Personal Narrative Essay: Surviving The Fall

Going into the fall 2014 semester, my family was not in a good place financially, and I was not mentally. Our income had been reduced, meaning I had to step up to help my family. This caused my already weakened mental state to become even more strained and took a toll on me physically. I was not able to concentrate on anything at school, work, and home, it was almost in a blur. When I resigned from the fall 2014 semester, I knew it was something that was needed to make sure I stayed healthy, mentally and physically. Two years went by and I found myself in a better place. Going into the fall 2016 semester, I found the perfect balance between studying, work, and home life. In the end I exceeded all the expectations I had set for myself in every

It started when i was three years old, I lived in Copperas Cove, Texas. My dad had my older brother, Trevor 3 years before I was born. Dad and my mother had divorced so it was just my dad and me for a couple of years. We were best friends and did everything together. I was his favorite person in the world. He met Alison when I was three-years-old she was super nice and took me under her wing, we turned into a trio, but my dad and I always had our special bond. In the spring of 2006 my dad found out he would be deploying to Iraq for his second time. He had deployed for a year when I was a baby, too early to remember. My dad and Alison had made the plan for her to move back to Maine while he was deployed, and I was going to stay with my Aunt

“My mamma ate bad. My grandma ate bad. Now, the food was good, so good, but you know it’s like soul food, so it’s not that good for you. My mamma had diabetes too. I’m sure grandma did too, but she didn’t go to the doctor ever. She couldn’t afford it. I can though. That’s how I found out I had diabetes. I got it from them, of that I am sure.”

Fall, lovely fall, one of my favorite season, because it's not too hot and it's not too cold. I love the colors of fall, and there's no place like Colorado to celebrate it. We recently decided to take a trip up to the mountains to look at the beautiful Colorado Fall Colors. It's when the trees change colors and you can see a sea of yellow, oranges and reds, or maybe just a sea of yellow as shown below. People travel from far and wide just to witness our colors and I don't blame them, because it's beautiful! You may notice that when fall comes around, we tend to eat more comfort foods, and one of those comfort foods that I just love and my entire family also loves is Quaker Oats. I grew up eating Quaker Oats and I remember my mother making oatmeal in the mornings for breakfast before I headed off to school. In the Caribbean we would call it "porridge", and it was usually our go to breakfast meal. It was filling and you know that you were getting a great meal. Now that I'm older and have my own family, I always keep Quaker Oats on hand, whether they be the original or instant, they're a must have in my own pantry.

Fall is in full swing here in Kansas. The leaves have changed colors, the nights are crisp, and the days have a brisk chill. This is a whole new experience for me. Growing up in California our seasons consisted of cool summer and hot summer which could vary day to day, all year long. I have never experienced a true season of fall until now. Since the day I first noticed the trees beginning to change I found myself completely mesmerized by it all. As each passing day would become a bit more cold the leaves would change more and more and eventually let go of the tree. In a way I couldn't help but relate to what I watched the tree going through.

Today was September 12, 2012. I had woken up like any other normal day and was getting ready for school. I typically don’t eat breakfast, but that one simple mishap can lead to the unbelievable. Little did I know that only in the matter of a half hour of arriving to school my whole day would come crashing down. I had arrived at West Jay Middle School and had got my books and went to class. I was in eighth grade then. I felt normal like any other day, but it had appeared that I had been wrong.

A perfect fall day would take place on a cool, Saturday evening in October. Preparations would start early in the afternoon with a visit to the store. Like a kid in a candy store, I would go through the Kroger aisles buying popcorn, s’mores supplies, and hot chocolate. I would carefully check that each white, fluffy marshmallow was not squashed and I would buy whip cream to top off each mug of rich, creamy hot chocolate. Final stop would be the big, shiny Redbox kiosk for a movie. My kids say I take forever picking a movie!

Everyone has a story, some people have too many if you asked me, but one story has always stuck with me. Monique and I were standing next to a gigantic leafy tree hoping that the sub teacher wouldn’t make us run laps in the scorching hot weather. After running 4 laps we were exhausted, the teacher forgot about us and decided to run the humongous oval with the rest of the students. To make this boring, useless class a little bit more interesting, I started telling Monique that I’m an actual ninja. I exclaimed with excellent “Can I show you this really cool ninja/karate kid flip”.

It was the last day until I was on break for two weeks. I woke up feeling excited as I ever was in my whole life. I was going to see my family in Mexico and I was going to stay there for the whole two weeks! I was a short seven year old that was this was going to be his first time ever leaving the country, in fact it was my first time that I was going to take a step out the state of Georgia.

He said, “When someone uses family to convince you to enlist that person is using a patriotic argument. Remember some of the greatest evil has been done in the name of country and religion. On the other hand, some of the greatest good has been done under the name of patriotism and faith.”

Allen had fallen from the ceiling after another short hour or so, it turned out that the small lime green, beeping and glowing contraption was an energy shield. Something Mike had commended him on retrieving, telling him how crucial that will be for him in battle. Phoenix smiled as the days events played out over in his head, they were getting stronger now, they’d escaped a head Elark facility without a single fatality. The three grown ups were in the kitchen talking, Phoenix expected they were discussing their next moves. Daniel was sitting at Carter’s desk by the window with his head propped up on his hand, absentmindedly tapping a pen on the hard wood and looking lost in thought. Carter was in the shower where he’d been for the past 30

Beep, Beep, Beep the alarm went off. I am so excited it is the Fall festival today. I went downstairs to see what my mom had made for breakfast. Yay! She made french toast with cinnamon sprinkled on top and eggs on the side. It smelled so good. Right when I took my fork and put that first piece of French toast on my fork my mom said, “wait! We have to say the blessing.” So we said the blessing and then ate away. As we finished our breakfast my mom said after we eat we will have one hour to get ready and go to the fall festival. I ran upstairs to be first to the shower and took a nice hot shower before the hot water ran out. After my shower I got dressed and ready to go. We all ran to the car and got in. We arrived at the

189 people died out of 200 people who stayed in the hotel. There were only ten survivors from my school and 90 people have died. The cause of the accident was poor construction, but there was no one who took over the responsibilities. The government promised to give all the students to a choice of choosing a university and they said they will support us until we get a proper job.

I hated missing work. Throughout the summer, I was a money-grubbing teenager and never missed a chance for a profit which included overtime any chance I got. At first I wanted to miss out on the family vacation because of my excessive greed. When vacation slowly approached, I gave in, mostly because I had requested the week off before summer had started, and luckily I did.

After getting the horrible 5 A.M morning breath brushed away, I went on to eat. In all my previous years of school, id wake up to a warm breakfast already done and waiting at the table. But this year there was a change. It was devastating. I walk out of my bathroom to find and empty, dark, lonely kitchen. My mother was nowhere to be found. I guess she wasn’t dealing with this year of school either. It was not even an hour after my first day of waking up before school and I felt like it was already ruined. I grabbed a pop tart and hurried out the house.