Almost everyone has a unique or interesting experience in their lifetime. But I would say mine tops the list. Here’s my story. When I was in my Freshman year in High School, it was quickly approaching Christmas break, and I was feeling excited to be out of school after the difficult semester I had been through. Every year my family and I would travel somewhere for Christmas break. We’d usually go skiing in Red River, New Mexico or would go visit some family members in Chicago. This year we decided to go somewhere different. After we had spent time debating where to go, my mom suggested that we go to Alaska. We all agreed and planned the trip. A week before Christmas, we eagerly boarded our flight to Alaska. The weather in Dallas was cold, but not cold enough for snow. The plane took off around noon and we settled in for our non-stop flight. One hour into the flight we had run out of things to do. So, my brother and I decided to watch It’s a Wonderful Life for the thousandth time. I felt my eyes getting heavy, so I gave in and fell asleep. Suddenly I woke up! I heard the sound of lightning and glanced out the window. The voice of the captain came throughout the plane’s speakers. “Attention, this is your captain speaking. We have a thunderstorm up ahead that we will be flying through. Please make sure your seat belts are fastened and be prepared for upcoming turbulence. We will try to get above the storm as quickly as possible.” I looked at my parents for
All of the children jumped when the sudden bolt of lightning shot out of the once baby blue sky. With the absence of all adults and parents, excluding the pilot of the plane, the kids were especially frightened. One of the passengers stood up in front of the crowd. He was tall with fair hair, and he had a loud and presentable voice. When he spoke, it somehow sent some tranquility through the very disturbed passengers of the aircraft. He identified himself as Ralph. The purpose of his speech was to calm everyone down, but that peace didn’t last for long as the whole plane seemed to descend even more by the second. Ralph tried to convince everyone that it was just turbulence.
The black clouds of fate came in, sealing the doom of Alaskan Airlines flight #32 as God boomed his fury through thunder, and sent a white hot lightning bolt to strike it down. The pilot came up on the intercom, yelling to all the frightened passengers, “Fasten your seatbelts and curl into a ball! We’re going down!”
Eighteen years ago, I was the second child born to two fresh faced twenty year olds. After they had me, they were married shortly thereafter and my dad joined the military and it began our life of moving from state to state a
After the plane restored the light was green,”That was weird” Henry said. They continued to speak into the microphone, the green light went orange again but no one noticed, (full stop) “Ladies and gentlemen this is your captain speaking. My name is Will Johnston and flying my co-pilot is Henry Wong, take off time will be 10:30 am, and landing time will be 12:00 pm making the flight 1 hour, normal conditions today we will be flying at an altitude of 15,000ft for any further questions please ask our flight hostess thanks you”. As the plane rolled to the runway in the rain Will could hear the flight safety going on in the background. The rain was pelting down on the cabin all around “something doesn’t fell right” Will mumbled to himself.
People don’t realize the sad truth that I’ve been holding on for and secretly suffering with most of my life. People seem to see me as a girl that is naturally bubbly, happy, and outgoing. This was a way for me to hide my real emotions in the time when my depression and anxiety were major factors impacting my self-esteem, just a couple of years ago. So, yes, I admit it -- I was a victim of depression and anxiety. My anxiety has been occurring ever since I was a toddler. My usual anxious behavior would be when I would easily get nervous, wouldn’t talk that well in order to be understood, would go through emotional meltdowns at times, and so forth. My depression however, seem to connect a lot with my anxiety because of my meltdowns and it would easily bring my self-esteem down. One interesting fact about my depression is that it got extreme when I was in middle school. Many events in that time of my life made me feel absolutely worthless inside.
It was January, 2051, when it started. Now it’s May 2053. Five billion people are dead.
The story of my life takes place in a small town inside of Rusk County. Deep beneath the Piney Woods of East Texas you will find Henderson, this town is populated with a little under thirteen thousand residents who strives to keep Henderson prosperous and exciting. This city is made complete with its historical markers and a vibrant downtown which is packed with antique shops, clothing stores, great restaurants, and my favorite part, my grandad’s pharmacy. Henderson is the city that I grew up in and I am so appreciative of my hometown and the opportunities it provided me. All of these experiences have given me a strong foundation of values and a desire to choose a career in which I can help others while giving back to my community.
My story starts with a fourth grade classroom, three 9 year old girls, a love for writing, and one fantasy world. You can fill in the three unnamed 9 year old girls with the names Lilly, Tori, and Destiney. We were unstoppable. Together we dominated the fourth grade, in and outside the classroom. Every recess after lunch we would head out back behind our elementary school to what we called “The Trees.” It was literally just 10 or 12 trees spread out over a large yard, but to us, it became a vast world full of unicorns, leprechauns, and other magical beings. The three of us never failed at always coming up with exhilarating adventures, taking us to our magical land.
