Personal Narrative Analysis

Kevin and I stepped into a whole new world in the fall of 2009. We began our degree program at Emmanuel School of Religion, which is now called Emmanuel Christian Seminary. We were working on our Masters of Arts and Religion. I was excited and nervous about going back to college. Our first day was terrifying. Kevin and I attended orientation the week prior to classes starting. There was a definite realization this academic program was going to be a challenge. However, I wanted a challenge. On the first day of class, we started with Greek. Our professor was Dr. Marwede. He opened the class with a test. He came over to my chair first and handed me a paper with a list of Greek words on it. My immediate reaction was shock, which Dr. Marwede realized I was overwhelmed by the look on my face. He told the class we could take it home as homework. Many of the students in the Greek class had previous experience with Greek; however, Kevin and I had no knowledge at all. We were overwhelmed. We were assigned five chapters and told to return the next day for a quiz with our homework.

At the age of twenty nine, I faced an inevitable, drastic, and ultimately life changing decision. My options were limited, with no stress-free path to select. One path led down a very dark road, one that would have led to an abrupt end to my own life. The other route led to personal happiness, however, met with great sacrifice. Being that I felt strongly against the first option, I chose the second path. A reset button was pressed.

Walking the overgrown paths in the expansive woods behind my house, I tried again to escape the claustrophobia of the cul-de-sac and the boredom of a small town. The forest was my sanctuary, and I walked knowing every rock, root, and bush. Then suddenly, it was different. My eyes hit the familiar clearing ahead, and I launched into a sprint through the underbrush, leaping up and over the barbed wire-topped rock wall. Landing with a whoop of delight, I eyed the novelty, a huge, brown steer, staring back at me. Molten joy turned to icy fear, and the steer began to charge. Thirty seconds of terror later, I noticed two things as I heaved against a maple tree: my now dung-covered shoes were ruined, and my curiosity was finally piqued.

I lost a job and did not find another one for several months. Once I did and tried to come back I was in 2 different car wrecks with the injuries and pain I was in there was no way I would have been able to complete successfully any of my classes or have them done in a timely fashion the concussion I suffered prevented me from remembering a lot of the time as well as the pain medications in which I was placed on. I tried again once I felt fine enough to go back and then I had health issues which required me to go in for surgery not once but twice. During that time I was not able to complete the classes as well in a timely fashion not only could I not lift my arms above my head but I needed help to assist me to be able to move about and therapy

All my life I have had the opportunity to travel and broaden my horizons. I have been blessed with the ability to accumulate to different cultures and environments. From being born in Italy, moving to Japan, and now currently residing in Louisiana, I have seen more than what most others can only dream. Those three very different places are just a few of the dozens areas of the world I have traveled to, yet out of all of destinations I have visited New York City most definitely tops the list. This city is a world of it's own in my eyes. There is no other place I can see myself continuing my journey in life. It is no secret that college is a major stepping stone in the life of a young adult. It carves the path to their future. Ever since I can remember my parents have pushed me towards gaining a good

“Bzzz, Bzzz, Bzzz!” As I roll over from my fetus-type sleeping position, I notice my 6 o'clock alarm buzzing away beside me and that only more thirty minutes remains to aquire the last bit of my beauty sleep before the daily struggle begins. “Bzzz, Bzzz, Bzzz!” Half an hour later, I roll over knowing that I must wake up now, so that I can perform my morning rituals. I reach over to my shiny, black bookcase that I use as my nightstand and touch the dismiss key on my iPhone. I cannot keep my eyes open because I feel like death due to an overwhelming amount of exhaustion, even though I calculated that I slept the night before for at least seven and a half hours. I concluded, however, that the thought of school itself ensued my unmotivated, depressed

I found this week’s reading in the course text on custom fitting shotguns to be quite interesting because I’ve almost always had a shotgun in my home, but I’ve never done any work to customize the scatter guns I’ve owned… I think That’ll be changing pretty soon. Prior to getting into shotguns in this course I never had an idea as to how some custom work could enhance the performance of a shotgun. I knew there was a ton of work that could be done, but because I was never really into wing shooting or whatnot I never saw how it might help me out.

“Will she ever be okay?” are the words that invested within me through every minute that passed. I could not help but think the world was falling in around me and nothing would relieve the pain. My daughter had something terribly wrong, and all I could do was sit and wonder the outcome of this horrific event. The world around me began to feel suffocating as if there was no way out. I brought this precious life into this world with the mindset that I could guard her from all the cruelty and darkness. My body grew weak with each thought that crept in my mind and I could feel the chills running down my back each time the doctor came with an update. Despite everything that could go wrong, I never stopped believing that with prayer I was not fighting

To my mind velocity isn’t as significant, as the weight and size of the projectile. The larger and heavier the projectile, the less deflection. That is why the larger pistol calibers are preferable. I possess no experience with bonded bullets. However, I can see how they would be a better option in shooting through laminated windscreens, if the manufacturing process claim is correct that the design will control expansion, have higher weight retention, and deeper penetration. FMJ shares some of these characteristics and therefore in theory at least, if not in practice lesser fragmentation when hitting the windshield and in turn penetration into the vehicle.

Transition 2: Doesn’t this story show an incredible picture of God’s heart? Jesus already knows everything about us. He knows the good stuff, the bad stuff. But he does not reject us. Instead, he pursues us and invites us to be with him and to enter into a relationship with him. He does not shun us when we make bad choices, he does not put us down like the world. Instead he pursues us, he invites us to him, and wants to be our friend. He is a friend to sinners. And he calls us each by name.

Upon entrance into the adult working class I believe the Lord, by His divine providence, called my life to full-time, vocational ministry. Confusion hit my mind and left me stunted. All my life to that point my faith had been kept at almost intentionally separate from the other realms I lived in. Because of this the question that flooded my mind was, “How am I supposed to now combine these two pieces of myself?” At this moment the trajectory of my life forever changed.

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change,” says Charles Darwin. This quote relates to me because throughout the junior year I tried my best to get the sharpest straight A’s so when I couldn’t get to those straight A’s I beat myself up over it. Making my depression, anxiety, and guilt even worse than ever before. I wasn’t the student I once was and that I am an ill repute. Because of these emotions, the only solution was to end my life to end my suffering so I tried but survived the attempt after being hospitalized. I came back my friends and my teachers still supported me with their best attempt and never gave up on me. Life was punishing this year I learned

The concise time when an individual becomes a young adult is unknown and confusing. The authors have decided to pinpoint various milestones within to human life to gives readers a general idea of when we entered adult. According to Zastrow & Kirst-Ashman (2016), "However, in most states, they are not considered adult enough to drink alcoholic beverages until the age of 21. A person cannot become a U.S. senator until age 30 or president until age 35.” Contrary to the beliefs of the author, everyone has their own interpretation of what constitutes an adult.

“Great! Tomorrow I will teach you car washing. By the way, you can call me Eric for short.”

My mind teleporting itself to multiple universes is a constant in my life. Each individual universe is connected in a fractal-like fashion, consisting of spindly chains of universes in arms not unlike the Milky Way’s spiral arms. Imagine the famous Mandelbrot Set: narrowing in on a particular point will reveal the set’s characteristic bulbous shape, but scaled down; in the same way, zooming in on a set of temporally-linked universes will eventually reveal a branching-out shape not unlike the central shape of the multiverse.