Personal Narrative : Personal Experiences

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.

Hello, Dr. Taft, I look forward to another exciting semester with you, and my cohorts exploring my inner and outer world. Let’s start with my family constellations it begins with my stepmother, and my father, my older brother Steven along with myself. At the time, I did not know that Ann was my stepmother, and I did not find out until I was older, and she had two sons who lived in Arizona. A few years later her eldest son Tommy would come to live with us, and the life that we were accustomed to would change the outcome of all our lives.

“Years ago they called me the teenage monster.” He started to breathe harder. “Years ago, I killed my father; he was abusive. They gave me life.”

Any single human experience can only properly be judged by that human’s amount of dread or anticipation in it’s beginning or end.

The human experience is not a vague suggestion of what all people strive for. This is an individualized set of preferences and priorities that each person desires in life. We are all unique beings and as a physical therapist, there is a duty to create a specific strategy of care that is centered on the needs of the consumer. Movement is the basis of everything. Optimizing movement by improving mobility and motion, managing pain, and regaining original capabilities will guide society to healthier and more active lifestyles.

"So, I met your brother yesterday." I whispered to Sam under my breath so the teacher could not hear me. Sam looked at me with worried eyes then replied "Did he tell you why he was here?". I laughed silently "Well of course Sam. Me and your brother, The bestest best friends that best friends has ever seen".

I’m surrounded by expected actions and bouncing basketballs. I had not yet found my true calling, though many around me have, whether it be basketball, cheerleading, the adrenaline of running past you’re competition they all had found something to drive them. It took me a year to find what I was truly passionate about and now that I am recollecting on it I’m obsessed with it, the overwhelming intensity that I am overcome with when I touch a volleyball. The first year of volleyball was rough, I enjoyed the fast-paced adrenaline when those fervent seconds turned into minutes and minutes into hours, but I didn’t have the skill required to continue to pursue the goals I set for myself. But I kept grinding, always practicing, always finding some way to include some sort of training into my daily endeavors like studying in intervals and rewarding myself with some technique training,

As I was preparing for this interview, I had no idea what to expect. Aside from our email correspondence, I had never met nor heard of Mrs. Laureti. Curious to learn more of my interviewee, I found her LinkedIn profile and felt the nerves rise in me. This professional had done it all; doing what I dreamed of doing in my own future! How was I going to be able to steer the conversation? What if I made a terrible first impression? We had set the date for the interview; October 7th, at the Capitol Complex. I set my GPS for Harrisburg and made my way up I-81, arriving nearly 45 minutes early. Walking into the Complex itself was intimidating by itself; this was where the magic happens, where all the policy is written and passed. I made my way down the escalators and was met by a cheerful Mrs. Alycia Laureti. We each took our turns introducing ourselves, talking about my commute,the weather, finally sitting out in front of the coffee stand. I choose to talk about three aspects of her work; educational requirements, a day in the life, and, because I enjoy puns, “politics” in the workplace.

“I am sorry. I wish I could tell you why I did it, but you deserve to be happy.”

We have learned about a lot of material this semester, from babies, to parents, to aggression. Everything we have learned about this semester has been in a domain, either physical, cognitive or social-emotional. I quickly realized that each domain is somehow connected. All the material we learned about in class may not be directly related to each other, however, a topic from one domain likely has an impact on a topic from another. I have had a lot of awesome experiences at Tampa General Hospital throughout this semester and was able to connect material from class to real life situations. In the end, I figured out that many of the experiences I had all had some type of connection to this course.

When we were asked to interview one of our peers I didn’t realized how much I can learn about a person in a short time. My selected partner was a beautiful, elegant young lady with flaxen blond straight hair, bright white teeth, wearing casual but at the same time stylish jersey draped top and pants which flattered her slightly tanned skin tone.

Where I come from, I am not proud sometimes. I grew up in a mixed Asian/american family. I came from a religious family background on both sides. I have experienced daily things that happen in my community. For me, all this has shaped how I am now through a lot of conditioning and influence.

When we get to the room about half of the seats have people in them. We take seats towards the front. Liam stuck out like a sore thumb to me. He was sitting in the back with three other guys. Soon the rest of the class files in and the teacher walks in just as the bell rings. “No tardies on the first day. Good job guys. Now I Mr. Amanda and this is Senor English. Bet you guys are happy this is the last year you have in this school. Well last year for some of you if you don’t get your stuff done. You know who you are,” he says smiling.

Damian was thinking of what he wanted to do when he grew up. Basketball interested him a lot, and he wanted to be in the NBA. So he went to the local courts around the street. Many people played there, he then asked to play and all the kids laughed and kept playing. He has been around bad people his whole life, Drug dealers, and people who have done time in juvenile multiple times. Damian asked, “ What was so funny?”

Eye opening moments are far and few between. In that one moment, your entire perspective shatters and you realize that what you thought you knew, you didn 't know at all. After the suicide of my best friend, I realized how dangerous addiction could be, but I still couldn 't fully understand it. I went two years after his death constantly wondering what he really experienced. Talking to our mutual friends, his little sister, and his parents reminded me of how kind and happy Conner had been. Not until I started working in mental health awareness did I begin to learn what it is really like to be at war with something so out of your control from someone I never would have expected.