“My little girl is going to make it far! This one is going to see the world!”, uttered my grandfather as he held me for the first time after I was born. It turned out he was right as always. My life story includes escaping war-torn Kabul on a donkey which my family and I are lucky to have survived after nearly being hit by a missile, then immigrating to Germany for hopes of a better future and lastly ending up in the United States as a teenager. Three different continents and each provided me with more growth then the previous one.
Everyone in high school has a story to tell…how they ran for a jaw-dropping touchdown, had a dream date with the prettiest girl, or got the highest score on a physics test. I’m truly happy for them and without prejudice, I can relate because even as a high school junior, I had my share. Although, I still wonder if any of their stories will be as everlasting: If their episodes had a genuine impact on their lives. Without a doubt, my story has changed my life forever; as it has with my view towards others, my approach to challenges, overcoming fears, adversity, and even ridicule. Above all, it invigorated belief in myself.
I definitely owe a huge portion of who I am today to my mom, Elyse Boston. She’s been by my side through everything and has taught me so much about life. My mom played basketball at Kansas State University for four years, so she knows the game like the back of her hand, so when I wanted to play basketball, she decided she would coach. Having my mom as a coach and taking criticism from her at a young age was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do because when we were at practice or playing in a game she wasn’t “mom” she was “coach”. I had to program my brain to always say “okay, coach” instead of “I know, mom.” At first, it was really hard because it felt like every time I made a mistake because she would call me out on it when other girls would make the same mistake and she would just let it go. I didn’t understand why she was so hard on me compared to the rest of my teammates. I would get so frustrated with her and I would roll my eyes sometimes; I learned really quick rolling my eyes was really disrespectful and I eventually learned to break that habit. Now, I’m a college athlete and the last thing I will do is roll my eyes at a coach, teacher, or any adult because my mom taught me how disrespectful that was and I see people roll their eyes and I see how bad that looks and I am so grateful my mom taught me how to be respectful. Even if I had to learn the hard way.
My life started in a town called Troy in northern Ohio, on January the 30th in the year 1999 I was born in Miami Valley hospital. Having lived in Ohio for four years my parents decided that they are going to take a leap of faith and move down south to Oxford North Carolina. This decision changed a lot of things around in my life, no longer could we pile into the car and go to grandma’s house, or drive to a Walmart that was less than 5 miles away. We now lived in the “country” where everybody knows everyone and secrets spread faster than a wild fire. Growing up school was never a real challenge for me, I began elementary school at Stovall Shaw Elementary in Stovall North Carolina. Thankfully classes for me were never too challenging I was always able to do more than just get by. During my second grade year I met the teacher that not only taught me the course content, but also gave me life and moral lessons that every young child should be told. Mrs. Lyons or as I like to call her “MeMa”, played a significant role in the person I am today. I’ll never forget the day we were in class working on some math equations, and the way our class was set up there were two different sections of class. One for more advanced students and another for students who maybe needed a little more help. So, with that being said she put two different math equations on the board one more difficult than the other to account for the more advanced children in the class. I subconsciously begin to work on
My life would change forever today. I would have a baby sister, and I did not know then
On March 9, 1996, I was born to a teen mother and father in Savanna-la-mar Westmoreland, Jamaica. Two years later my sister was born. A couple years after my sister was born our parents split after they had a huge fight. From that day forward my relationship with my father has degenerated as he wasn’t around as much as he used to. He would promise to take me and my sister to the beach or out to eat, but never showed up. On December 2006, my mother, my sister and I moved from Jamaica to the United States. My mother used all of her life saves to get us to America where she hoped we would have better life. We stayed with my aunt in San Antonio for a year until my mom get back on feet. Schools in America were much different from those in Jamaica, but I was a great learner so class work was easy for me. In Jamaica, we spoke “Patios” a broken form of English, so while I could understand everybody else they couldn’t understand me. I would constantly have to repeat what I said previously, which discouraged me from talking much. After a year in San Antonio we moved to Houston where we got an apartment close my other aunt. I wasn’t really a fan of the move as I would have to make new friends again as I had done the year before, but I grew to like it. The coming school year I decided to join band because I loved music and wanted to make some myself, I chose the trumpet as my instrument. The next year I entered middle school and was finally able to play sports, and I was so excited.
Having to talk about myself and tell my story is as nerve wracking as jumping off of a cliff, and I hate heights so that says a lot. I love to listen to people's problems and stories. However, I do not enjoy sharing mine. Explaining to someone why you are the way you are can be an emotional subject and it can also be very intimidating. At least for me it is.