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Transition To Adulthood Essay

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While most students have a significant period of their lives where they slowly transition to adulthood, I believe the beginning of my adulthood was marked by the death of my grandfather. After losing my grandmother not even a year earlier, my grandfather's pre-diagnosed Alzheimer's started to escalate. Starting in my sophomore year, I had to begin taking care of him in ways that a normal child would not have to do. This included helping him use the bathroom, feeding him, and doing almost everything for him. While of course I do love my grandfather, I never really looked forward to taking care of him and it just created more stress for me as an individual. As time went on, he got worse and worse to the point that he forgot who I was. Usually …show more content…

I had begun to forget about the caring, exciting grandfather I grew up with and replaced him with the memory of my dying, abusive grandfather. At that time I acclimated to doing my homework, studying in a hospital room and having to repeat every 5 minutes who I was and why I was sitting next to his bed. My youngest sister was very young at this time and did not fully comprehend why her grandfather was behaving the way he was. Throughout this experience, I had to step up and take care of my family members in ways I really was not prepared to do. Having to take care of not only my grandfather, but having to be emotionally strong for my parents and sister. I soon lost the memory of my real grandfather and replaced it with the man laying in that bed that I did not know. My grandfather ended up passing away on February 25th, 2015. The was one day after my sister's birthday. Of course I was upset when he left us, but in my opinion he had left us a long time before that day. Having to stand up and take the responsibility of taking care of my grandfather and being strong for my family taught me lessons in life that some may never

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