Personal Narrative: Conquering Fear

On January 3, 2009 around 11:00 PM the phone rang with what I thought was exciting news about my newly born sister, Tristyn ,but quickly turned to horror. I could heard the fright in my dad's shaken voice as he told me Tristyn had to go into immediate heart surgery because she needed a stent to open up the blood flow to her heart. Being eight at the time the only thing I could think about was how she might not make it. My dad said to me “look after your sisters, and tell them nothing about the surgery”, which terrified me more than before. I knew I needed to be brave and take charge of the situations for my sisters. Bravery is something I learned for a situation I never knew would happen.

Imagine being at the peak of your high school career, personally, academically, and athletically. For me, that was my sophomore year. I was selected to be on the homecoming court, I won a free class ring, and a free corsage and boutonniere for prom. I was on my way to a 4.0 grade point average. I was pulled up to Varsity basketball, I became the 100 meter hurdle regional champion, and I qualified for two events at the Division 4 State meet for track and field. In one split second, a clip of a hurdle, that was over. My first race of the day was the preliminary 100 meter hurdles. Once the race started, I was calm, focused, and determined. I was starting to make my way up to the front of the pack when I clipped my trail leg on the eighth hurdle.

Being a typical 9 year old, I bawled my eyes out. When I moved my arm, it hurt even more. My mom came over to see what all the commotion was all about and I told her what had gone on. I also told her that whenever I moved my arm, it hurt and it felt very weird. She told me we would have to head to the hospital in Columbus to go get an X-Ray to see if it was broken. Thankfully, this was after my older brother’s band’s performance. He came over to us, and my mom told what was about to happen and what we were about to do. He wasn’t happy, to say the least. After about 5 minutes of arguing, my brother lost and my mom took the rest of us to Columbus. As we got into the car, she told me to keep my arm as still as I could, to which I did. We didn’t go to the hospital right away, however, we went to McDonald’s instead to try and make me feel better with some ice cream. It worked, and made me feel glad, even until I got into the hospital. I had never had a broken bone before up until that point in my life, so I didn’t know what to expect. We sat in the waiting room for about 5-10 minutes, until the nurse came into the room to tell us that the doctor was waiting. We got into

Growing up with a father in the military, you move around a lot more than you would like to. I was born just east of St. Louis in a city called Shiloh in Illinois. When I was two years old my dad got the assignment to move to Hawaii. We spent seven great years in Hawaii, we had one of the greatest churches I have ever been to name New Hope. New Hope was a lot like Olivet's atmosphere, the people were always friendly and there always something to keep someone busy. I used to dance at church, I did hip-hop and interpretive dance, but you could never tell that from the way I look now.

I fell. This felt like I didn’t have a wrist. But I got back up really carefully and went up to the lounge to my dad and sister. Ah, Ah, Dad I think I broke my wrist. No you didn’t. It was swelling up, It hurt so bad I couldn’t even believe this was happening.

Over my years of school, one big influence on me has always been sports. Ever since a young age, I have always enjoyed playing and watching sports. In my four years in high school, I have fell in love with the sport of lacrosse.

“On my honor, I will never betray my badge, my integrity, my character, or the public trust. I will always have the courage to hold myself and others accountable for our actions. I will always uphold the constitution, my community, and the agency I serve.” This is the oath average citizens take right before they become police officers. The oath shows us why police officers are here, they are here to protect us. The police, and other Government officials, should use police brutality because, if the same people who are supposed to be protecting us are hurting and killing us, then regular citizens are not going to respect laws and authority.

After much debate, it was decided I was in fact NOT faking an arm injury and I was taken to Urgent Care. There I was X-Rayed and determined to have no fracture or break… I got a sling and a pat on the back. I returned home feeling very weak and wimpy, but my mother was not as sure that I was fine. The next day, I went to an orthopedic doctor who took one X-Ray and determined I had in fact broken my elbow. I was casted and told to come back in six weeks, little did he know I would be back a little

My left elbow hurt very badly and I could feel blood running down my arm. It hurt so badly that I was crying. After a few minutes, I tried to get up, but I made my elbow hurt so badly because I was adding pressure to much pressure to it. Then I bent my elbow to see if it was broken because on the shows my parents watch, the doctors tell the injured people to bend their arms or legs to see if they are broken. Finally, someone noticed me and called Jaci’s mom, Brooke, over.

“Tough times never last, but tough people do.” The refusal of my arm made me discern this intimately. It all started as I stepped onto the soccer field, ready to win. Approximately thirty minutes into the game, the opponent’s attacker was charging towards our goal. All I could think about was stealing the ball from him, which I managed to do, but something terrible happened. I fell and landed on my left shoulder. I was immediately rushed to the hospital, where I went in and out of consciousness due to the extreme pain. Keep in mind that this is in Ethiopia, where medical care is not exactly timely and pain control is not a priority. After what seemed like forever, the diagnostic test confirmed that my clavicle was completely shattered.

A few minutes after my mom’s rant the doctor came. He asked what happened and a few other questions then sent me off with another nurse to get an x-ray of my wrist. She leads me to a room with one small light shining against a table with a big camera connected to the ceiling with one little chair beside it. I sat in the chair and then placed my wrist sideways on the table. I tried to be gentle as possible. The nurse took some snapshots then took me back to the room again. The doctor then came in with a long bandage and a splint to wrap around my arm. While wrapping my arm the nurse explained what had happened to my wrist.

Yes, I do have several personal life experiences where I have overcame adversity and transformed into the person I am today. As a military child, I was blessed with the opportunity to spend my youth on Feltwell Royal Air Force Base in England and Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska. Since I lived in relative isolated locations, I functioned entirely on base; therefore, I was protected from the harsh realities of the world. Everyone I met understood me, for they experienced the same things I did. However, this changed in the winter of my seventh grade year. My mother’s father was diagnosed with Stage Four lung cancer, so my father applied for a Humanitarian Reassignment. Thankfully, the request was approved and my family was reassigned to Wright Patterson Air Force Base in

She raced across the yard, carefully but quickly. She screamed for help, nobody heard her. We received into the house and she began shouting at everybody. Immediately everyone was on edge, and wondering what was going on. I was handed off to my father like a football, and carefully laid down on the couch. They began trying to make me sit up or move. I tried as hard as I could, but the pain became too much to handle.

The weird part: I didn`t cry. I just remember screaming as loudly as I possibly could as my friends rushed to me and called my parents. I heard gasps, as people tried not to stare at my instantly bruised elbow turning purple and blue. As I was rushed into an ambulance, I could see the worry in my parents sorry eyes, and didn’t know what to do. Once we arrived at the intimidating hospital, with people on gearnies being rolled around all over the first floor, the doctor came to me after what felt like a year. They rolled me to a dark, secluded room where they x-rayed my elbow. I was rolled back and put on medicine that relieved the pain, and put me to sleep, which after all three doses, still barely worked.

In my 38 years of life, I’ve had to overcome plenty of obstacles. When examining my life, especially in my younger years, it showed me life consists of an assortment of minor and major obstacles. Facing an obstacle, especially a major one, and conquering it, awards me a triumphant feeling. Furthermore, this feeling did provide me with determination, willpower, and courage to take on any future obstacles that life can throw at me (Harrington, 2012). This makes minor obstacles to become like a cake walk.