I am not going to start this off with a quote because that's what everyone else is doing. I am Avery Peak and I hate doing things someone has already done. I like being creative in my own way, that's why I have a grain shoot for an exhaust in my truck and rolling on 37inch mud tires.…
My greatest influences are my parents and my brother. My brother suffered from Guillain- Barre Syndrome when he was eight. He lived in the hospital on an artificial ventilation for 97 days and later he had to continue physical therapy for at least ten years as he was completely paralyzed. My parents and my brother devoted their few years completely for his treatment. Today, my brother is a successful engineer working in the bay area. I learned that with dedication, determination and diligence we can achieve our dream in life…
I open the door and start to fire when I realize it wasn’t a zombie, it was an injured man. We let the man in and guided him to a chair. He had a bullet wound in his shoulder.…
As my younger cousin, Travis, walked into the living room of my house, he looked for interesting things he could look at and touch. He started to slowly walk toward the broken, bottom half of our entertainment center. My siblings and I, enjoying our Thanksgiving dinner, watched him carefully as he curiously reached for a handle of one drawer in the entertainment center that contained at least 50 movies. He was so close to opening it when my brother exclaimed, “Careful there! The last guy who did that… he died!” Travis slowly backed away, turned around, and ran to his mother, but the real question is Who died?…
During my high school years, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was horrible news to hear, especially since my mother has been such an influential figure in my life. In addition to this, my father was depressed during this time because of his unemployment and my mother’s cancer diagnosis. My mother was the only source of income for our family, so she went to work throughout her the pain from her chemotherapy. I was distraught from my mother’s illness, but I was expected to take on more household responsibilities so that my mother could rest when she got home from work. I was expected to help shop, clean, and take care of my younger sister by helping her with her homework. These responsibilities in addition to keeping up with my school work made this situation an extremely stressful time for me.…
Over the course of my long life (or lives depending on how you look at it) I have been known by many names. And not all of them translate exactly. My latest and last one is Gracen. I do not know how old I am, nor do I really care. All that matters is that I get two square meals a day and a warm bed at night. An occasional pet behind the ears is nice too. It’s times like this, late at night in my bed, when I reminisce back to where it all began.…
This is a really good topic. My first job in nursing was in surgical oncology, which was a very mentally and emotionally challenging field. My oncology patients would range from young adult to elderly. Some would confide and tell me how they wish their illness would just take them to end the suffering. I would find myself so torn and wonder how I would feel if I had a sickness pretty much ripping the life out of me. Part of me thinks I would want to give up as my patients expressed and explore option to end the suffering, such as physician assisted suicide, but part of me thinks I would want to fight.…
Here I am in honor classes, but why I’m not smart enough to be here. This is going to be too difficult for me. All I see when I look around are all these outstandingly intelligent people. The only reason I am here is because Mrs. Lee’s class was straightforward or maybe the other people in that class were not very bright. Whatever the reason, I am here and already homework on the first day of school, the other kids probably don’t have homework. I really don’t want to be here, I want to be the smart one again. I feel strange and uncomfortable when I have to speak out loud like if the people around me are judging me.…
There are two instances in my life that has inspired me to gain interest in medicine. My grandmother when I was around the age of twelve received double bypass surgery and I fell in love with the physician who took care of her. The physician was a middle aged woman who was one of the kindest person I have ever met, and she gave us the news of how everything went fine during surgery. She also gave us great confidence in how my grandmother would return to normal soon. The look on my parents and aunts face when she gave the news gave me goosebumps and to this day I feel the same goosebumps when I think about this. I just wanted to one day be in a position to deliver good news to a family and to see that “look” of relief on their faces. Another…
My mother, “Regina Hopkins,” has been a positive influence in my life. She has raised 6 kids all by herself as well as earned a Bachelor’s degree in nursing from a City College in Gainesville, Florida. My mother has been through pretty much everything a person can go through outside of war and was still able to be there and provide for all 6 of her kids. In high school, my mother wanted to play football and couldn't because she was a girl and back-in-the-day women were not allowed to play football with the guys. However, she remained strong by raising 6 kids and independently took care of all of us on her own. My mother has several qualities that I would love to develop. The first quality she has is balance; she certainly knows how to make…
Life is full of risks. And not all risks are predictable. The first and the biggest crisis in my life happened a few days after the fifteenth birthday. I was diagnosed with a kind of cancer and took a year off from middle school to have chemotherapy after surgery. Fortunately, I was on the mend after hospitalizing for the first three months, so I received the outpatient treatment after that. Now it was time to go back to school. However, I had a lot of different thoughts running through my mind. I no longer wanted to take my life for granted. Instead, I wanted to be stronger and challenge myself. So I decided to go on to high school in the abroad. I persuaded my parents for six months and they finally agreed to let me move to New York! It was…
Torture continues to be a subject of great debate in this country. The question as to whether Torture is an acceptable and justifiable method to coax a confession from a criminal has been brought to the forefront by recent events, such as the September 11th and Boston bombing. Although there are laws established to punish criminals, the criminal must first be found guilt for punishment to be rendered as stated by the U.S constitution. However, using torture to coax a confession is in direct conflict with the rights given to the all people by the constitution, therefore, it should not be practiced to any extend. Torture violates the essence of our democracy by tearing away an individual’s rights and subjective them to cruel punishment, a clear violation of the 8th amendment. Advocated of torture believe that it is a…
90% of all students between 4th and 8th grade are bullied physically or verbally during their schooling. I was one of those students – told daily that I was fat and never going anywhere in life. Bullying continues to tremble the ground with its every advancing step and scare its’ victims and bystanders with its extensive roar. Bullying was something that walked into my life in elementary school and tortured me throughout middle school. Nonetheless, I did not lose hope and I fought back.…
Growing up, I noticed a lot of discussion about financial problems between my parents. It’s not that we were becoming poor, it was because of our growing family needing more supplies. My mother just gave birth to my little brother when I started noticing the financial issues my family were facing. As a little girl, I do not know how our finances worked all I knew was many bills were due and I knew it because when I was a little girl I liked to practice reading and those bill statements were the papers that attracted my interest due to its colorful paper.…
Most teenagers do not have a clue about what they want to be when they grow up. Most young adults also do not know where their path is in life. Even some full-blown adults are still trying to figure out their purpose. I was lucky. I knew exactly where I belonged from about the time I was seven up until now, at the decently young age of nineteen. I do not see my path changing anytime soon; in fact, I know it will never change. But, I did not just wake up one day as a child and know what my path was, while that would be impressive. Defining moments in one’s life defines who they are. There were lots of things I experienced in my life that made me realize my purpose, my absolute passion. I had four of these defining moments in my short span of…