My Experience In Life

The story began about a year and some months ago. Early in the Fall 2016 semester, I met a girl named Ann through a friend of mine. My first impression of Ann was that she was very pretty, but she talked a lot. I mean a lot! After I met her, the three of us began to hangout a couple of times each week. Even though she talked a lot it was fun having her around because of the energy she brought to any situation. At first, I felt that being around her drained my energy, but I eventually got accustomed to it, and grew to feed off it.

I don’t know how to start my story.I might start it when I was a baby or as far as I can remember. Let’s go as far as I remember. It’s not going to be much but i’ll try my best to tell you.

The wind serrated past my body. I hesitated, reminiscing all the memories we treasured years ago. Sitting down on a nearby bench, looking at the emptied bus stop. I ran my fingers through the leathery pages of my small book that my father had given me. How long it has been? Five… six years? The clouds suddenly swirled and closed the sky, the thunder roared. Girls of all ages and appearances rushed through the streets as they had just finished school. I smiled mirthlessly.

Unfortunately, it started Tuesday, May 10th, 2011, usually I go by my parent’s house before work and have coffee and donuts with my mother while we chit-chat about current events about our lives, but, I was running late for work that day.  Afterward, at 10:45 a.m. I started calling my mother’s cell phone but she never answered. At noon, my phone rang and I assumed it was her, but, it was my father. The minute I answered the phone I knew something was wrong. He uttered, “your mother and sister had an accident and the police officer said we must arrive at the hospital right away.” I could feel my gut at that very moment, my life just fell apart. I abandoned work and met up with my father at his house and we rode together, soon after we arrived a Florida Highway Patrol called us inside a small room and asked if we could identify the driver license. Regrettably, it was my mother, I could feel the tears flowing down my cheeks forming streams, my breathing was rapid and the walls were closing. The officer then stood up and gave us his sincere apologies. He indicated that my mother was pronounced dead at arrival and that my sister was inside the trauma part inside the hospital that the doctors were working with her now. I began screaming no and felt my father wrap his arms around my shoulders. Nonetheless, he did his best staying calm and strong for us. Next, we asked if we could visit my sister, but, he said he would ask the doctor and left the room. However, moments went by, I

Trying to get up used to be simple, now it’s an agonising rush of pain through my whole body, right from my head to the tip of my toes. The physio stands next to me, holding my arm as I grasp onto the bar next to me, to help steady my balance. All I think about now is the accident. How it all happened so fast - one minute I was overlooking the mountains with Ella, cuddled up in blankets enjoying the view, the next I woke up in hospital, when things took a turn for the worst. I guess Ella will be going to the Olympics without me, which doesn’t seem to bother her. The doctor said it’s a long road ahead, for my recovery. My stomach dropped as I felt the rush of anxiety starting to take over my body, bit by bit, as butterflies in my stomach grew. The hospital would be my 2nd home for a while. Getting rehab, seeing physios, regular check ups, this is my life now but it wasn’t the one I thought I would live. I am meant be on my way to Switzerland in a few months for the winter Olympics, but I cannot say that Ella seems to be upset about it at all.

Almost a year ago, August 2016 was one of the most exciting times of My life. I was a recent high school graduate and that past March I had been accepted into the Faculty of Education at the UoW in Manitoba. So, august was a busy month for me, basically everyday I hung out with my friends watched every single YouTube video related to college, and began packing up my room for the move from Dartmouth NS to Winnipeg MB. I had previously already picked my courses for the 2016/1017 year and now I was looking up textbooks and looking up my professors on rate my professor .com, highly recommend. my whole senior year of HS I was so excited to be moving and taking this new ‘chapter in my life. September couldn’t come fast enough. The end of august came and I had packed up and left my home, and my family. The journey to Winnipeg was thrilling and tiring, but I landed safely and I walked out to my auntie Robyn waiting for me, she had come with her sister, my Auntie Leslie (more on her later *eye roll emoji*) they helped me load the truck and off we were to see my new home, well my room. I was about to begin my dorm life, in Lions Manor floor 4. My aunts helped me unpack something’s, but later left me to settle. Which was fine by me, I was so excited to make this room mine. I had posters and pictures and cute bedding. It only took me the rest of the week to fully unpack and mesh with how small my room was.

