Personal Narrative Brainstorming

I have two majors ideas in mind when it come to life changing events: when my dad has his open heart surgery and when I went on a mission trip to Canada to help the less fortunate. These events changed my views in very different ways, but also in one common one. I found that you never can take anything you have for granted because it could be taken away in a heartbeat or there are others who are more grateful for the minimal blessings they have compared to you.

I am leaning more toward writing about my dad's open heart surgery because it has had a huge impact on my life and is still affecting today. During the early to mid sophomore year my dad started to get really sick and wasn't doing much around the house or going to work. This set off warnings in our family's minds and worried us a lot because he doesn't get sick much. After going to the doctor for three weeks they finally with a last ditch effort and checked out his heart by doing an angioplasty. Later that afternoon we found out he had two arteries blocked 70 percent and one coronary artery 100 percent blocked. The doctor told us the only way to fix it was with a triple bypass open heart surgery. My dad spent the next week in the hospital preparing for the surgery.  The surgery lasted for 4-6 hours and was the most stressful day of my life. Luckily that night one of the nurses in the ICU knew us and let all of us go see my dad after he got out of surgery. Seeing him with tubes sticking out of him and barley responsive was one of the scariest moments ever. His recovery was slow and painful, but each day more and more improvement came. About a week after his surgery he came home from the hospital. I wish I would have been home when he got back, but I had a basketball game so I wasn't able to see him right away. That night after the game I was expecting to see him at home but my mom sent me a text that they had to go back to the ER that night. When he went to stand up he popped open some of the stitches in his leg and it wouldn't quit bleeding. Through all of  this craziness I realized that your life could be ended in a heartbeat, so whatever you do don't do it half-hardheartedly, go all out with everything.

The mission trip I went on this summer also opened my eyes up to how much people take for granted in life. When we were in Canada, I saw how the homeless and disabled people I worked with take nothing for granted. They were grateful for every opportunity they had and loved just being able to talk with you about anything. Although my experiences were eye opening, I learned the most when we went on a tour of Toronto and saw how there are many people struggling and not being helped. An ex-addict told us about how he lived on the streets and where he would sleep. He described to us how easy it was for people to slip through the cracks and lose sight of themselves and never find a way back. By seeing how real everything was, it really hit home and showed me how we take almost everything we have for granted.

Going through these experiences has really put my views on life into a new perspective. I try not to take even the littlest things for granted now and I cherish every moment I have with the people I am with. I know some may say this is a grim way to look at life, but with my dad suffering from heart disease and my grandpa dying from it I have a different outlook on life.

Summer Memory

Summer vacation provides many exciting experiences, and the best memories for many people. My summer started off like any other summer with lots of sports. It wasn't until July though when I made my favorite memories. I went with my church to a youth mission trip in Toronto, Canada. Although the trip started with one long day, it was a memorable one. 

Due to the fact that Toronto is 14 hours away, we decided to stay overnight at the church on Saturday. Saturday evening started off kind of unexciting with watching a movie about Ester. Not long after the movie ended we were expected to go to bed, and get our rest before we left at three the next morning. But with knowing how high schoolers are we were up until the wee hours of the morning playing spoons and pterodactyl. As the night drew on everything was funnier and our ideas seemed better. Around two a.m. we decided that it would be a really good idea to play hide-and-seek outside. Ashlie and Elisabeth managed to be the best hiders on the trip. We spent about fifteen minutes in the pitch black trying to find them.  As three a.m. neared we went back to our sleeping areas and took a quick nap before we were up, and eating donuts before we left.

At precisely 3:04 a.m. our two vans, the "Jesus Van" and the rental van, pulled out of the parking lot and headed north to Toronto. Like any great road trip our van had the music blaring and everyone singing along until we all passed out. Our long journey consisted of two stops major stops; one for a delightful Mickey D's breakfast and another with a variety of choices for lunch. At out breakfast stop we all fell out of the vans like the zombies that we were, but after some warm food and little caffeine we were back to the busy bodies that we were a few hours earlier. After eating we all piled up into the vans, and got ourselves ready for the second leg of our trip. Some slept most of the way, but others were talking and bonding with each other. In my van Dakota was the most beat up by the flying objects. Lunch provided us with another break to stretch our legs and fill our bellies. As we filed into the vans for the last time that afternoon we knew we would be crossing the border soon. 

 Michigan provided us with our passage into to Canada. We go to the border crossing around 2 p.m. that day; excited and ready to see what Canada had in store for us. The first step of the border crossing was paying the van fee to cross the border; easily done in 30 minutes as we weren't the only ones coming to Canada on that fine Sunday. The next portion took a quite a bit longer because they have to check everyone's passports and question why you are coming into their wonderful country. The lady that questioned us was not a friendly one; she barked her orders and was snotty in her replies. Pastor Dave, our leader, made the mistake of saying we were going to be working in a nursing home. She was not happy with that response. The next thing we know we are getting lectured about not being allowed to hand out medicine in nursing homes. Pastor Dave corrects himself and then she reluctantly lets us through. The van behind us had little less trouble, but she was still quite harsh on them. 

After the lovely border crossing experience, we had three more hours until we reached Toronto. About 5 minutes after our journey into Canadian territory started we found out that the GPS didn't work. This was also when one of Pastor Dave's nose bleeds started again, so I was relegated to being the navigator for the remainder of the trip. Canada has many interstates just like we do so it was easy to get to Toronto which took about two hours. As we entered the edges of Toronto, an hour away from the church we were staying at, the traffic was almost at a standstill. We stayed on the main interstate for about a half hour before we finally decided to get off and navigate our way through downtown Toronto. Pastor Dave was busy making phone calls to the leader at the church letting them know that we would be late. Getting off the interstate was the best decision, but the traffic was bad everywhere. I led us through the downtown of Toronto on our scenic drive we passed the business district, Greek town, Korea town, and China town; the most interesting factor was to see that everyone was mixed in with one another unlike her in the states. Finally, around 7:30 that evening we pulled up to the church and began our wonderful week in the bustling city of Toronto. 

Writing Abilities

In the past year I feel that my writing has improved greatly. Honors English 3 showed me where my weaknesses in my writing were and helped me improve most of them. When I am writing I still have troubles with my structuring my sentences properly and using correct punctuation. Honors did help me understand what the sentence types were and how to use certain punctuation correctly. I also noticed how my transitions in my writing flowed well in the paper.

When I write bigger paper I like to pre-write and space out my writing so I'm not writing it all on the night before it is due. I feel that when I take my time to write I am able to compose a better paper. When I write a better paper my strengths are highlighted more. As a writer I feel that my strengths are I plan out my writing extensively and use all my resources possible to make my paper the best that it can be. My weaknesses as a writer are that I have trouble with punctuation and structuring my sentences. Although my understanding of these aspects helps me to realize my mistakes when I make them. Writing may not be my strongest aspect, but I enjoy writing and know that becoming a better writer will help me in the long run. 

I am glad to see that we will be writing a variety of different papers in this class. It will help make me a better writer and show me what type of writing I do best. I noticed on the syllabus that we will be reading a story in this class; will it be a book or 4or 5 page story? I enjoyed reading most of the novels last year and liked writing papers over them. Writing a paper over them helped me understand the novel even more. In this class I am most worried about not having good sentence structure and punctuation when I write, but the more practice I get the stronger my weaknesses will be.