My Life Experience

As a nine year old girl, I didn’t think much about life and what the future held for me. I mostly thought about riding my pony, playing with my friends at school, and playing on my family’s farm. I didn't think much about how quickly my life could completely change at any minute.

On one night, something terrifying has happened to me and my family, a scary experience that has taught us that life is too short and that anything can happen to anyone at any moment. These life experiences can be life changing along with reflecting. Reflection is the process we take to make meaning and learn from our experiences. This is a story that has definitely changed my viewpoint of life.

October 27, 2008 was the start of the best day of her life as she would soon to find out. Her younger sister named Shawneequa, 14 months, her younger brother named Vern, three years old, and of course Marion, she was only 5 years old. T’was the night when her mom and dad were consuming lots of alcohol with friends who she didn't even recognize, and she knows her mom and dad have a lot of friends. They were in a disagreement and murmuring about each other about who’s doing what and what was happening. There were lots screeching and chaos going on coming from our house. Her mom's aunt, who was a neighbor at the meantime, was getting very apprehensive and decided to call the police to come over and see what was happening. Then all of a sudden, she could hear the sirens get louder and louder as she saw them pulling up in the driveway. The blue and red lights were seeking through the curtains and reflecting off the mirror. Her brother and Marion were getting scared so we shut the curtains and my mom attempted to turn off all of the lights. After asking her mom’s aunt, my mom, and Marion a few questions and then shortly after apprehending her dad, the police told all the children to get outside and stay in this one spot on the cement by the driveway.

When my father had finally returned, happiness rose upon me like never before. Everything seemed ordinary, as he started to get better and

I turn around and all I hear is “are you ok?” “what happened?” My stomach just turns, my gut is in knots. I explain what has happened and hopped into my car and left. Summer holiday of my dream just turned dark and horrid. 2 hours later, I get to the hospital, dad is just lying there helpless… I’m getting flooded with pain, anger, guilt, hurt. It’s like there is a dark cloud hanging over him like he is nothing. The doctors come over and start explaining that his lungs are too weak to work on their own, they have hooked him up to a ventilator until he is stronger, he has been put in a coma to help him. My heart sunk, I am being buried alive? Feels like I was buried alive. I scream with terror. My phone

I’ve never thought of myself as a hero. I never will. However, I must admit that what happened one summer day changed my life forever. When people ask me, “What was going through your mind” or, ”How did it feel” I can't give them a simple answer. Saving someone’s life, while putting your own in jeopardy, is an experience, not a story.

I think most people have an event in their life when time seems to stand still, momentarily freeze. That one moment, for better or for worse, has the potential to change your life. It may lead you to question yourself, your life path, how you want to live your life from then on. For myself, time stood still September 4, 2016. My daughter was seriously injured in a playground accident. I was there for the accident, took care of her during recovery (as a mother should), and encouraged her to fight to get better. That incident made me realize what I am made of, what I am capable of.

July 3, 8 AM in the morning Woke up thinking that this camp is going to be amazing and it is going to be one of my most memorial times of my life. I got up and got ready to leave my home sweet home, I reached there and when I pulled up in the schools parking lot it was kind of awkward. When I reached their everybody was just watching me in the car but I shook it off because I thought that everybody probably had those moments, so I hopped off the car and loaded my luggage on the bus and stood there with my friends while my parents were talking and meeting with new people. At last it was the moment of Good Bye so I gave my parents a hug and got on the bus with my fellow friend Aarav, the bus ride was an hour and around 15 min. The bus ride was fun so we barely knew when time passed by and we reached our campus " Snively''. When we reached there we had to take our luggage and put it in the main hall, we were asked to take a seat on the couches and we found out our bunk mates in one room and with a coincidence I was in a room with everyone I wanted to be with. So we took our luggage and put it in our rooms, when we came back down the Councillors Jeremy and Savaugn took us on an adventure in the forest so we will be well familiar with the area. We had to walk on tight ropes with a partner on the other side then we had to take a rope than swing to the other side of the half which was super fun. The next adventure was we hall had to stand on a really huge seesaw and we had 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.

“I used to think the worst thing in life is to end up all alone. It's not. The worst thing in life is to end up with people who make you feel all alone.” I've had a past of feeling left out or unbelonging to a group because of the way I've looked. I seem to believe everyone at some point in their life has felt left out or feel like an “other” at some point in their life. No one can determine who or what you are and everyone should show confidence for what they are.

Throughout my life, I have made many changes, taken on many challenges, and accomplished many goals. Before now, I have not spent much time or energy examining my motivations, attempting to determine how or why things turned out well, or did not. However, currently I find it necessary to do just that, as I am beginning a new chapter in my life: college. As I move through my first year of college, at the age of fifty-six, I feel I do not have the time to guess at what will lead me toward the best possible outcomes. I need to be clear on what works and what does not. I can think of two important experiences I have had in my adult life, one motivated by intrinsic values, and one by extrinsic factors. An examination of both may give me better understanding of how I can make the most of my education.

It was a fine day in Bentonville, Arkansas. I was thinking about all the fun that I would be having this summer with my two best friends, Percy Ross and Warren Drews. It was three o’clock and it was finally summer. This was a great year since I had no major injuries unlike last year when I broke my arm. The following six months were the worst months of my life. To make it even worse, it was during summer. I was injury free for an entire year, until the break occurred.

It was a dark and warm night as the wind was breezing on my face. My parents and I went to the entrance of the airport in Ethiopia. The date was September 15, 2017 and that day was the day that we were leaving Ethiopia. We had stayed there for one month for a vacation and to meet our other family members. We went at 7:30 pm and the flight was at 10:30. We went a bit early because it is better than being late. Also, if a problem insists, we would have time to fix it but that wouldn’t happen,...right? Honestly, I didn't think we would've gotten on the airplane that night because of that horrible incident. It was the most meaningful experience of my life because it made me surprised when I heard that our visa was expired. All this time we did not check that the visa stamp said that September 14 is the day were leaving in the month that we stayed there. We told the people who worked at the Immigration that we were leaving on September 15 but their mistake caused us to be a problem when we were about to leave Ethiopia. We had to be in a rush so we didn’t miss the airplane flight. For that reason, the life lesson that I learned is that managing your time is crucial when it comes for many reasons. We came a little early so would get the process before the flight done and if something happens, then we would have plenty of time to do something about it. If we didn't manage our time and we came later, we would probably miss our flight or we would've gotten really

The most impactful moment of my life during this experience is when I first went to the emergency room for my migraines. Walking into a cold, dense hospital, surrounded by white walls, disinfecting smells, and lab coats at 6 in the evening is not a fun experience. My father and I waited for hours on end just to be seen, only for the doctor to turn around and say it was just a headache. In reality, it was not just a headache, this sickness was going to affect me for many years after that visit. Since that one visit, my life has changed significantly. Having a once carefree life changed into a stressful, medicine filled life that I have to deal with on a day to day basis. Although my first visit to the ER was extremely impactful, future events that happened to me because no one believed me when I said it was serious was by far the worst experiences to ever happen to me.

Since I worked and went to school, it took me six years to get through four years worth of college. I earned by BA in Literature and Writing from CSUSM in 2005. More than seven years had passed since the evening of my conversation with Rebecca. I had long since lost contact with her, and my life veered way off course from seven and a half years earlier.