For many, a life changing moment comes in the form of a tragedy or a hard-earned revelation. Mine came in the form of a five-year-old girl named Sofia. Sofia spent most of her time in the oncology ward of the hospital where I volunteered. Her days consisted of sterile hospital rooms, scans, and chemotherapy. She was losing her hair because of chemo when most girls her age were learning how to braid theirs. She played with a doll (Mr. Buttons) in her hospital room instead of playing with other children. Sofia wasn’t lonely in the traditional sense. Family, friends, and even strangers visited the little girl, but could barely interact with her. Most of the time, she was too tired to play and, when she finally mustered the energy, she found herself behind a glass panel. The doctors thought it best to keep Sofia isolated, to minimize her chances of falling ill in her already feeble condition. And, indeed, this is how I interacted with Sofia for a month. Week after week, hour after hour, I’d go to the glass wall to see if she had awoken and would spend an hour that felt like seconds, playing with her. I suppose that’s relativity for you. Sofia was both the highlight and heartbreak of my week. Comments like, “Poor thing” and “It’s just not fair” were heard as often as the incessant beeping of the monitors. Talk is cheap, and pity doesn’t make progress. I had to do something. It is very rare to come across an opportunity to make a fundamental change in the lives of thousands. I
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.
My research reviled how life-changing events can play a significant role in how we lead people. This week’s research was an in-depth view of the movie “The Doctor”, (Ziskin and Haines, 1991). This movie depicted a highly skilled surgeon named Jack McKee, played by actor William Hurt who was completely devoted to his practice, (Ziskin and Haines, 1991).
My life changing experience all began on June 3, 2014 when I was a Freshman in high school and things weren’t going the best. Struggles through high school are very common but for me I dealt with things I couldn’t even handle. I struggled relentlessly all through high school and with my home life as well , but I was never prepared for what happened that summer when I was 14.
Have you ever had a life changing moment? Many individuals have faced life changing experiences like Feng Ru in the “Father of Chinese Aviation”, like Jackie Robinson in ‘I Never Had It Made’, and like Melba Pattillo Beals in ‘Warriors Don’t Cry.’
Turning Points Have you ever had a life-changing experience in your life or a turning point that affected you and/or your community? A turning point is a life-changing experience. Melba Pattillo Beals (“Warriors Don’t Cry” By Beals), Helen Keller (“The Story of My Life” By Keller), and Karana (“Island of the Blue Dolphins” By: O’Dell) all had turning points in their lives that affected everyone and themselves. Melba Pattillo Beals had a turning point in her life.
“Sarah is at Children's Hospital, in the ICU”. Those are the words that changed my life. Sarah is extremely sick and it's making me want to be smart, strong, and kind. My sister, Sarah had lung failure when she was in 7th grade, she was hospitalized and stayed at Children’s Hospital in the ICU for around a week. Nearly a year later they found out what was wrong with her, she has Chronic Eosinophilic Pneumonia and Severe Asthma. When I saw her get sick I saw her being strong, nice, and keeping up on school work she made me want to have these qualities as well.
There are many events that stand out in my life that were significant and helped me grow stronger. One of these events stands out in particular to me and had the greatest impact in my life. When I attended high school my focus was never on the academics but only on sports and having fun with my friends. I never payed attention for more than five seconds and failed to complete any type of work given to me. My lack of care for high school affected me on going to a four year college, playing a sport in college, and taking remedial classes.
One of the most life-defining experiences that I’ve ever been through happened during the summer before my freshman year of high school. Back then, I was living in Marshall with my dad and my two younger sisters. Marshall isn’t that big of a town, merely hosting 400 residents. Everyone had a connection with one another, including my classmates and peers. We were all friends because each and every one of us knew better than to exclude another person, especially because there wasn’t enough of us kids around to form cliques. We’d entertain ourselves by endless games of basketball, storytelling, and late night outdoors games. In the small village of Marshall, us kids always found a way to have fun together.
It was one life-changing experience I was seven years old when I became grateful for the things that I had. I remember packing for this big trip my parents were planning for a year now. I precisely recall my mother telling me to go through my closet and pick clothes I did not use to give away, I didn't know why, but I didn't ask, I just did it. As the day got closer I remember my parents had accumulated a great amount of things to give away. I quite didn't understand why they were gathering so many things and for what reason.
When we first arrived on the grounds for the ropes course, I was a bit unsure of what was going to happen and the activities that we would have to do, I didn't realize what a life changing experience this would be. The course taught me things that I didn't know about myself as well as my friends and people in the class. Although I struggled a bit throughout the time we were there, but I was able to understand my fears and eventually conquer them. At times, it may feel like it's too much and that I should give up, I need to realize that those are actually the most important parts in which I need to stick it through and keep pushing forward.
A 3 day life transforming event is coming to your area. You can take this window to set your life on a flight. This is the opportunity to birth your dreams, live true to your ideals and connect with your inner strength.
Life changing events can sometimes be difficult. In the stories “I Never Had it Made,” By Jackie Robinson Warriors Don’t Cry By Melba Patillo Beals and “The Father of Chinese Aviation.” By Rebecca Maskel. Melba Beals, Jackie Robinson, and Feng Ru all experienced life changing events that impacted their lives. If you did not know these people went through danger to break segregation. Melba Beals and Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier by playing on a white ball team and going to a white school as blacks.
A life-changing event is not something to be taken lightly. Throughout our lives, we encounter many obstacles and changes, some of which bring us joy and excitement, others of which may be hard for us to handle. When I look back on my relatively short life, it may, at first, be hard for me to think of an event that has truly molded and shaped the person that I am today. I have encountered several changes, but at the time, they felt like mere speed bumps along my path. Looking back now, it is easy for me to see that these changes were not by chance, but were placed in my path to form the person that I am today.
In life we all have something that has changed the way we perceive things. Most things that change a person’s perception happens to be an experience that they have gone thru and learned from. In my case it wasn’t necessarily an experience, it was a dog that changed my perception on life. My mind and heart was opened in a whole new way. I never thought I could love an animal just as much as I loved the people in my life. I always thought it was strange that pet owners loved and treated their pets the same way they treated their children. My perception on dogs or pets in general definitely changed. Throughout this paper you will see why I am a totally different person because of a dog that entered my life.
Everyone has that one experience that makes them look at life with a new set of eyes. My life changing experience happened a little earlier than most. It was the summer before first grade. We had gotten an exceptional amount of rain in the past months even though it was summer. I did not notice, though, because summer was every six year old's favorite holiday, next to Christmas and their birthday. My summer was supposed to be like any other but it quickly took a turn. For the best or for the worst? That is debatable.