Personal Statement : Meeting Famous Entrepreneurs

On January 3, 2009 around 11:00 PM the phone rang with what I thought was exciting news about my newly born sister, Tristyn ,but quickly turned to horror. I could heard the fright in my dad's shaken voice as he told me Tristyn had to go into immediate heart surgery because she needed a stent to open up the blood flow to her heart. Being eight at the time the only thing I could think about was how she might not make it. My dad said to me “look after your sisters, and tell them nothing about the surgery”, which terrified me more than before. I knew I needed to be brave and take charge of the situations for my sisters. Bravery is something I learned for a situation I never knew would happen.

That day when I returned home from school, my mom’s boyfriend called me asking to speak to my grandmother. Typically, Gus would call my grandmother himself if he wanted to speak with her, which was rare. I found out about my mom going to the hospital from my grandmother after that phone call. The doctor told my family that a stroke afflicted her in the middle of the day. My mom confused the date with her birthday, had trouble getting words out and remembering our family member’s names. The nurse had to take her for walks periodically and exercise her legs and arms because they were weak. Seeing my mother in this condition made me appreciate my mother and everything she does for me tremendously. However, I was terrified for my mother’s health.

An ambulance came and carried out my mom. I didn’t know what was going on, so many questions running through my mind, what was wrong with her, was she going to be ok. I was scared, more scared then I had ever been. My sister Sheridan who was 8 asked me “what’s happening?” through tears. On that day a little piece of me began to change because if I let her see my fear that would not help anyone, and so even though I didn’t know what was happening I responded “everything is going to be ok” even though I did not trust my own words.

Five days had passed this time since anyone had heard from my mother. I remember praying to God to protect her from harm and for me to find her. The next day she showed up, but not in the way we had hoped. One morning as I was getting ready for school my sophomore year in high school, my phone rang to the voice of my stepfather. My stepfather had told me he heard a call come over the dispatch scanner at his work and my mother’s name was mentioned. The sheriff had informed my stepfather that my mother had been involved in an accident. My stepfather asked me to go to the emergency room and see what condition my mother was in because he lived a half hour away from the hospital. When I arrived at the hospital I found my mother cut out of her clothes, covered in her own urine, massive amounts of blood all over her body, and lying lifeless on life support on the table. At this point, no one knew whether my mother would be okay. My mother had bleeding on the brain as well as a tear in her shoulder, a shattered face, and a chest tube draining fluid from her lung which had collapsed. All I could do was pray! My mother’s life was in God’s hands now. Three days later she woke

I was drowning in my own regret and I couldn’t stand being near her any longer. I ran out of the house, grabbing my umbrella, and walked to a familiar trail near my home. The cement was wet with puddles splashing up with every few steps. The smell of dead leaves and rain mixed together and served a familiar feeling of autumn. I was there walking on that trail, midnight to be exact, when a familiar voice said, “Congratulations, you passed your first

Meanwhile, my mom was in a difficult situation with her job. Even before this disturbance, she was having trouble speaking to her boss because of the language barrier. The whole family was in a tough spot in our lives,struggling with money issues, as well. With all the hospital bills. I decided to get a job to help out. I was always told at a young age to focus on school and everything else will come later. Yet I knew I had to do something to help . Before I was done executing the idea of a job, my mom told us we were going to the Dominican Republic to do some tests on my sister, to see if they could find anything. With no surprise, they could find nothing wrong, yet there was a significant difference, she was stronger than ever

My dad had to pick up more hours at work to be able to pay for all the gas for all the miles of travel we had to do for doctor’s appointments. On top off that, he sometimes had to take off work just to take her to certain ones in case they didn’t have afternoon appointments. As months and months of consultations went by, I saw the light in my mom’s eyes getting duller. Although there was one day I remember seeing the blue in her eyes glowing again. It was early October, and I accomplished something I never tried to before. I didn’t particularly like baking and never tried to make a cake in my life. Ultimately, I overcame the challenge and made my mom a cake for her birthday. As I watched her eyes stumble upon the cake, I saw her face light up and tears start rolling down her cheeks. That was one of the last good moments I had with her and I’m glad it was her birthday, despite the fact that it was her last one alive. Later on that month, I witnessed my mother struggling to write me a note for school. “I can’t feel my hands or fingers” she exclaimed. My heart sank into my chest as it felt like I was just hit with a cinderblock. I

The twins said their last goodbys to their mother and the images of their sorrow are clear in my mind. Two days later we received a call from the organ donor organization. Our daughter's organs had saved three lives and, thanks to her generosity, two strangers now see. When I heard this news I sobbed uncontrollably.

