Personal Narrative Essay

I aimlessly walked around for a bit, playing on my phone, texting a few friends until my mother called out for me. “Courtney! Bring me a drink please!” I went to the mini-fridge and retrieved two Mountain Dews, one of me and the other for my mother. I walked into the garage bay and found her sitting on the

Good morning, like Megan said I am Desirae Hertling. I am currently in my last month of high school at New Ulm Public and I plan to attend South Dakota State University next fall.

Middle to Late childhood I continued to remain small. At eight years only I was only 48 inches tall and not even 50 lbs. I continued to be advanced academically. I had to start attending speech therapy as I was unable to clearly say R’s. They thought this may have been due to me being born prematurely. With many years of speech therapy I was able to say words with R’s appropriately. Physically I was involved in softball, tennis and spent a lot of my free time swimming at the pool. I was the girl who was always picked first to be on a team and often times was picked before many of the boys. I had no problem playing rough and taking hard knocks. I had a group of close girlfriends that I spent almost every day with starting from kindergarten.

All was peaceful in the train packed full of passengers en route to Amsterdam. Everything was going smoothly until a man loaded down with an assault weapon with nine magazines of ammunition, an automatic pistol with extra ammo, and a box cutter entered the scene. This seems as if it is the beginning of a horror story, as if it ends with the train passengers being massacred by the deranged assailant, but it doesn’t end that way. Seeing the obvious danger in this situation, three American men made a decision. These brave, compassionate men decided that they would stand for what it is right; they decided to take down the assailant. They did take down the assailant and they saved all the lives aboard the train as they did so. Reading this story

I was in Walmart grocery shopping with my mother. We needed milk, cereal, shampoo, and a few other things. The shopping trip took a while so my mother said I could get a candy bar to eat in the car. Excited, I ran to pick one. There were so many choices: Reese’s cups, Hershey bars, Milky Ways. I finally decided on a Snickers bar. My mother paid for the groceries and together we started to head to the door. It was not until I felt a heavy hand on my shoulder and heard a deep voice say, “excuse me ma’am,” that I realized my mother forgot to pay for my candy bar. Everyone’s eyes turned to me, the eight-year-old, the thief, the criminal. The worker stared at me with cold, unforgiving eyes, and I panicked.

The young woman jumped, hitting several keys on her keyboard. She looked around her dark room and then to the clock on the computer screen. 7:00 AM.

For most of my childhood, my whole world was comprised of people that shared the same ethnicity, culture, and living style as I did. But after leaving El Salvador at the young age of seven and undertaking the most difficult journey of my life, my world was split shattered. In school, I had to assimilate to a culture where I was surrounded by kids who had been born speaking English and teachers who taught with voluminous books instead of dirty chalk boards. Meanwhile, at home I had to meet my mom’s expectations while also serving as her intermediary between our old world and the US. Aside from school and home, I also had to struggle making friends, having difficulty creating and maintaining relationships with the people of my age group. Having

The next morning I woke up pressed against the wall, my hair in disarray around my head and my shirt bunched up on the sides. I lifted myself up and groggily rubbed my eyes before doing the usual.

I came back home to pack my belongings in order to be hospitalized. I did not know whether I would ever be able to come back to my place with sound body. I sincerely regretted my drinking and smoking habit. Those bad habits may have triggered or helped development of the cancer. However, nothing much I could do at that moment. The only one I can rely on was God. I prayed and tried to stay strong and be focus on a miraculous recovery. However my situation did not get better. The flow of urine got weaker, and it took longer to empty my bladder. I had to go to the toilet frequently, because a little drop of urine kept trickle out and it stained underpants right after my toilet usage. I did not feel complete emptiness of my bladder. Yet I prayed

The clock is ticking. I have no time left to spare. The clock reads 3:00 am, and I have yet to sleep. My laptop is in front of me, a cup of coffee rests in one hand, and an anxious younger sister sits beside me as I continue to check and correct her homework.

I lied in my bed one night, my heart pounding, rapid breathing, and racing thoughts. I was having a panic attack. Life’s a journey and just a few are easy, clear paths. Majority have obstacles that they must overcome to continuing living the life they want. One obstacle and journey that I have dealt with in my life is my anxiety. I have had anxiety for as long as I can remember. As a child, I would worry about everything, but was constantly told that it was normal to worry about things. Anxiety was just the norm for me. Even though I have had anxiety all my life there was one point when my anxiety was at its worst. I would have multiple panic attacks almost every day. A significant journey that has shaped me into the person I am today is the

I had turned off the WiFi capability on my smart phone and laptop, and completely disconnect from any and all forms of virtual communities and social media within 36 hours during the long weekend. I chose to hanged out with friends to pass through the times without WiFi, so I don’t think it is a challenge for me for the first few hours because I can do shopping, keep eating, have a chill chat with friends, and these activities are able to possess much times. However, there are a bit different between my thought and the reality. When I was doing shopping, my brain was all about sales but most of the stores were not having sales, so I planned to do online shopping after get back home as there are always have online sales via my long-term shopping

Then the 134 arrived. I got on, showed my pass to the bus driver and

They all took turns holding him. At parties, my relatives always wanted my mom to bring my baby brother. Even at school, my first grade teacher wanted to see him. My mom seemed to have gotten annoyed because everyone was always asking her to see him. When he learned how to crawl, he would follow us around the house. He would try to catch up with us, but he was too slow. When he learned how to walk, he always wanted to play outside with me. It was a pain taking care of him when my mom was gone. He would throw things all over the floor and run around the whole house. When he saw that the toy box was full, he would walk over to it and empty it out by flipping it over. After we picked up after him and put all the toys back in the box, he would go back to it and empty it out again. Although he may be annoying at times, he brings happiness to our family. Without my little brother, my life would be very different. Things wouldn´t be the same if he wouldn't have been

I better not anger her. I thought to myself. I walked slowly to the door where my brother was waiting. My brother was 13 at the time (now 14). By the look of his face, he looked angry. His motions also assured me he was angry. He was tapping his foot. His face was annoyed. I could tell he was mad at me.