Sculpting Me

Memorable Moment That Changed Me.

            I sat in Composition one day my junior year in high school. I was new to the school and still trying to get the hang of things. I was always thinking about what little-miss-new-girl was going to do the next day. And the day after that. And the rest of the year. But this particular day, my teacher interrupted my thoughts. "Today, you're going to write what might very well be the hardest paper of your life," she told the class with a clever grin. She sounded like she was challenging me. Challenge me at writing? Please! As if any topic she could possibly think of would leave me completely speechless. Good luck! I admit I'm not the greatest at writing, but I rarely sat without a clue what to write.

"You will be writing a narrative about a memorable, changing moment in your life." Oh... well that does change things a bit. How could I write about just one changing experience? How could I even begin to write in a way that my reader would understand? She mentioned something about the paper's length, format, and style, but I tuned most of that out. I was lost. Lost in my own thoughts, too deep in to really pay attention to the world around me. My thoughts were an ocean among puddles.

I began attempting to put these thoughts down on paper, but I was never much good at pre-planning. I listed some major things I could use, but that only made my head spin a little more. From becoming an older sister, to watching my mom almost die. So many memories and only one could be my topic. Maybe I could write about memories I had with Grandma. Or maybe my nightmare-year in home school. I guess I could've written about meeting my older brother for the first time, but what about my first time on a stage? That was definitely a treasure. But what memory truly changed and molded me into the Killian I am today?

That's when it hit me. All of these memories had a part in sculpting and changing me over time. So why not write about all of them? Of course not telling every tiny detail, but why not explain how they each impacted me? Yes, this sounded like a pretty great idea; simple, yet creative.

The first memory I decided to talk about was when my little brothers were born. They were so small and sweet. I remember the oldest of the three was very sick as an infant, but that made him even more special in my eyes. The second to oldest was always so sweet to everyone. Even as a toddler, he showed promise in athletic activities, mainly gymnastics. Then the youngest came along and brightened our world a little more. As he grew, we noticed problems with his speech and his development, but the other two had had similar problems so we handled it the same: therapy. As they grew, I started realizing that they were going to one day be in high school and, later on, the real world. I soon became protective over them and everyone I care about.

Later on, I met my older brother for the first time. He was eleven at the time and I was nine. Our mother sent each of us to live with our dads when we were still very young, so I never really got to meet him. We quickly bonded and became very close. I used to go visit him and our mother a lot. He and I would stay up all night playing games, watching movies, and eating junk food. As time went on, my older brother became protective over me. We looked out for each other and always tried to be there for the other. Meeting him really made me realize how precious time truly is.

Then my mom got sick. She actually was my step mom, but since she raised me, I looked at her as my real mom. She was a type one diabetic and had been since she was twelve. She usually kept it under tight control and we rarely had issues, but things changed when we moved into a poorly kept two hundred year old farm house in the middle of nowhere. Something in the house made her sick. I remember waking up one morning to my dad screaming for me to get downstairs. Her blood sugar had dropped dangerously low in her sleep and sent her into a seizing fit. It took over a month for us to get her back to health. She lost a lot of weight and was in and out of the hospital. She even had a surgery to have her gallbladder removed. After that, I had to step up a lot and help take care of my brothers.

I sat thinking about everything I had just written and smiled softly to myself. These three memories had such a large affect on me that no words could truly describe how significant they were. I learned how to love someone without doubt, how to not take anything for granted, and how to take on responsibility. These three memories sculpted me into the Killian everyone knows today, and who knows if I actually would've ever realized it if not for a simple assignment given to me by a teacher I had my junior year of high school.