Personal Narrative: My Interview

There was very many trials and events during this time, so much so I could write a book so this is really only the tip of the tip of the iceburg.

Starting high school can be a little scary, especially when you have no guidance from siblings, like me, being the first one from my family to have an education. But that did not stop me from succeeding, I?ve always been confident and determined. I?m an enthusiastic when it comes to trying new things. Who would have thought I was going to be a good athlete plus a book geek, when in my past years I was just a regular kid. I was pretty excited about joining a club that had a connection with high school, that way I didn?t have to start from zero, I always want to be a step ahead. Fortunately, in summer, a high school coach was recruiting freshmen for running either cross country or track, they both involve running, so I considered it like the same sport with different timing. And this is when it all started. Running

I have always loved justice, and have a very strong sense of patriotism. I was attacked by a terrorist cell while I was stationed in what was Bhutan. I led my squad out alive, except for our EOD man. He sacrificed himself for the rest of us, and was later recognised with the Medal of Honor.

Put the gun down! Put the gun down! Pow Pow Pow. The gun shots cracked into the air as loud as thunder. One after another. We live day by day not knowing our end. In the blink of an eye our lives can be changed forever. Its life, yet even in knowing this we never expect tragedy to find us. We never expect it to affect our lives and the people we know and love. I’m going to share with you the day tragedy found my life.

Caroline, my sister, is the type of person who loves animals and says she wants to save the world. She thinks her jokes are the best, but she’s the only one that laughs. She is always willing to help someone out if they are stuck. She knows how to put a smile on someone's face. Whenever Caroline answers the phone, even if it wakes her from a nap, she always smiles first and then talks. “Because a smile can change any meaning” she always says. She is a 20 year old junior at “UW-Madison for my undergraduate degree in anthropology with certificates in archaeology and classics” (C. Schlinsog, Personal Interview, May 31, 2017). She is very smart, she is taking summer classes so she can graduate early and go on to graduate school. She has a big future ahead of her.

By the time I knew what I was getting myself into, it was already too late.

“Hah! BALDY!” He screeched. I was sure my head was gleaming like a street lamp as everyone chanted ‘Baldy’ to the moon and back. My chemo had left me as a nauseous, hairless, bag of bones, and my whole school situation hadn’t exactly gotten better either. My cheeks flushing, I shoved my hands in my sweatpants pockets and ran off. I would have started crying, but I really didn’t have any tears left. I had been crying for days. Weeks, even. Heck, I didn’t know how long. Could have been years, but I wouldn’t care. Nothing mattered anymore. I looked up to my apartment window, and my mom was waving me on encouragingly. Thanks the lord she didn’t shout out the window, or her thick Russian accent would surely provoke

The person I interview was my very passionate and intuitive friend. A very loyal yet pessimistic person I asked him why he is the way he is. What did he experience in childhood that made his perspective on life change? “I grew up in Eagle Rock. There was, and I'm pretty sure there is still is a lot of shootings, gang members, and a lot of Mexican culture. Growing up I was taught to work. I've been working since I was 9 and around the age of 16 I was using my social security. Being the child of immigrant parents I wasn't privileged.I was taught to work for the things in life." Like myself, many first-generation children grow up under confusion and stress. Our parents left their life behind to start a better and new life full of opportunities

Every day I wake up knowing I’m going to have to fight the same war within myself that I do everyday. A war that isn’t visible to the eye, nevertheless a war I never feel I will be free from. It is a humiliating feeling to be fearful of your mind as if you are its prisoner. There are days where I will do anything just to survive. Anxiety has become a sickness that I can’t shake. The way I was brought up plays a significant role in developing a personality derived from perfectionism as well as fearing any sort of failure, due to developing an anxiety disorder. Anxiety has clouded my sense of “who I am,” as well as, affected me physically and cognitively.

On paper, my life may appear to be an average, uneventful life with no real experiences to shape who I am as a person. However, I can firmly say that while I may still be young, high school has taught me many life lessons and helped form me to be who I am today. High school has been a series of highs and lows, with many successes and some failures. Before I reached high school, failure was a foreign concept to me, I had never truly experienced what it meant to not succeed at something in the first attempt. This was a hard lesson for me to learn and accept, but I can now see late in my senior year that these failures helped me grow into who I am today. Along with the growth brought on by failure, I also began to treasure my successes more, and feel a sense of accomplishment in my achievements.

When I moved from Reston, Virginia to small town Pittsboro, North Carolina, I felt like an outsider. I had just lost some of the only friends I had ever known, a neighborhood that was lively and caring, most importantly of that traumatic experience, I had just lost a community that cared. Before I moved when I was very young, I skipped kindergarten and went straight into first grade; but not into traditional private or public school, I was homeschooled. Homeschooling gave me the comfort and freedom to explore the world and to learn at my own pace. It was a great balance, and I learned time management and planning early on, as well as a confidence in myself that hadn’t wavered, yet.

While trying to perform this interview, I had to plan strategically in order for the interview to bring out the most success, insight, and information. Being at college, my hometown is two and a half hours away from school, so I had to perform this interview over the phone. I called on Friday, February 23, 2018 at 4:30 in the evening while sitting at my fiancé's apartment. The phone call lasted approximately 20 minutes, and was intriguing and captivating. Though I feared that having the interview over the phone would be less personal and have less emotions, I was surprised to find that the interview was just as successful as I had hoped it to be.

I was born on August 22, 1999 in Fort Bragg, North Carolina around midnight. So, the second I seen the outside world; still the hospital room I saw my Grandma, Pappy, Maw-Maw, and papa, and my mom was crying. However, the person missing from the room was my father. My coach was more of a father than anyone in my life.

It seemed like the weekend would never come. It did, and now she had to scramble to get preparations ready for Ray’s arrival this morning and Fiona and Emily’s for lunch.

“Next month we're are going to move to Los Altos and this house will go for rent,” my Dad said five months ago at dinner. I was shocked and quickly answered