Personal Narrative: Devil Pups

The pain and agony due to the fact that I might not be prepared for college class was on my shoulders. Since day one of highschool, my biggest desire throughout school was to be engaged in learning while being well prepared for the next step in life: college. What class was the answer to this class desired? It was in a meeting with my guidance counselor in eighth grade that struck me and sparked the interest in my heart to do well. All of my highschool career I have never known what it actually meant to do well and be ¨successful.¨

In “Prayer in the Furnace,” Phil Klay demonstrates the cruelty of war times, and the severe consequences it has on its Marines. The war is so appalling that it leaves the Marines barely able to sleep due to nightmares, they have thoughts of suicide, and they are hardly alive due to the substandard state of their health. Rodriguez, a Marine, talks to a chaplain about the issues that he has. He “pulled a plastic sandwich bag full of little pills out of his cargo pockets and held it at eye level. ‘How do you think any of us sleep?’”

When my older sister went off to college, I had never seen a more driven, mature and intelligent 18 year old look so terrified and reluctant to leave her home just a few states away. Caroline had spent the majority of her high school years stressed, angry and tired, holed up in her single room acing more APs than I can count with two hands. My sister knew from the time she could read that success meant getting into an Ivy, even if the price was throwing away all human contact or not. Myself, was not so sure. I had been shaped by a front-row-seat to the 24-hour shows of a hormonal workaholic—years spent listening to crying, yelling, and disturbing silences from upstairs in Caroline’s room taught me that in order to earn a college acceptance,

A Simple Decision Making decisions in life is like growing a flower. Each and every day it may seem like nothing has changed, but later in the future, every choice one makes will lead to a blooming future. Some decision results little to no effect, while others, leave collateral damage affecting one’s life forever and those around them. Many ordinary decisions can end in regret; on the other hand, constructing a right decision can also leave great memories. The book I Am A Seal Team Six Warrior by Stephen Templin clearly interprets Howard E. Wasdin’s extraordinary life of becoming a soldier who protects the country he loves.

The Warriors Ethos is a book written by Steven Pressfield, which was published in 2011. The book highlights a very rich history of warriors and their supporters alike. My goal with this paper is to draw some parallels between the examples in the book and what I took away as applicable to our lives as infantrymen In the United States Marine Corps. Chapter one is named “ Tough Mothers “. The chapter that stuck out to me most for giving perspective that I lacked prior to reading this book.

This is not something mere intelligence could accomplish. It is ambition that kept from being deterred and remaining focused on the goals I have made for myself. As a medical doctor and as a medical student, I may have moments that I am overwhelmed and my drive will continue to help me maintain. Over these four years at Spelman College, each semester I have gradually been a learning experience and growth promoting Everyone is here to encourage and help you succeed. It is this trait that has drawn me to Florida State University College of medicine.

In the New York Times article Death of a Marine, Bob Herbert discloses a story regarding a young man who participated in the Marines. Jeffrey Lucey of Massachusetts enlisted in the army instead of going to college. Despite his parents’ disapproval, he still joined. When Jeffery turned 22, his unit was one of the first to mobilize in the Iraq War. The damage that impacted Jeffery in Iraq included, explosions “just short of blowing out your eardrums”, damaged nerves, nightmare hallucinations and above all else, PTSD.

College may be the best and most important time of my life. I get the opportunity to make new friends, try new things, and to begin learning about things that I’m truly interested in. I’m slightly unsure of the exact direction I want to take with my life, but as proved in Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, as long as I choose to follow my passion I will end up doing the right thing in life. Whilst Bryan Stevenson has the profound passion of justice and mercy, my passion is very different. My passion in life is to provide dogs with better eye care.

The phrase “through pain, comes discipline” may sound strange or even unorthodox to the average person, but to someone who has stepped on the yellow footprints at Parris Island, they might beg to differ. It was an intense first night on the island to say the least; about 60 of us or so packed on a small bus that was well over capacity, and the fear could be sensed in us all. I remember the long silence finally being broken by a drill instructor’s polite words to “get the hell off his bus”, after those kind words were said we all did in fact get off of his bus; where I was greeted by the humid and cool November air of South Carolina; to this day I can still smell the swamps that surround the Island. They say that anyone who does decide to step on those yellow footprints fall under one of two categories: those that are “crazy brave” and those that are “phony tough”. In hindsight I can safely say that I was the latter of the two, but there was a lesson to be learned on that island for everyone there, and for me it was a lesson in humility.

Aaron Sedrick is a senior at Joplin High School. He has made it his goal to graduate in the top 10% of his class with Honors. This ambitious goal is only a reflection of his dedication that permeates through the rest of his life, from waking up every morning at 5:20 am to get ready for LDS Seminary, to taking some of the most difficult courses his school offers. He attributes his ambition and dedication to his father, who started medical school just as he began kindergarten. This gave him the unique perspective of watching someone much older than him go through similar experiences and then succeed.

However, I have not allowed this fact to permit urban students to outperform me. By actively communicating with my counselor and administrators, I maximized my educational career. I doubled my math classes, became one of the few to enroll in physics, convinced my Spanish teacher to unprecedently offer third year Spanish, and became Hopi High’s first AP student. At home, I delved into subjects that my school did not offer, such as: philosophy, music, Korean language and history. I have became a dynamic learner to overcome the limit that my environment set, and with this kind of attitude, I believe that I can grow and learn far more in college.

In 1980, a "coming-of-age" young man, Scott Meehan, enlisted into the U.S. Army Special Forces as a Medic. Known as one of the last "street-babies," he was able to enter the elite program immediately following Basic Training, AIT, and Airborne school. Twenty-five years later, married with two "Army Brats" traveling the world, Meehan was all he could be before retiring as a Major. Discover a soldier 's career through insightful vignettes describing his early special forces training, assignment to Berlin during the Cold War, encounters with the KGB, ROTC training, Desert Storm, and his three tours to Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) where he was awarded the Bronze Star. A thrilling story that reads like a novel of an American hero whose parents were

As those who bravely serve our country return home, the issues encircling the re-integration require attention. What a soldier experiences on the battlefield can comprise of traumatic events or even injuries that can permanently transform the way soldiers view themselves and the world as a whole. The soldier has had to live in an environment that seems foreign to civilians. The sights, smells, and the daily routine of the soldier can only be imagined but not re-lived by the family. Family members don’t thoroughly grasp the malaise the soldier suffers through.

But like the violence, it soon became normal. And Scott continued the daily routine from running in the morning to movies in the night. While the Army brought out the worst in everyone there were some positive things that changed my dad’s life. For example, even now he still remembers the speeches his drill sergeant would give his unit after a long day. “It gave you five or ten minutes of normalcy at the end of the day.”