Personal Narrative: How Asthma Changed My Life

With each step, I became more exhausted, but I kept running to catch up. I started wheezing as beads of sweat fell down across my face. I was running laps for basketball practice. However, my breath won’t stop gasping for air as if my life was counting on it. I felt my lungs did their best to open and close, which told me that my asthma had acted up again. I had to deal with this condition every day. Asthma had held me back most of my life. I had serious of violent coughing episodes even when I am not doing anything. Hence, why I am usually picked last in basketball.

My family was worried about me because I kept coughing all the time ever since I was ten years old. My family finally took me to the doctor when I was twelve to see what

Which made me decide to play basketball. However, asthma was only one of the reasons why I started to play basketball. I wanted to prove other people and myself that I am able to be good in a sport despite my condition. I didn’t want to use my asthma as an excuse, so I pushed my body beyond its limits whenever I am playing basketball with my friends or at basketball practice. Later, I joined my middle school basketball team. I recall almost fainting a couple of times during basketball practice, but I kept believing that I can improve my health through intense physical activity. At the time, I had a mentality where I refuse to lose to my own body’s weakness. I believed that I could fight against my asthma and win. Yet, I still didn’t see any improvement in my health after a year had passed. Then I gave up on the dream that my health would improve. I already knew that asthma was a disease that can’t be cured, but it can be controlled. I tried to keep my asthma under control and failed. I realized that I needed to accept help to control my asthma and that I can’t do it