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| Character Sketch |
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| No End Poem |
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| Cause and Effect Essay | |
Life is an opportunity to experience everything to the fullest and discover who you are as a person. But with this precious gift there is also death and close calls which are, inevitable to every life. This past spring I learned how delicate and important life truly is.
While I was at work, just finishing up, looking out the windows, and thinking about the summer to come, my phone rang. I ran to answer it, wondering if it was one of my friends looking for something to do this weekend, but just before I got the chance to answer it, my dad yelled at me to help him move something, so the call just had to wait. But the funny thing was, as soon as I reached my dad, his phone rang, and it was my mom I assumed it was her who had called my phone as well. My dad began talking to her, and I could see him start to pack things up while they were talking. He usually doesn’t do that, we usually take our time and load everything up before we start heading home, but something was different. After we had basically everything in my car, my dad hung up the phone and said that I would have to drive fast. When I asked why, he said my grandfather was at his house and was passed out on the floor.
I had no idea what to think. I hadn’t really thought about this ever really happening. So once we get in the car, we put our seatbelts on, and God knows we need them with me driving, and I asked my dad what my mom had said. He told me that my mom had gone for a walk over to my grandparent’s house to see what my grandpa was up to, since my grandma was out of town at the time, and when she got there she could tell that something wasn’t right as soon as she saw that the car door and been left partially open. Once she got inside she found my grandpa having a hard time breathing, and she wanted us to be there to help or do something. As he was telling me this story, the speedometer on my little Toyota just kept getting higher and higher. We sat in silence the rest of the way there, which gave me time to just think.
All I kept telling myself is this was going to happen eventually and that if I accept it now, it would be easier later. So I got mentally prepared for what I was about to see and go through. I thought if I just kept thinking about it that it would stop and go away, but I didn’t know what was coming.
As soon as we got to the house my dad rushed inside. We beat the ambulance there, so my job was to watch the dog, to watch for them, and alert my parents when they arrived. So, when they arrived, I did my job, and they rushed inside with all of their supplies. Meanwhile, I’m just hanging out with my dog not really knowing what to expect.
When they finally came out, my grandpa was on a stretcher. They rushed him to the hospital, and my dad, my dog, and I all went to the house to drop off my dog and then to the hospital.
We got there, and they had my grandpa in the emergency room with doctors rushing around. They had no idea what was going on with him. The only thing they could think of is that his appendix burst. But as we found out later, when he got to Sioux Falls, he had had internal bleeding in his stomach and was literally bleeding to death. If we wouldn’t have gotten him there, he would have died that night.
I was in the room, and I could see this fiasco of an emergency room take place as I see my grandpa lying there on the table. Inside all I could feel was the anger building up, wondering why they weren’t doing more, why they weren’t making him comfortable, and why did it feel like they just didn’t care about him.
I left the room hoping to clear my head. As I sat in the emergency room, everything seemed to be real again, like I had just realized what had happened. I called up my boyfriend hoping for some closure, but as soon as he got on the phone, everything came out, and I didn’t know if my tears were from sadness of not being able to go fishing with my grandpa again or all the anger I had toward the doctors. Either way, I had a million things going through my head, and none of it made sense.
I thought about how important every single breath I take is, and how every moment is a gift. Life is not fair, and it’s not predictable. The only thing life is, is a rollercoaster with up and downs. And the only thing that we can do is ride and hope for the best.
It has been almost a year since that day, and I can still remember every moment of it. I learned a lot from that experience, and I am reminded everyday of the lessons I learned from it when I see my grandpa’s smiling face. He’s doing better now and stronger than he has ever been. My grandfather had never given up and is my role model for every situation I’m thrown into.
It is said that a child is a parent’s greatest gift, but personally I think that a parent is the greatest gift to a child. My mom has been my greatest gift, and I wouldn’t be the same person without having her influence on my life. Her opinion has always been valued to me, even though at times it may not seem as such. My mom has always taught me to do the right thing and to stay true to my own values and morals. She helped me understand things that would otherwise be completely foreign to me. Our relationship has always been one that I’ve been proud of.
