Personal Narrative: How Colorado River Changed My Life

Growing up in the Rio Grande Valley was an experience like no other. The RGV is full of Tex-Mex, laughs, and the most random things you can think of. Despite all its quirks it’s a beautiful place to live in, and it’s home to me.

I was born July 18, 1999 to my parents Joel and Kathy at Forrest General Hospital in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. I was a month early, but I was such a large baby that the doctor said “if he came on time he would have driven us home”. My mom was thrilled to have her first and only child; she named me Dylan, after the son of Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee. My name was strongly debated by my Irish Catholic Great Grandmother, who insisted I be named after a saint. After a failed attempt by Father Tommy Conway to convince her of the great Saint Dylan, my mother agreed to give me the middle name Thomas.

San Luis, Colorado is the oldest town in Colorado. The Rio Culebra winds through the valley, surrounded by majestic mountains. It is one of the most beautiful scenes I have ever seen. My family along with many others have been here for generations. The beauty of the land is only accentuated by the beauty of our tight-knit families and culture. To counteract of all the physical and cultural beauty, there is social and economic strife everywhere around me. I live in the poorest county in Colorado and being impoverished is a challenge my community faces because of a lack of education and job deficit. As I have delved into community and family history, I have better understanding that the fact the that while many things like our support and love for family and culture have remain unchanged and untainted, so has the fact that our community struggles

On September 1, 2012, I walked into my fifth grade teacher’s classroom for the first time in my life. Mrs.Cullen was standing in the front of the door with open arms ready to welcome her new fifth grade students. As I made my way to my desk and sat down next to Charlie Schutt and Quin Timmerman, I got the feeling that middle school would be a time of talking to some of my best friends and cruising through classes. As the school year progressed, and classroom seats changed, my thought of how Middle school would be changed as well. On the first day Mrs.Cullen explained our schedule, Homework detentions, and demerits. After about fifty questions, she sent us off to our first class, and the first step of our Middle School journey. The fifth grade

I grew up in a city named Colorado City, TX – the city is located in Central West Texas. I had a really good friend, that I became best friends with, named Daniel. We went riding our bikes everywhere around this little town, scraping our knees on concrete and crashing our bikes on practically everything (since there was practically nothing to do in this town – this was before the 3M Palace Theatre was reopened).

My youth pastor pulled out of our church parking lot at three am in the morning loaded down with a bus full of twenty four teenagers including me. We were off at last head to Colorado Spring Colorado, little did I know, our bus was going to fall apart this very day.

Rugged River Rapids In the rugged river rapids, The salmon slowly swim. Four years in the ocean,

West Virginia has always been a part of my life, although I am not a resident. When I think of the state the first things that come to mind are college, beauty, and friends. My family has had ties for many years to West Virginia. My mother attended West Virginia Wesleyan College and my relation to the state grew stronger when I chose to attend WVWC. In the past three years I have become enamored with the state and all it has to offer. The pure, wild, beauty of the state is something I will never forget. From orienteering to the top of Spruce Knob with other students in the honor’s program to white water rafting the lower Gauley River with my roommates, I have enjoyed exploring West Virginia. During my time in West Virginia I have learned more

In my school I am part of a community service group called start something, we help people in our community who are not as fortunate, or help clean in our community to keep our city beautiful. My first community service event was the Spicket River cleanup, the Spicket River is a small river that goes through Lawrence. The river goes through many parts of Lawrence, some people’s trash ends up in the river,[every year I look forward to this event to help the environment and my community] this is why every year I look forward to participating in The Spicket River Cleanup.

this, this was just the means to an end, nothing more. The dark grey clouds hung

East Coast is known for so many different things; people, history, fashion, stores, and heritage. But the most recent trend is desserts. Desserts can be sweet, savory, healthy or unhealthy. Desserts make people feel happy especially east coasters.

Scottsdale is where I grew up. It’s where I dressed up and had tea parties with my little brothers. It’s where Hannah Montana taught me how to sing and where Troy Bolton gave me unrealistic expectations of how boys would act in high school. It’s where my two best friends and I decided that we were all going to go to the same college and then we would move into houses that were right next door to each other. We were going to be best friends until the day we die. It’s where I spent the summers swimming and constantly looking like a lobster. Scottsdale is where I fell in love reading thanks to Harry Potter, Tris Prior, and America Singer. It’s where Deal Night was the only thing on my mind and I could not wait to stay up until 3am playing Wii bowling with my whole family. It’s where I learned how to bake with my mom and my brothers. It’s where the sun shines all the time which lead me to get a third degree sunburn while on a Boy Scout camping trip. It’s where I became claustrophobic because of long division at Catalina Island. It’s where my room was covered from floor to ceiling in One Direction posters and where I danced all night to the best song ever.

I can not describe how shocked I am at the moment. During the whole trip from Independence to the Kansas River, Abigail was becoming increasingly impatient. She felt more and more ill by the minute, and described her pain as feeling exceedingly nauseous and lightheaded. Soon after, her poor weak body could not walk any longer. She was incredibly unstable on her feet, and that is when she fully tripped and slammed onto the ground. Everything happened so fast… yet so slow. I felt like I have just fainted myself! Dan is checking up on her, and thankfully her heart is still beating, but it’s beating abnormally. He hopes to figure out exactly what is wrong with her.

    Next I traveled to the atmosphere. I was Callie Carbon in the form of Co2! Ugh and I was in the atmosphere for one-hundred-and-one-years! The atmosphere was so boring I couldn’t wait to leave. During my one-hundred-and-one tedious years I was taken up by a plant through photosynthesis.

While exploring the intriguing domain, I stared wide-eyed in the dim rooms, my face was illuminated by the glowing tanks while fish and other marine life gawked at me. It was as if they wanted me to join them or aid them to escape their aquatic prison. It was depressing to be so close to them, to be only separated by glass, but unable to save them. Many animals could have been violently captured from their homes with no hope of ever being reunited with their true families. The stress of hearing to kids crying, people clapping, loud music,