Personal Narrative: A Life Changing

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.

PROMPT #2: PROMPT #2: The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?

I’d had many mini-lifelines thrown my way, none turned out to be the life-altering, ground shaking beneath me, and gates to opening up “heaven”, though. To me, I’d blame it on the different ways I came off to strangers, depends on the day, I could be a multitude of characters, but never latch onto the following of others. Don’t get me wrong, I wanted my lifeline to latch onto, the problem was, I was like a fishing net with a gaping hole--incapable of doing such things. Then, the last person I expected to, stepped up and accepted the challenge.

Growing up with a father in the military, you move around a lot more than you would like to. I was born just east of St. Louis in a city called Shiloh in Illinois. When I was two years old my dad got the assignment to move to Hawaii. We spent seven great years in Hawaii, we had one of the greatest churches I have ever been to name New Hope. New Hope was a lot like Olivet's atmosphere, the people were always friendly and there always something to keep someone busy. I used to dance at church, I did hip-hop and interpretive dance, but you could never tell that from the way I look now.

The everyday struggle of having no sight or hearing in it of itself is a challenging experience. To gain success in anything she had to work 100 times harder than any other pupil, to create stories she had to endure the tedious process of rewriting thoughts countless times prior to putting a single word on paper due to the fear of plagiarism. Everything that was thrown at Helen she learned how to fight through it; in my opinion, I believe that all these experiences conditioned her into stronger and an undoubtably driven woman. Nevertheless her strength and phenomenal work ethic did not come easy to Helen, it took years upon years to bypass her anger. Personally I don’t think Helen ever stopped evolving into a better friend and person. If I had to define her most apparent change in her life, I would choose her transition from being uneducated to having the ability to communicate her thoughts and feelings.

“5 minutes!” a voice shouts over the loudspeaker. Perspiration drips down my face and my hand throbs with pain. The seconds tick by but are drowned out by the pounding of my heart. I summon all my strength and will my hands to move faster and faster. The speakers crackle with static as the voice shouts, “Hands down.” Eight hours of mind-numbing calculations and stratagem. It’s over; all the work, the sleepless nights, the literal blood, sweat, and tears. What for?

It’s breathtaking up here! The sights are astonishing, from the elegant white doves soaring over the angels heads, to the glimmering leaves from the sun on the tall vigorous trees. This place really did seem to be what everyone thought it was. It was the perfect place where it seemed nothing but peace and happiness could take place.

Further down the road, I kept looking out the window and seeing the green trees passing by while my mom was on the phone and my dad kept driving until we got to our destination. Meanwhile, the car was at a stop, we felt the car move that we actually crashed into the car in front of us and we got rear-ended that contained my head hit from seat to seat that gave me a black

A Lasting Impact My heart is pounding, Anxiety is taking over. The trauma won’t escape me, Even after a whole year.

I was on old trusty 15 the bus that I’d ridden since 3rd grade, and we were just outside of manchester nearing a little girl’s house. I was sitting on the right side of the bus staring out the window bored from nothing to do. Then I saw a green John Deere combine sitting in an empty field just past an intersection that we were about to cross, but then I looked to the right road and I saw it. An SUV barreling directly at us and I knew that we were about to be in a crash. Then BAM! the SUV slammed right into us and the impact smashed my head into the window. I woke up to the terrifying moans of the little kids wanting their parents. I was wedged between two seats and whenever I moved my head I felt a sudden pain in my neck. I got up slow and

Today has been pretty strange. I saw this thing, well I actually didn’t see it, but it was there…

The sounds of sixteen children screaming and laughing. Paper money flying, the teacher making no effort to stop the commotion. Everyone smiling having a great time. Many teachers go by curriculum, but only a few take the curriculum to new places. Although some teachers have strict rules, my third grade teacher, Mrs. Rifenbark, was fun and creative, and she taught be many things that I would use for school years to come.

You are a child, innocent to the land beyond a fortress of comfort and there’s a challenge you never could imagine, yet you were facing this challenge, years before you were even aware. Never believing in the possibility that someone close to you, would one day become one of the most difficult people to interact with. This involves accepting the reality that your parent has lost their true soul to a bottle of Tequila. You live a childhood pure and oblivious to any possibilities at this age of innocence, therefore ulterior motives are not suspected. You are at peace, left unaware of what happens behind closed doors. At the time, I never had a major concern for my mother’s behavior; I only assumed her to be an adult and one with full authority. Often times she behaved oddly and against her moral codes, however no further questions would be asked. There was only acceptance for her and what I believed to be a normality.

Moving from place to place not much other than family remain constant and that too takes a different shape with time and makes me both accustomed to change and more importantly, prepared for it. Moving every few years is a gift and a curse, giving you a clean slate when you both need it and when you do not want it. It is always difficult to move away from good friends, teaching me to remember all those who left a mark on me .

“We’re almost there two more blocks,” Tyler told Dylan. We rode down the street and when the sun shined off the object it was like looking at the sun! “Ouch,” I said. We pulled over to see what it was. You would never guess!