had to learn three languages, work for 12 years for his Ph.D, support a family and work hard at his job. Then he has run a church, done a number of insane tasks that go along with being a priest, raising kids, and still have time to be with his family. His hardworking sensibilities have taught me that I have to work hard at life to get what I want. Now, people tell me this all the time, but coming from a man who epitomizes the phrase hard worker. SF I have not yet met a man who has a bigger résumé for life experience than he does. One day I aspire to be just like him, in aptitude and aspiration.
He reminds me of a character in a book called Ava’s Man. The character Charlie Bundrum and my grandfather are very similar. They both worked so hard to keep their families safe and fed. They would do everything they could to protect them. Without my grandfather in my life, there would be so much I would have missed. He taught me so many things about my religion, respect, how to treat others, and just life in general. I think that my grandfather and Charlie are a lot alike. They are stern, strict, and hardworking; men and I don’t know what I would do without him.
I don’t feel like my family in general is oh so different from anyone else’s family but there are certain people who just stand out. My grandfather has admittedly made some not so good choices in life,????? but I challenge you to find me the perfect person. And it is those mistakes that shape our lives and personalities, and make us the people that we are right now. Whether you chose to learn from those mistakes or chose to ignore them is your prerogative. But my grandfather chose to learn from his mistakes
Anthony: Your grandfather is obviously a meaningful, compelling person in your life. For revision, focus in on him and showing exactly what it is you want to show. Check your paragraph main ideas. Each seems to have a separate main idea, but I’m not sure the connection to a thesis or overarching idea is there (1st—uniqueness of family/2—bio/3—name/4—job/5—Ava’s Man/ 6—mistakes). Without clearly tying each of these ideas into some central idea, your audience may see them as battling against each other rather than working together to show one clear idea. Plenty of ideas to be mined by SHOWING us the characteristics you say you see and admire in him. This will take more reflection and possible more research(interviews) evident in the essay. Great content will demand MORE showing and less telling.