Personal Narrative : Personal Experience

I have lived in only one location my entire life: Edwardsville, Illinois. A peripheral suburb of St. Louis, it stands as the rare oasis of people in a desert of corn, pinned in its own personal bubble. Due to this blend of time and isolation, I developed a natural familiarity with my hometown. But, throughout my childhood, I longed to break free from the confines of the bubble and venture outward. However, this changed last summer, as I walked through Richards Brickyard, our family heirloom, that my great-grandfather, Benjamin Richards, founded over 120 years ago. I felt these childlike sentiments slip away. The bubble that had surrounded me for so long began to vanish, and the picture that it had been obscuring was slowly revealed.

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.

It was just the beginning of February. The winter cold, brutal, and yet normal for the people living in Michigan. My best friend Brian, his uncle Craig, and I were driving back together from Craig’s up north cottage. Brian and I were riding passenger with Craig in his Chevy Silverado pick-up. We were coming back from the annual Perchville Polar Bear Plunge that took place in Tawas, Michigan. A lot was on my mind since it was the second semester of my senior year, and graduation was right around the corner. I had no idea what I wanted to do, or where my future would take me.

This story is going to be about this one halloween and it was truly terrifying for me at least. This will take place when i was about nine years old and the year was 2014. It started out as every day and it was like any normal day and it was halloween and i had to go to school so here was this big party at the end of the day and we were going to have a 5 day weekend. So everybody was excited and it was party time there was a big school party then there was a classroom party. We were just waiting for recess so that the party would start cause they scheduled the party after recess and lunch. It was only twenty minutes after rescues and our teacher took 18 minutes to take us back inside.

I stare at the TV with incomplete fascination, my pencil tightly gripped in between my fingers.

The girl who I’d grown up with since preschool had a small tremble in her hands and couldn’t write legibly. Being bullied at a young age and didn’t pick up a pencil for the rest of elementary school, took its toll. But she sung the loudest songs and kept you on the edge of your seat with the passion that flowed from her vocal chords. She could talk for hours on end and listen just as well. She did all her work vocally and may have gotten the best grade in the class. Never giving excuses and always taking the hard route, and continued humming along the way.

It was cold on the night of November 14th. My friend, her boyfriend and I were walking to Walmart, planning on getting cake ingredients for my friend’s grandmother’s birthday. On our way there my surroundings seemed rather quiet for it being Angola. I felt like something was wrong like something had happened. But I continued to toss the feeling aside and just walked the path that leads to the parking lot. I couldn’t help but look in between the trees that held pitch black darkness. I was worried that was where troubles may lie, I was wrong. My real problem all started with a simple phone call.

Whenever I fight, except with the girl at the school, there seem to be a part of me that is turned off. Everything around me disappears and the only thing that matters is the person in front of me. I’m not angry with them, I don’t want to hurt them, I just don’t want them standing in front of me anymore. The bell rang and he got to swing at me once before I ducked under his straight right and hit him with a right hook. As he turned, next came the left cross followed by a straight right and he was out.

When an individual asks “What was a moment that has changed you forever”, it can be extremely difficult to answer. Such a broad question brings up many notable moments that widen an already large selection of memories. But, if I had to pick one that makes me smile every time I look back onto it. It would by my very first concert. It was not only my first time seeing my favorite band live, but it was also my first real experience seeing music played live. Reflecting on all the laughs and memories I made that day only assured me that I would remember it forever. The stories that came along with it are also quite fun to tell.

"What to do," said the Sea God wearily. Poseidon sat on his throne with a bored expression on his face. " What to do!" he said again, "I know!" he exclaimed, "I can create a new sea animal!" he said with an excited expression on his face. Poseidon looked down at his pet whale and asked him, "What do you think I should make Rudy!" he asked,

Sitting on my mother’s bed with my two younger sisters, our eyes are overflowing with tears and I step out of the room.Their yelling is all I focus on instead of taking action. My parents are arguing over nothing, as usual. My heart begins to beat at the pace of a butterfly’s wing and I freeze. The volume of their argument has increased and I attempt to persuade them that this argument can be solved in a more positive way. I remember the fear I felt when I saw my mother crying immensely, it was gut-wrenching. My father was standing in front of her, I knew he was going to hit her because it was not the first time this had happened.

“…Turn here.” He just keeps driving, completely ignoring me. “Uh sir, you missed the turn.” Just keeps driving. Then it comes into view; the edge of the road. The cliff. He’s driving right toward the cliff, going faster by the second. The last thing I see before we crash over the cliff is the man in the driver’s seat turn around; those dead eyes staring right at me.

“Almost,” replied my mom. We were on a road in the countryside surrounded by yellow fields full of seemingly ripe crops and lush green pastures with grazing cows and horses. The drive had been 3 hours long, and I was pumped to get to our destination, which was a little cabin in a wildlife park. We would be staying for 3 days and nights, hopefully entertained by the options of biking, hiking, and canoeing in the wilderness. Sadly, there wouldn’t be any wifi, so no chances of youtube.

I struggled to identify a personal experience that impact my life as the topic for this paper. After days of thought about the assignment, I sat down to write, but I ended up staring at a blank computer screen for a long time. I thought to myself, I am struggling. This thought prompted me to think of all the times that I had struggled in my life. I remembered struggling in basketball, school, and everyday life. As I thought about them, I realized that I got through them and benefitted from the experiences. Pushing myself to my limits, looking for ways to get better, and refusing to quit had produced some good results in my life. People tend to associate struggling as a bad thing because it is a difficult experience usually filled with frustration. That can be true, but it can also lead to positive changes in life. I wanted to show how struggling with something can have positive results.

It truly is astonishing how much we, as teens in the 21st century, take for granted. We go through our day, as if everything we do is a given right, rather than a privilege that we have. We don’t ever stop to think about how so much, could be taken away from us in an instant.