My Experience In My Life

As I grow older and live new experiences, I realize how my childhood and God led me to the circumstance I am now, which is my last semester of nursing school. I come to appreciate my mother’s hard work to get me through school as well as through life. Growing up in a low-income family in Los Angeles, California with a dad who was a full-time alcoholic and drug addict, was not a good circumstance to grow up. My mother did not speak English or had a job and believed that a married woman is to fully depend on her husband. There were times when my 2 siblings and I had nothing to eat since my dad barely came home with money after spending it all on alcohol and drugs. Due to this living situation and the fact that I was the oldest child, I felt the strong responsibility to drop out of school once I was old enough to work. Education was not an option in my future. Since we didn’t have much money, my mom signed my siblings and me to free afterschool programs at my local Catholic church, so we could learn more about our religion and the importance of God in our lives. I remember my excitement to wake up early Sunday mornings to get ready for mass, even though it took 2 bus routes to get to church. I learned from nuns and priests the importance of caring for others as if they were my own family because everyone deserves the same type of care. Caring was something I learned through religion, and not something I was born knowing. As a way to start fresh, my dad decided to move us to

Knowing who you are is an important step in life. Knowing your identity is something that is expected of you before you even graduate highschool. When students are being surveyed for acceptance, they are being chosen for what they have done rather than what they can do. Granted, what you have done is a good reflector of what you can do, but what you can do isn’t what you have done. I come from a family that values hard work and character. No one in the entirety of my family has any special diploma or fancy piece of paper that tells everyone what they are good at. No one in my family has any clue what I am writing about right now.

November 18, 2016, a regular day that started without having any outstanding qualities to it. The day dragged out just like the previous ones before. When I got home from school, a sense of unease and discomfort enveloped me. The atmosphere was thick in tension and uncertainty. I couldn't figure out what it was that caused the usual pleasant environment of my home to be a space filled with mystery. I overheard my mom’s conversation on the phone. At that moment, the mystery as to why discomfort was looming in the air was diminished. She walked in my room and told me that my cousin was in a bad car accident. I asked if he would be ok and she answered with a simple “I don't know”, but her foggy eyes answered a stern no. From that moment on, my life was altered completely. Even though I wasn't given a direct answer as to the condition of my cousin, my instincts knew better. We went to his parent’s house the next day. As I walked in, I looked around reminiscent of the days spent there with family full of happiness and sunshine gleaming through the living room window. Now all that was left was a gray room filled with people I barely knew crying for the loss that we all endured. As I sat in the living room in shock, I tried to contemplate and collect my thoughts, but I couldn't. My mind felt like a town after the effects of a category 5 tornado and my eyes felt like a tsunami had just harshly caressed my tear ducts. I sat there enveloped in grief left with nothing but emotions that

Looking back on my childhood before August of 2016, I can say I’ve had a sheltered, carefree, and rather easy life. I was content with all aspects of my life; I had wonderful friends, had been a straight “A” student for my entire educational career, had a relatively well-paying job for a fourteen-year-old boy, and my family and all those around me seemed equally satisfied and pleased with their lives. This would change in early August of 2016. The sudden and terrible news hit me in such a way that I felt as if the wind had been knocked out of me. When my parents announced they were getting a divorce, it astonished me because I did not foresee its coming. I sat aghast, unable to comprehend the words which had just assailed my ears. I felt feeble and vulnerable to the world, as if a strong enough breeze would be able to whisk me away, and I hoped it would, to create distance between myself and the situation.

As time went by, it seemed to fly faster and faster. Soon, it was the summer between my sophomore and junior years and I had an abundance of plans for how to spend my summer. One event stood out compared to all of the others. It would greatly influence my life and shape my my thoughts to the way they are today. Reminiscing on the events of my past, my journey to the glamorous mountains of Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico to hike for a week is indisputably the greatest memory of my life so far.

I am ordinary. I have lived in amongst poverty and on the edges of war, but I am ordinary. But let me sit you down and share some extraordinary things that I feel have happened in my life.

It was the beginning of summer after my seventh grade year. The sun was blazing, the birds were chirping, and I felt an overwhelming sense of freedom. Life seemed great, until the next day when I was bored out of my mind and had nothing to do. During middle school, I followed my brother, Isaac, around like a mime. Whatever he did I would aspire to do the same. This was no different when, bored out of my mind, I found out my brother was going to go disc golfing with the neighbor friends. When Isaac asked me if I wanted to come with, I jumped up, ran to my bike, and told him I was ready whenever he was. I had never heard of what “disc golf” was, but I knew that since my brother was doing it, it was cool! So I followed Isaac and the neighbor friends all the way to Northside Park, sweating immensely from the summer heat and from how quickly I was biking. On the first hole, Isaac gave me my own disc to borrow for the round. This sport was completely foreign to me, so I threw my disc as hard as I possibly could, in an attempt to impress Isaac and his friends. Not only did the disc go absolutely nowhere, but I threw it so high that the wind actually pushed it backwards. I felt humiliated as everybody laughed at me. Isaac, however, came up to me and explained to me how discs fly and the proper way to throw. Each hole, I could visibly see my disc traveling further than the previous hole. Every time Isaac saw me doing something improperly, he would correct me and tell me how to fix

It has been an eventful four years here at Christopher Dock. I went through a lot and I am proud of who I am becoming. I am not the shy, quiet and awkward kid that I was coming here but instead, I grew into a kind, confident and selfless individual ready to take on the world. Thanks to the adversity that I went through, I was rewarded with what I desire the most in this life: God, Friends and Family. The adversity that I had go through was letting go of my past, restoring my lost faith to God and stop being dependent onto my brother Tyler. Without doing those three things, I would not be where I am today. Now I would like to reflect on my growth throughout all of these four years.