When I heard the engines starting, my eyelids collapsed and took slow breaths to not hyperventilate . I was nine. I inhaled sharply, and my hands gripped my mom’s arm tight as fear of death washes over me. I don't want to die. God don't let me die. Next thing I knew, we were high up in the sky. I looked out the window, wispy clouds dancing in the air. July 2, 2009 was when I boarded the flight to the U.S. As the plane skidded to a halt on the runway, I knew my life would be different.

I was born in the town called ‘Gang-Seo’ which is the western side of the river that passes through the capital of South Korea. I used to hang around with my friends at the small park that is located on the back side of the old white apartment complex where I lived. When I turned six years old, my family moved into the town called ‘Gang-Nam’ is the southern side of the river. The atmosphere was really different from where I had lived, since all of my new friends went to private institutions after school. I couldn’t communicate and play with my friends for a long time, since I didn’t go to those places. I felt lonely. I didn’t have much time to have a conversation in my home either, because my brother, who is seven years older than I, do always stayed outside until the late evening and my parents both worked at the time. But there was a person who made me smile sometimes: my grandmother. She used to tell me a lot of her old-time stories and play pranks on me, all the time such as making me try weird food which she improvised and answering my questions with annoying wordplay that I couldn’t understand. To me, she wasn’t just grandmother, also my best friend.

Finally, were here, just getting off the plane me, Chris, and Jacob and a bunch of other kids and adults I did not know well some of them I did but I was too distracted by everything around me to care about who else was getting off. All I cared about was that we were there and the long trip was over. I got off the plane and started looking around me and I could see the water, the trees, and the heat was so bad. It felt like we were walking around and seeing the people there and it was so different unlike anything I had seen before everyone looked happy and without a care in the world. There were people walking around with drinks and smiling and laughing and from that point on I knew it was going to be a good trip.

In my life, I have been very fortunate. Intense struggle, emotional pain, and hardships never have seemed to come my way, as they do prematurely to some children. I have always taken this for granted, so I never thought about my life as being easy.

“Experience is how life catches up with us and teaches us to love and forgive each other”, Judy Collins. I used to look at my life as a series of misfortunate events. It wasn’t until I was older that I realized my life, my experiences, made me who I am. This realization changed who I was and who I wanted to be. In The Last Lecture, Randy Pausch wrote, “It’s not about the cards you’re dealt, but how you play the hand.” I was so focused on the cards in my hand, that I couldn’t even play.

My personal life has had many twists and turns that have shaped my life and my view on language as an individual. My life began growing up in a mixed family household: my mother being born in Jordan and moving to the United States when she was young, and my father who has lived in the United States. Growing up in a mixed household I only spoke English and I rarely heard any Arabic in my life. I would only know hear Arabic when I did something wrong or when we were spending time with my mother’s side of the family. While I was very influenced by Arabic culture I was not submerged in the culture so I did not understand all the complexities of Arabic culture in the US. If I grew up in a household where Arabic was spoken regularly (maybe not

My life, or perhaps in the manner that I perceive it, has been overwhelmingly filled with enlightening and repressive circumstances that could have been averted, but all in all, makes up one's destiny. These events intricately tailored me into a young man that grew conscientious of the detrimental behavior of “acting before thinking” and into the realm of “thinking before acting". What I would soon come to understand was that through sheer patience, and trial-and-error it instilled within me new insights to learn from and that the most triumphant moments in my life began at the crossroads of unknowingness, a decision to stay in mediocrity, or the pursuit towards personal greatness- thus the decision had to be met.

My life is full of adventures here in El Paso, where I was born and raised. A city like this is unique and different from many other cities because our city is right next to the border to Juarez Mexico, meaning the culture here can differ greatly. The city is unique and special, mainly because of the very Hispanic culture here that has taught me to love my family. The environment here that I have been raised in is based on a great deal of religion, family, and challenging work. I believe the environment I was raised in has matured me to be a hard-working brother and a student.

Imagine your story becoming the forerunner of someone else’s. Someone you have never met, yet because of one story, he or she found the strength and courage to become a person far greater than ever imagined. A story of unimaginable adventures, lessons, and hardships, this is the story I, Thu Dang, will create for myself and others.