Expect The Unexpected
It’s crazy how in a blink of an eye, a huge part of my life was ripped right away from me. How everything I once knew and loved changed in a matter of seconds. It was a Sunday afternoon, the sun was shining, the birds were singing and you could feel the heat of the sun hitting your skin. It was what anyone would have called a perfect, spring day. I spent all day playing at my neighbor’s house, running around the the yard, riding bikes, and even playing with their brand new puppy. It was around lunchtime when my dad had pulled in the driveway. He was talking to my mom in the backyard. Right as I ran up to my parents I knew something was wrong, both my mom and my dad had tears in their eyes. Tears, something I never saw coming from my parents. I asked what was wrong, my dad picked me up and brought me inside. We sat down on the couch and said, “your brother was in a bad accident earlier this morning.” He said, “he was on the lake, kayaking when he had a seizure and his kayak tipped over.” I looked at him, I was confused I never even knew my brother had seizures. My dad looked back at me and said, “when the kayak tipped there was no one close enough to save him, he didn’t make it.” I was in shock, tears filled my eyes, I didn’t understand how something so awful could happen to someone so full of life. In a blink of an eye, my whole life was changed, someone so meaningful was ripped away from me.
My brother’s passing had such a tremendous impact on my life. It altered the outlook of who I was. His passing not only made me a stronger person, but gave me the opportunity to see how strong I truly was. Although losing my brother was the worse situation my family and I could have experienced, I wasn’t scared to embrace the person I had become. When senior year came around I knew exactly what I was going to write my college essay about, my brother. In fact, my high school’s english department even turned our college essays into a graded writing assignment. This was nerve racking at first. Writing has never been my strength, but I wanted to go above and beyond for this paper. This paper meant the world to me. I was so young when my brother passed, I never got the chance to wrap my head around his passing. I accepted his death as I had to, but I never got to look at it as a growing experience as all adults do. This was finally my time. This was the first time I was able to look at my brothers passing in a new light. It was the first time I was able to go back and relive this horrible experience, but turn it into something more than a tragedy.
Writing this paper was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. It brought back so much sadness, as reliving my brother’s death wasn’t easy. I put so much time and so much thought into my paper. I remember sitting in class, I had complete focus. The classroom was cold, and quite. The only thing you could hear was the soft sound of typing. I loved how my paper came together, “Ripples surrounded the boat, as little bugs scampered across the surface of the water. My brother and I looked at each other while we counted down to cast out our fishing-lines. We would wait patiently for something to bite, and I vividly remember the rush of excitement when something finally clamped down on the hook. This one memory means the world to me, but it never did in the moment. The laughs, the smiles, the time spent together: I never truly realized how meaningful it was back then. But now I do, as this simple fishing story was the last memory I shared with my brother,” this by far was my all time favorite part of my essay. This passage brought back many amazing memories I shared with my brother. This passage brought my brother back to life.
This simple essay was so meaningful to me. I was incredibly proud and had nothing but the utmost confidence in my work. When reviewing my paper before hand, I was told I needed to make my paper stand out more. I was told I needed to make it more meaningful than it already was. I was shocked when I heard this, I did not know how I could make it better. I tried expanding on points adding in more details, but in my eyes my paper was as good as it could be. I was crazy anxious as I waited to get my paper back. I tried to go with my gut and write what I believed told my story the best.
When I finally got my paper back, all I felt was disappointment. I couldn’t believe what I saw, I looked at my paper and saw a B- minus circled in the top right corner. I did not understand. Everyone who previously read my paper thought it was amazing. I didn’t get how my teacher didn’t.
In the end, I have may not got the best grade on my paper, but that did not matter. I was so proud of my paper, no acceptance letter or B minus was going to change that. I did everything I could to go above and beyond. Teacher’s are always so hard on students, no matter what we do or how we act. Although, we may never fully understood why, teacher’s want us to achieve more. They constantly push us to go the extra mile. They push us and get us to turn our work into something amazing. They try to teach us to not get so caught up in the personal content rather of a story than the assignment itself no matter how difficult that may be.
When push comes to shove, I believe this assignment made me both a stronger person and writer. It made me look deeper. It made me realize how although everyone has a different point of view, each point of view is important. It doesn’t matter whether it’s writing or a real life situation, peoples thoughts will always be different. I realized it doesn’t matter what you are writing about, you should be creating a piece of work you can always be proud of. Something that makes you happy to re out loud, something you could read a million times and never want to stop reading. Write what makes you happy, that’s the paper to aim for.