Though my mother and I clash on certain things, overall we get along like best friends. The things we argue about seem stupid as I look back on them now, but I can see why I fought those battles with her. Most times when I thought I was right and I would pick a fight with her over something dumb, I did it because I didn’t want to admit that she was right. And most of the time she was, but I always had a few good points to throw in. Now that I’m older, I realize when and when not to say something, if you feel strongly on a certain topic. Without this I wouldn’t have the relationships I have with my friends, teachers, co-workers, and other people I encounter everyday.
She taught me to be helpful and respectful and to always think before I speak. She has taught me about God and the Lutheran religion, and without that I would be completely alone in this world with nothing to look forward to in the end.
Really, my mom has taught me to be all that I can be in the past sixteen years of my life, and I look forward to learning more and more from her as we both continue to grow in our lives. She has and always will be a major influence in my life.
He was there for me before,
And after is no different.
Our lives have just changed,
If only for a minute,
Now that I’m gone,
I can finally see,
How the love that we have,
Means so much to me,
It will last forever,
Death is no end,
Soon we will meet in Heaven again.
Cause and Effect
Did you know that twenty-three percent of teens dropout of high school in America every year, and that the percentage is still rising? It’s a startling fact which is an actual reality our society is faced with. High school dropouts are caused by many problems. Some specific problems are: stress, laziness, and disagreement. Now we all may say we have these things in our lives, but in some cases, these things can be pushed to the extreme if not treated, which can cause teens to lead to dropping out.
We all have stress in our lives, whether it’s from doing good on a test, something required of us in our job, or even breaking up with a boyfriend or girlfriend. Now, imagine having all of this happen at one time. Plus your friends want you to go out, your parents won’t let you do anything you want, your coach needs you to get your grades up because your two points away from failing, and on top of all that you don’t know where you’re going in life, and you’re graduating in two years. Many may say it’s growing up, and that everyone goes through it, but for some kids the stress gets to be too much. Can you really blame them?
Depression can result from all this stress, and while some teens talk to someone about it or listen to music they can relate to, others turn to drug and alcohol abuse. Using drugs and alcohol changes lives dramatically. The brain starts to lose brain cells and it causes some to not retain as much information and get bad grades. All of this can lead to laziness and not caring. When you don’t care how well you do in a class, you don’t try, and your grades reflect it. This is all really too bad to see because we see it affect so many teens today, even if it’s not the result of drugs and alcohol. Sometimes kids start to get bad grades, and they’ll try for a while but soon they see that no matter what they do, it just doesn’t seem to make a difference, and they give up.
Sometimes we all disagree with our teachers about certain things, but when you feel strongly on a certain topic, it’s hard to be respectful and keep your cool even if it is with a teacher. At some schools when a new rule takes effect without the student’s knowledge before hand, the results can be brutal. An example of this at my school is when we received the new rule of not being able to carry our backpacks in school anymore. To all of us it really wasn’t a big thing, but when you look at it through our eyes, you see a different side of it. We weren’t upset because of the rule, but by the fact they didn’t even bother to ask us what we thought about it. We just wanted a say in the matter, and when the petitions were ignored, we tried harder and harder until they basically said no more. After that we really couldn’t do anything, but we discovered our strength in numbers. For some, if you fight a battle like this one alone, the results can be disastrous. When you fight a battle against the school board for something you believe is unjust, most times you’ll lose especially, if there are only a few people backing you. In some cases students want to make a dramatic statement, so they drop out to show they don’t need to put up with the school system. In the end, if they don’t go back eventually, they can end up with a G.E.D., which is okay, but they’ll have to work ten times harder in life to make up for their choice.
In conclusion, we have discovered some of the causes of dropping out: stress, laziness, and disagreement. All of these can come into affect in the end, and the result of dropping out is not a pleasant one.