Abraham Kaba Aka Blamah

I've experienced a lot of events which had great impact on me since I was young. Thinking of life changing events, the one I would like to share is when I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. It was a very devastating day for me. A day that changed my life. I never thought Id get through but today I can say that Diabetes has changed me for the better.

I sat there in my room with tears flowing down my blush pink cheeks. Wondering what was wrong with me, as a salty tear ran along my dried out chapped lips. I thought to myself,” Why am I so miserable? What did I do to deserve this? How am I going to escape this life?” I started to ponder that this was the end of my life, this is how I was going to be, sorrowful. At the lowest point of my life, mother came barging through the door with the look of cavernous concern on her face. She knew that it was time for something to be done, whether I agreed or not.

That day when I returned home from school, my mom’s boyfriend called me asking to speak to my grandmother. Typically, Gus would call my grandmother himself if he wanted to speak with her, which was rare. I found out about my mom going to the hospital from my grandmother after that phone call. The doctor told my family that a stroke afflicted her in the middle of the day. My mom confused the date with her birthday, had trouble getting words out and remembering our family member’s names. The nurse had to take her for walks periodically and exercise her legs and arms because they were weak. Seeing my mother in this condition made me appreciate my mother and everything she does for me tremendously. However, I was terrified for my mother’s health.

An ambulance came and carried out my mom. I didn’t know what was going on, so many questions running through my mind, what was wrong with her, was she going to be ok. I was scared, more scared then I had ever been. My sister Sheridan who was 8 asked me “what’s happening?” through tears. On that day a little piece of me began to change because if I let her see my fear that would not help anyone, and so even though I didn’t know what was happening I responded “everything is going to be ok” even though I did not trust my own words.

There has been many important events that have occurred since I have been born but there is one in particular that has sparked a light in me that has changed the way i have looked at things. It happened when I was playing with the Sacramento FC and everything was going well until the middle of the season. When we got to the middle of the season things started to look shady. I wasn't getting playing time and that really opened my eyes to reality. Soccer was not the only thing that I needed to do in order to have a good life. I needed to start focusing on my dreams and different routes to success other then just soccer. It really showed what I need to do in order to survive in the real world. If it was not for my family's support through this

Everyone has an event in their life that helped changed them in some way or stood out to them in some type of way in their life. Rather if it is, something like a birth of a child, a death of a family member or even receiving a job. A significant event in my life and helped me grow as a person was when I decided to pack up and move to Houston, Texas. My move to Texas may have been short but in that short period it helped me to grow to be more independent and to provide for myself and much more. When I made the moved to Texas, I moved with family members that I knew but I was not close with it.

Another critical moment in my life that changed me forever occurred in August of 2001. At the peak of hurricane season, Louisiana was terribly affected by Hurricane Katrina. Katrina devastated millions of people across the south. For the first time in my life I got to experience what it felt like to be homeless. I had lost everything! And even though it was not much, it still mattered. There were several moments when I prayed and wished that my father could be there. No child, my age should have to go through with what I did. In hopes to find assistance, my mother left me and my siblings with my grandmother for a few months. These months were terrifying. I remember crying several nights

Five days had passed this time since anyone had heard from my mother. I remember praying to God to protect her from harm and for me to find her. The next day she showed up, but not in the way we had hoped. One morning as I was getting ready for school my sophomore year in high school, my phone rang to the voice of my stepfather. My stepfather had told me he heard a call come over the dispatch scanner at his work and my mother’s name was mentioned. The sheriff had informed my stepfather that my mother had been involved in an accident. My stepfather asked me to go to the emergency room and see what condition my mother was in because he lived a half hour away from the hospital. When I arrived at the hospital I found my mother cut out of her clothes, covered in her own urine, massive amounts of blood all over her body, and lying lifeless on life support on the table. At this point, no one knew whether my mother would be okay. My mother had bleeding on the brain as well as a tear in her shoulder, a shattered face, and a chest tube draining fluid from her lung which had collapsed. All I could do was pray! My mother’s life was in God’s hands now. Three days later she woke

Most people will experience something horrible in their lives. As a young child, I was ignorant to the idea that bad things could happen in my life. One cold day in November, my Mom said that she was feeling a little sick and had some pain in her neck. After some tests, the doctors came up with a diagnosis, it was devastating. Even after the evidence from X-Rays and MRI scans, my family was trying to find any reason to deny the truth. My Mom, Gricelda Martinez Ozuna, the strongest and most determined person I knew was fading away and I knew my time with her was shortening every passing moment.

October 14,1943 changed my life forever. After the Warsaw uprising the ghettos were burned down and we were imprisoned in camps. We are surrounded by barbed wired fences and just outside of the fences is a minefield. Over the years we took weapons that we could find and today we fought back and used all the force we had 300 people escaped today and I was one of them. We broke through the barbed wire and risked our lives by going through the minefield while the people who stayed back fought the Germans to keep us alive. We knew we were outgunned and outnumbered but some of us made

My mom was spending lots of her time over at a friends house in 2013, because one of her best friends Jenyi, was diagnosed with cancer. This was tough for me. Not being able to see my mom as much and knowing that Jenyi was struggling. This helped me grow spiritually and emotionally. I learned to put my trust in God, and as a family we spent many nights in prayer, hoping God would heal her. He didn’t. Instead, he chose to take her home to heaven. We didn’t understand, we had lots of grief and pain. I miss Jenyi, but I learned that everything was going to be okay. That good things came from bad, and that God can use these things to change people. After Jenyi died, we had to continue life, so we did. Not much later, in Des Moines for Labor day, we went boating with my mom's side of the family.

The single greatest event that to this point that has shaped my life is clearly September 11, 2001. Not, moment in a given day do not think about that day and how it changed me as a person.

When I turned 11-years-old my whole childhood began to change my life went from being perfect to everything but perfect. One day I came home to hear the news my father, my best friend; my hero was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer. Not knowing the struggle my family was about to take on I just began to cry. I had a million things running through my head what’s going to happen? Will everything be okay? Why him? What is going to happen? With all these things rushing through my head all I could do was cry not knowing this was least worse to come.

My name is Sandra Neema Nyamuhebe, and I am a refugee from the Congo in Central Africa. I moved to Tanzania with my family when I was 3 years old to escape wars at home. While in Tanzania, we had an extremely hard time being accepted and meeting our basic needs. My parent struggled to find work and food to feed the family. So, my family applied to be sent overseas to find refuge and more opportunity through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). We waited and hoped for 10 years to find a place to start a new life while living in Tanzania.

Historical events have a major impact on people’s lives and how they view the world. These events can affect those who live through them, and even those who are born after. Three events that have shaped my life are the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center, the Columbine shooting, and the Deepwater Horizon Explosion in the Gulf of Mexico.