Personal Narrative: Skylar Woods

I didn’t stop running; I kept this up for what felt like thirty seconds at least before the overwhelming urge to cough stopped me. I attempted to grip the side of the wall before I keeled over and violently choked up more blood. Shaking, I stretched my arms out around me, praying that I would find something in this seemingly empty room that could give me some kind of relief. Something that would take away that

On April 4th, 2001, a young man named Ryan Judge was born in a hospital in Munster, Indiana. I haven’t always lived in Lowell, in fact for the first year of my life, I lived in Cedar Lake. When I turned about one year old, my family moved to lowell. I can’t remember anything really important in the years before school, being that I was so young. When I started school, it was quite weird actually. Going to a place to learn, for seven hours a day. I started to notice how small I was when I saw the other kids. For some reason, they were all taller than me. Most people would think that I was bullied for this reason, but I never was. It has never really become an issue in my life, because of one thing. Even when I was younger, I loved to make people laugh. It

On April 26th,1999 I emerged into the world a happy baby given the name Bethany Gavin. I’m now in year 12 and I attend Cooks Hill Campus, Big Picture. My education began here in year 10 after leaving three years of home schooling and have grown as a student as the years have gone on.

I gasped for air as I turned the corner on Stanford Street and passed Stony Brook Elementary School. Eight miles. I exerted all the energy left in my body to run up my not-so-steep driveway. My fingers and toes shivered as pins and needles rushed through my body, even though the summer humidity had just arrived for the season. As I reached the top of my driveway, I stumbled into my house. I gripped every object in my path. I knew my muscles had been eating themselves away, as grasping onto the smooth, granite edges of the counter to keep myself stable took my entire body’s corporation. My deteriorating muscles clenched as my powerless strength pushed myself up to stand alongside the counter in the middle of the kitchen. I think I may pass out, again. I held onto the counter as if I held on for my life. I closed my thick eyelids and patiently waited until the feeling past— it always did.

I felt my face getting red hot as I raced down the hospital hallway. I bit my lip, slamming into the wall. I pushed myself back and ran into an open elevator. I tried to study the floor numbers but my vision was blurry from the tears building up in my eyes.

Mackenzie, I'm glad to see someone with the same beliefs as I. Religion was never forced upon me as a child, but I did go to church every Sunday and also to bible school. I went through a stage of questions as I was going through my confirmation. These questions that I came up with made me question everything because what I asked, always went unanswered. During a mission trip that I went on with my church my senior year, I was able to see that nothing can truly be answered by anyone but God. Many may disagree but to me its what I believe. After hearing stories of people struggling in their lives from taking care of a family with no money, having no food to eat, being homeless. I was able to realize that God put these people on earth to teach

It was five minutes to 11:00PM on Friday the 13th, and Dr. Jordan Alexander stood at the unit secretary’s desk in the emergency room of San Antonio Memorial Hospital. She sipped her iced coffee and casually glanced at her watch, waiting for her shift to begin. So far, it was quiet, but like most overnight shifts, that was bound to change in a heartbeat.

When I was young my Dad would always remind me of how important these years as a kid are. He would always say watch how you act as a kid, for it will set the stage for the rest of your life. So many people I know ruined their lives when they were kids. This small, yet so important statement runs through my mind everyday. I love how everyone says they don’t care what people think of them, but I wish they knew how important it is to have a good image. I am not perfect, but I would like to be close as possible. But as Salvador Dali said “Have no fear of perfection, you’ll never reach it. “ The problem I see is everyone wanting to be someone that they are not. Sure, we all have our idols that we look

Ryan Davis is my best friend for many reasons. Ryan is 13 years old and loves to play with nerf guns. You should see his collection and how many bullets he has. Let me just tell you that he has a lot of them. He also pretends that they are real and like he is in an actual war. In his backyard he has these boulder type things that he uses to play. Whenever I go to his house we always go outside with nerf guns and have a nerf war. Ryan is important to me because his parents are nice to me and my family, and Ryan is nice to me and my family. They help us out a lot, whether it be taking me somewhere when my parents are at work,or taking me to his house to hang out. One thing we also always do whenever I go to his house is we jump on his trampoline.

Walking away from everything you once knew and starting over is never a picnic. Leaving Iraq, and moving to America has impacted my life more than anything. I was only 4 years old at that time, and the only English I spoke was “excuse me, water please.” My family and I did not know it then, but our lives were going to change; we would become “Americanized”. Learning English was one of the massive changes that occurred, the way I dressed (culture), and even the way I had power to go to school and educate myself.

First there was nothing but darkness. It felt like an endless void for one man. But as quickly as the darkness appeared, it disappeared into the light of day. The man dubbed ‘Hero’ quickly looked around the lush hills consisting of trees, rabbits, birds, squirrels and… slimes? He slowly walked over to one, still not trusting his legs, and as he drew closer the slime jumped at him. The slime impacted Hero and sent him stumbling backwards. Hero looked for something to fend off the attacker and found a copper short sword at his hip. He pulled it out of the sheath and stabbed at the slime. To his surprise the slime exploded into a pile of copper coins and a few balls of slime. Walking toward it he was surprised when the 2 objects started to float

One day a man named Tyler Dawson was on trip to Chicago for vacation. He decided that he would go camping it was during the winter he was prepared and had his equipment with him. It was a bright peaceful day and snow was everywhere, it was very quiet and relaxing. He decided to go further into the woods, he traveled to a part of the woods that no one ever ventured too. It was always very dangerous to go further into the woods, but he was prepared any decided to go venture off. As he was venturing it started to get darker and colder. As he was getting flashlight from his bag he heard a cracking noise. He shouted “is anyone there” with no reply.

It was a normal weekend when my brother ,Seth, and I were riding our dirt bikes in the trails just by our neighborhood. My buddy Jacob found us on the trails and decided to ride with us so we let him lead. We started to follow him and we ended up in a trail that only he goes down into. He went so far ahead that we lost him and couldn’t hear his bike anymore. Seth said that he was turning around so I turned around with him and we started heading home. I remember not paying attention to anything but my brother. He started fading, just then when I thought he left without me, he turns on his lights. I checked my watch and it was 12:00 o’clock noon but it was pitch black. I turn on my lights and

Kelsey is the most creative person I know. My older sister Kelsey is one of the most important people in my life and I’ve always looked up to her. I was actually surprised when Kelsey said I could interview her, she usually tells me to go ask mom whenever I’m asking her something. After interviewing my sister, I learned a lot about her. Before interviewing her I didn’t know how hard it was for her to get through school, I had no idea it was such a big commitment for her to make. I already knew she loved what she does for a living, just didn’t know how much it meant to her.

The guilt washed over me like a tidal wave obliterating everything in its wake; my mind racing as my 15-year-old brain replayed every interaction looking for the signs that Skylar must have left, the hints she wanted me to catch on to. The more I thought about it the more I felt as if I had let her down. I had kept her secret and in the end in trying to save her I lost her. I felt alone, but this time I couldn’t seek refuge with her, how could she save me when she couldn’t help herself.