Personal Narrative: My Cleft Palate Surgery

I was taught about how to handle life’s challenges from watching my mom deal with hers. She never showed fear or pain, but instead kept her spirits high and focused on the positives in her life. Her optimism has rubbed off on me, and I realized there is no point worrying about situations you have no control of. During the hardest of times, my mother was able to teach me there is always a reason to laugh. She also showed me why it is important to value life and how fulfilling our lives can truly be if we lived each day as if it

Robert Frost once said, “in three words I can sum up everything I have learned about life: It goes on” (Frost). I learned this the hard way. At the age of 10 my life was impacted in the worst way possible. My brother Tim was diagnosed with leukemia for the second time in his young life. This crushed my family as Tim was just full of life and wanted to be a regular child. The problem was that he was not living a normal life for a 13-year-old. Tim would spend countless nights in the Cleveland Clinic receiving chemo-therapy. He went bald and could not even use the bathroom by himself. Weakness struck my brother and I was there to witness all of it. No one should ever have to witness what I saw and I pray that no one ever has to go through what Tim did. Seeing the life being taken from his grip hurt me the most. My life will forever be impacted on March 19th, 2008. That night, Tim lost his life to cancer and devastation destroyed my family and the community. I learned at that moment that life is full of obstacles and the strong will persevere. I

In life we may go through hardships that take us down a path that benefits us in the future and make us stronger individuals. These hardships can influence a person’s life by making us face obstacles we don’t want to face and

I have overcome lots of obstacles in my life. They weren't the easiest to overcome, but I did it. There is one obstacle I had to go through which made me a strong individual mentally and physically. I lived in New Jersey for my entire life. I grew up there, I had all of my family and friends in Jersey. I was sure my future was going to rely in Jersey. During 7th grade, I got the news that we were going to move to North Carolina. I was thrilled to move to another state. As each day passed, I thought how I would have to start in a new school and make new friends. Every time it struck me knowing that I would have to start a new life. I was nervous not knowing what would happen to my future. I wanted to stay in New Jersey because I was scared of

When people go through something difficult it can change them. Making them who they are, it can change them for the bad or good. Therefore, hardships can greatly influence a person’s life by making them appreciate all the things that make life enjoyable.

I have faced many obstacles in my life and have been through many hardships. However, I always overcome them in one way or another. For example, when I first walked the halls of Harlingen High School I entered as a shy but ambitions freshman with a lot of friends and unfortunately a lot of enemies. I was always put down due to play playing ability in band. I constantly tried to get better and better and that’s when freshman region auditions came along. I was excited to be able to actually compete with others so I can finally prove myself to my peers and teachers. I stumbled through my pre-audition and wasn’t able to audition and that killed me inside. I practiced so hard to not be able to audition. Although I was never any good I decided to

Since my younger years I have been compelled to differentiate between enduring and overcoming. From my parent’s divorce, our financial instability and my multiple social dislocations, I had to learn to adapt to ever-changing environments and circumstances. Before my grandfather died he shared with me one of his favorite quotes and one that I will never forget, which says that, “the key to life is found by

Every single person has or will experience a hardship sometime in their life. Whether it is an external or internal struggle, it will all depend on what the person’s situation is. The hardship I am currently struggling with is my grandpa’s Parkinson's disease. Parkinson’s disease is a disorder affecting one’s nervous system which can affect them not only physically, but emotionally, and psychologically Struggling with my grandpa’s Parkinson’s has persisted me to take a second look at what I am doing with my life and the people I value.

Overcoming adversity says a lot about a person. The adversity in life I have had to personally overcome is a birth defect. I was born with a cleft lip which has caused me to have five procedures from the ages of three months to sixteen years old. Not a day goes by where I’m not reminded of the challenges I’ve had to overcome, because every time there is a mirror, I’m reminded by a scar upon my face.

I am not like other people where I’ve had difficulties with my family but I have had one major struggle that has impacted my life. It did not affect me for just one summer it will be affecting me for the rest of my life. The exceptional hardship I have had was when I broke my leg in five places and had to overcome the difficulties of getting better. It was such a difficult experience because it affected my love of playing basketball. However, that experience led me on my path in pursuing a career in Sports Medicine. Breaking my leg was awful but it helped me think about what I wanted to study when I go into college.

Throughout my life obstacles appear around every corner. From the time when I was a newborn and my mother had found out she had breast cancer to when my parents had told me they were going to get a divorce. For some, these situations may be depressing to talk about or even uncomfortable. In my mind, however, the more I talk about it and see how it’s changed the way I view life is a more than beneficial opportunity.

Adversity has been my greatest teacher. This personal struggle has made me realize that only I am in control of my happiness and I am the only one who can truly dictate in which direction my life goes. I feel stronger and more confident than ever to handle life’s challenges, define my own successes, and substantially contribute to my community and the world around

In a person’s life everyone experiences challenges that they don't think they can overcome. Although they end up beating it even if they struggled. Hardships influence a person's life by making them have better adaptability to situations.

Every hardship is an opportunity to grow as a person, and every time I’ve faced a hardship, I’ve always come out stronger than I was before. Becoming the man of my house at an age when most people are going through their preteen and teenage years, which can be hard on many, molded me into a stronger, more confident person years before my

A cleft palate (CP) occurs during the embryonic stage of life and is a craniofacial malformation (Masih et al., 2014). This oral malformation varies within babies as well as in severity. CP can range from an opening at the back of the soft palate (the soft portion on the roof of the mouth), to a nearly complete separation of the roof of the mouth (Masih et al., 2014). During the time of development CP and cleft lip (CL) are results of the maxillary prominence not joining together with the frontonasal properly (Mahboubi, Truong, & Pham, 2015).