The day of July 20th,2011 was the day that my heart transformed forevermore. It is the day that my blossoming sister Carly came into this world. I remember it like it was just yesterday. The day prior Carly was birth, my mother came to pick us up from my grandparents’ home just like she did every other day. She told us that she had been to the doctor during lunch and the doctor said that they wanted to take Carly at only thirty-six weeks. It was set that my mother was to have Carly the next day. Therefore, the news was very scary and overwhelming. I remember being told that we were going to stay with my grandmother’s house. I was crushed about the news because I wanted to be there when Carly was born, the day was a very hot and humid that Carly

I walked into the living room to my mother sitting on the couch staring blankly ahead. Her head was fully shaven and she had staples from ear to ear, but still somehow she looked so carefree. Her facial expression gave off a sense that her life was blissful and that perhaps the last month had been but a dream despite the physical changes to her body. Everything seemed in a sense normal that was until my step-dad leaned in and said, "Becky these are your children, Haley and Cody." She didn't remember us, or for better terms she couldn’t remember. Us. Our memories. Our life. Everything was gone. Cancer had taken over.

On March 15, 2011, the school called my parents because Kalya, my little sister, felt dizzy and looked pale. My mom responded and took her to the emergency room, when they arrived, my sister fainted and they proceeded to measure her heartbeat. The monitor indicated a heartbeat of 280 bpm, almost quadrupling the common measure. The doctor administrated a medicine that made her heart restart, but her tachycardia was too strong to respond. We felt scared that she was not going to make it, her heart was prominent to explode anytime. Her last memory would be an emergency room, with around 10 doctors and nurses, each one of them performing a different task with the goal of saving her life. They tried a second time with another medicine, she remained unresponsive. Even though she noticed the chaos occurring around her, her eyes were fixed on her family at all times. A couple of minutes after the second dose, they tried a third medicine to restart her heart, if that did not work, no more options remained. After a few seconds, her heart calmed down to the normal rate. The only voice heard was the doctor’s voice exclaiming “Welcome back, Kalya”, as she stated that she could not explain how she survived that.

In 1983, my mother was diagnosed with a brain tumor which placed tremendous pressure on her brain causing her to have migraines, She used to always take aspirins and a beer to help her feel better, after working I the daily regiment. I don’t remember my mother going to the hospital, or people sitting down to say that my mother was having a very serious procedure to correct her bad headaches or she could possibly die. Somehow, I retained the information concerning my mother's conditions, that she would often need to take heavy sedatives to release the pressure on her brain. I do recall mother laying a towel over her eyes when she was having an episode as a children I was not told that she had a tumor. Since there were only two siblings, I was the youngest, of which my mother spoiled me, we had a close relationship. My father left my mother shortly after I was born in 1973. I loved my life and I loved my mother, she was the best. We never had family meetings, so the whole idea of mother staying in the hospital for weeks and then returning from the hospital frighten me. I was to greet my mother at the door as her beloved child,

Felicia prayed and a conclusion to her prayer was, “Lord, let her bring a healthy baby girl back home to her family.” When that was said everyone understood what was going on. The laughter grew louder for everyone, except me. I was still confused; I never knew my mother was pregnant. She never had the protruding stomach that pregnant women were supposed to have. She looked the same for as long as I could remember. While my older sister and brother hugged my mother, I just stared. I remember thinking, “I knew I said I wanted a sister, but I didn’t actually want one,” I

It was May 17th, 2011, it was a normal school day when my brother and I were told that my mom called to say that she was picking us up early. I was anxious, wondering why we were going home early and breaking our usual routine. When my mom came to get us, the first thing that I noticed was that she didn’t greet us with her usual smile. I was 9 years old, very observant, but not able to sense what was to come. We got into the car, when I asked my mom where we were going hoping

June 20th , 2016 was a warm sunny day, the type of day I would usually spend outside. Instead I was nervously riding in my grandma’s car, having no clue what to expect at the birth of my baby sister. Would it be a terrifying experience? Would my mom be in agonizing pain? These questions ran through my head as I anxiously waited fourty-five minutes before arriving at the hospital. As I walked inside, my grandma said “your mom was doing good and is waiting for us”, these words settled me down. I realized everything was alright, and I was about to see my little sister for the first time.