How Literature Changed My Life

When times are filled with despair and unhappiness, we are driven away from the comfort of our mental home, and there is no greater relief than emerging one’s self into an activity or person that grants us a dry place to survive in life’s created storm. We turn to these things until the storm passes, and while we wait, we often discover something worth bringing back home. For me, my safe haven, my anchor, my shield against the rain, was reading books. Reading has opened many doors for me, planted seeds of new perspectives that I wouldn't have ever grew myself if I hadn't found the words and stories that nurture them. The luxary of reading has been taken away from many because of war, hate, and ignorance over the course of mankind, and I understand

We are interested in learning more about you and the context in which you have grown up, formed your aspirations, and accomplished your academic successes. Please describe the factors and challenges that have most shaped your personal life and aspirations. How have these factors helped you to grow? (800)

Everything around me began to blur, including the line between reality and something strange, a place where nothing exists. I could feel myself detaching, but there was nothing I could do to stop it. I was unplugged and could not find the cord to reconnect myself, my thoughts were screaming over one another and it became impossible to single one out. Everything was fake in that moment, my memories, my feelings, my family, my friends, it was all a hoax that I was stuck in, that I had to be released from. Feeling deceived and unhinged, I remained inert and supine in bed. I covered my face, which was daubed with my tears, and listened to my thoughts all telling me the same thing. I sat up and began to wobble towards the stairs. I heard my sister call out, “I’m leaving Emma!”, and my anxiety intensified. Everything blurred into a combination of panic and tears as my sister tried to calm me down. It took hours to bring me back to

Narrowing down one specific event is rather difficult. If I had to decide, it would be the Sunday morning that I stood in pool of water with my wife Amber holding my hand. Together, we were baptized in front of our congregation at a small church in Elizabethtown, KY. In order to understand why this event is so significant, and why it will influence my academic goals at CCU, it’s imperative that you know my back story. I’ve served 12 years as a military police soldier for the United States Army. I started my journey in the Army, as a young, inexperienced 18 year old young man. I ended my career as a Sergeant, with memories of experiences I will forever hold in my heart. Most of these memories are difficult to even talk about, but being a soldier

Reading is the best way to go on an adventure without leaving the comfort of your own house. Throughout my life I have gone on many adventures, both literally and figuratively. Reading has given me a lot of my favorite adventures, and I am excited to start a new one at every turn, whether it be hosting a foreign exchange student, or traveling to Washington D.C. with a group of teenagers I have never meet before

By the age of six, I was already considered an advanced reader. I would get pulled out of Mrs. Bender’s first grade class and get sent to the cafeteria to read. A teacher would always be with me, making marks in her clip board as I confidently read countess stories out loud to her. I loved it. I loved every second of it. I felt special and smart and so overjoyed to be reading so well.

But there was this hidden feeling; a feeling of emptiness. A feeling of regret. A feeling of helplessness. I felt like I was going to die; and I was going to die alone. I started hallucinating; I heard dinosaurs. I heards chickens. I heards rock cracking. I even heard bombs exploding. I thought I was going crazy. The hallucinations did not stop there. I heard an unknown political figure speaking in a foreign language. I heard a happy boy sipping his smoothie. After what seemed like a million years, I blacked out. I heard a lot, even when I was unconscious. I heard a woman screaming. I heard a man sinking. I heard paper ripping. I heard clothes sliding. I even cackling of fire. I remember coming to a few hours later, at supper time. It was cold still, and I was under a giant heap of comforters on my bed. I was fully clothed. My mom told me she had worried about me not feeling well, and took me to the doctor’s the day after. I got the flu, and so did everyone else in my family. I do remember crying, feeling like the whole thing was my fault. I even remember kicking my dad in the shin for recording the “shriek” after I was okay, and recovered from the malady. I do not know, even to this day, though, how I got on my bed, fully clothed, under a heap of

The Goods and Bad throughout literacy Reading has impacted my life in many different ways throughout my lifetime, but his has also made me hate reading to the limit. I started very strong in my early days progressing to become a better reader than once middle school hit it was almost like I hit brick wall. After I hit after middle school I did improve but at a slower rate than where I should be. Now I find reading a waste of time

My most significant experience in my life is unforgettable. I was there with my sisters, my mom, and my dad. It was the most horrifying event that I have ever witnessed. The daunting image in my head is still clear as day, as though it happened yesterday. This event did not affect only me, but also my family. The story that I am about to tell you may change the way you see things and it may not. All I can say is, it

Richard held Lexi's sweat-slicked body against his, tenderly kissing and caressing as they both came down from the heights of pleasure. Content to have seemingly satiated her needs as much as she had his, the Hacker possessed not the slightest inkling that her assumption of control stemmed not purely from desire, but because of Karl Williams. A man Richard despised, but who had also recently been allowed the satisfaction of bringing Lexi to orgasm by fucking her with a roughness much more brutal than that she'd denied him. Mustn't that mean, at least in some way, she'd enjoyed it? Despite his love for Alexandra, that question would likely always prey on Richard's mind if the truth ever emerged.

You may never experience how your life can change in a split second. Well I have, the day my grandmother died was the day my childhood ended. It was a gloomy morning of October 9th, 2009. It was 4 a.m., I heard a loud cry in my grandparents room, the room next to mine. The moment I heard my mom’s loud cry, I immediately knew something was terribly wrong, I mean it was 4 in the morning, I thought, “What could possibly be wrong at the moment?” I dragged myself out of my room and headed towards the noise of the cry; I saw my grandmother lying on the ground. She didn’t have this face that people make when they are in pain, she just had this straight face. So many questions were going through my mind, like “How did she fall?”and “What’s going to

My heart trickled down to one beat per minute. I slowly realized the different types of people surrounding me on a day to day basis. I asked myself the following question: “Alex, why have you molded yourself into a new person?” Realizing the pace and discomfort my life was going towards, I sought to answer the question. I had lost a genuine friendship built over several years. This loss had affected me very deeply to the point I did not recognize the myself in the mirror anymore. Entering freshmen year, I was unable to enjoy the social interaction which took place around me. Trusting new people became nearly impossible. I punished those who had my best interest at heart, because I assumed they would betray me like my previous friendship. I had also assumed that every new friendship I built had an immediate expiration date. This means I chose to purposefully distance myself in order to not get hurt. The Alex Curry people became acquainted to was a falsified character of my true self. My pain developed my character into a overly trusting person to a person who could not even trust their family anymore.

Being a 15 year old kid in the tiny town of Walcott, Iowa, there isn’t very much adventure. The inability to drive, combined with the very few activities available in Walcott, creates a recipe for a teenager striving to find some form of independence. For me, this freeing feeling came through my trips to the town library over the summer.

October 31st,2015-Two years ago i was trick or treating with my friends.We had just come back from my freinds house at about 7pm,his parents were drunk and said we could stay out as long as we wanted.

I’m a young woman who’s trying to get her life together and the process of being successful isn’t easy. I currently attend Nassau community colleges, every day, from Monday-Saturday, and it’s no joke, between waking up in the morning, trying to walk to take the bus terminal, is honestly too much for me to handle; I honestly hate it. Sometimes I honestly get depressed and say to myself “why me “I usually wake up in the morning around 6am and get myself ready then star walking toward the terminal, as a I walk seeing the cars pass by, and some drivers would pass by me and stare and I would get so furious because I have to walk while they’re driving and what truly annoys me is that their taking their time to stare at me walking. I hate public transportation. Driving a car is way better then riding on the bus