It is not too long ago that I decided to become a pharmacist. I lived in South Korea most of my life. Back then, I had no idea what I wanted to be other than thinking about immigrate to the United States. I had chance to visit my uncle’s college graduation when I was a little boy and I only dreamed about living in the U.S ever afterward. For example, I decided to go to nursing school simply because there are more chances to move to the U.S as a nurse. The problem was I did not do well in terms of academic performance because I only thought about how to move to the U.S. Additionally, I admitted to hospital couple of times because of a pneumothorax so my gpa bottomed out.

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.

It was a very sunny Tuesday morning on summer vacation. I woke up took a shower, got dressed, brushed my teeth and ate breakfast with my dad. We then went on our way to the Colorado Rapids stadium in Denver. This was a very important day for me and my team because it was our very first showing up to Soccer state finals. I was so nervous that I couldn’t hold my water bottle, my dad noticed that I was shaking a lot so he tried getting me out of the thought about the first game of state finals by talking to me about trucks. Trucks are what I love besides soccer, so he asked me, “What kind of truck are you going to want?”, I was lost and didn’t know how to answer that question because I thought he would never asked that question in my life. I then answered, “A 1 cabin Chevy Silverado’’, but that still couldn’t get the thought out about my first state final game. “I’ll make you a deal, if you win the first game I will get you the truck by the end of your summer vacation.” I was so happy to hear that but still nervous. I told him “Deal”, with a smile on my face. Finally, we arrive in Denver and stopped at a gas station on our way to the Rapids stadium to get some water for my game. As we’re driving down the freeway, I see the Rapids stadium and my heartbeat starts rising even more and more the closer we get.

When I look at how different our lives were five months ago so many things run through my mind, “What could we have done differently?” “What could I have done differently?” The week of finals before the end of my junior year I wondered if bad things really do happen to good people, or if good people do bad things that put them into bad places.

The time was coming near, before I pass I must pass my medicine bag onto my great grandson. I started my journey leaving my home in the reservation where I live. I put on a big black hat with my long black coat, over my bright red satin shirt. I wore my beaded bolo tie under my collar as a formal accent. I had stuffed my boots with money that my family would need to provide for my funeral. Knowing I would not come back I waved to all my friends on the reservation as I boarded the bus to take me to my only living descendents house, which I have been longing to see, and now will get to before I die. The bus ride from South Dakota to Iowa lastest nearly two and a half days. On the bus I mostly tried to sleep or muttered songs to myself, nobody sat near me which didn’t bother me at all. When I arrived I was tired and stiff from sitting for so long, but I was determined to make it to my family’s house. After wandering around the city for a while I had stopped to rest at a large building, nothing here was familiar to me. Suddenly, a large man who had many weapons around his waist come over to talk to me. He was very nice and guided me to the nearest bus stop and told me how to get to Bellview Drive, a street i’ve have been saying over and over again in my mind. I had took the bus that the man had instructed and got off at Bell View Drive. I had been searching for their household by number but when I walked on the sidewalks it was hard to see the other side of the street. So I started walking in the middle of the street looking on both sides as I walked. As I kept walking wolf-like creatures started following me attacking at my feet but I had to find the house so I brushed it aside. Then children started to congregate behind me. I kept walking till Martin had found me and shued my parade away.

“I’m proud of you.” These are the words that keep me going. When I was left here, hint the sarcasm, I felt like I couldn’t do it. I wasn’t ready to grow up and face the world so quick when I still had so much to learn about myself. I was so enclosed with my family that the next couple days growing up wasn’t an option and I had to be careful. With all this Independence as an individual and not hide behind my family. By the time it came for the weekend I felt better about myself like I can do this and it gets easier. I had this new view on college because of the new friends that I met. When I’m around them I forget about missing home and my family. They are my second family who supports each other and don’t want to see them beating themselves up. We meet up and do thing on and off campus, study as a group and eat together. Without them I would just be in my dorm all the time. Being here by myself I have more freedom than I did at home. I wasn’t being watched over like a hawk 24/7.

I was drowning in my tears. The life I once had was soon about to transform, and I wasn’t sure if it was for the best. My life’s been an ongoing rollercoaster, with several volatile destinations on the way. It was 2015 and my mom had just delivered the news that we were moving to New Orleans in a couple months. Well - you see, my heart has and will always be in Miami, the city where I watched myself sprout, where I roamed the streets on the quest for adventure.