Personal Narrative: Surviving Yellow Water

Emily Riva:Hey JJ, You’ve always told us that if we need any help with anything, especially our faith, we could come to you. Well, I’m struggling. I know I’ll never know why God does some of the things he does, but is it okay to be really mad at him?

We arrive at the Willamette River. The boats in the water and we have a difficult time trying to start it you can smell the very strong fumes from the exhaust of the boat as it's trying to start .We get the boat started and off we go for a little ride, it was time to go wakeboarding so I strapped on my boots and jumped in the water.

Have you ever cut off someone’s limb? I nearly did, when I was ten years old. It all happened in a moment, a quick slice, blood all over the dirty snow, tainting the already tainted snow, but into a blot of red rather than a shade of gray. Blood pooling up as the adult present was freaking out, frantically calling the mountain’s emergency line. My sister and I not really realizing the severity of the injury, we sat there as we waited for people to help.

“The Man in the Water” knew it was he last chance to do anything before he had possibly been gone, gone in the possibly hypothermia water of the Potomac River. This man was helping others before even trying to protect himself in the first place. It just confused the onlookers of why he would put his life second out of strangers he has never seen before. He was a hero, a brave, considerate, noble man, and last but not least a sacrifice of his entire life, as what the survivors had thought of him.

It was a nice, warm July morning in Shawnee, Kansas when the Turpin and Burner families started their trip to Colorado. After a long stressful night of packing and getting ready for a six-hour long car ride the journey began. There was not much need for entertainment since everyone was so tired from the long night of suffering and misery. My brother and I started fighting even in the car ride to Colorado because we just couldn 't wait that long without engaging in some sort of physical activity.

On a nice, warm, summers day, my family and I had gone on vacation to Orlando, Florida. We stayed there for five days. One of the days we went to Sea World. It took us a little while to arrive in the park, but as soon as we were in I had to take off my shirt because it was extremely arid. Thank God I had my bathing suit on underneath my clothing. That was probably why I was so hot. Anyway, we also received some water bottles to help with the heat. So far the day was humdrum.

I heard my mom talking to my dad. He tells her, “voy a ir para el norte(US) con un coyote(a person who brings people to the US illegally) que cobra barato,” I see her hugging him really tight. My dad comes to my sister and I and tells us that he will be back later, to not worry because he’s just going to see how “el norte” is, then might take us there later. My sister, my mom, and I understood why he wanted to go to The United States, he wants a better life for us. Next morning, my dad wasn’t there with us, it felt lonely, as if part of my heart was not there with me. I wanted to cry, but I knew that my dad was not there with us physically but he was with us in our hearts. As time passed, my mom asked us if we wanted to go to The United States and my sister and I were so happy, we said yes because our dad was up there.

In my mind’s eye, I can still picture driving from Seagraves, Texas to Orlando, Florida in a brand new Kia that we just got. I remember driving on the overpass above the Mississippi River and how far out of sight it went. We took two long, dreadful days to get to Orlando, but when we got there it was totally worth it.

I just got done waking up. I go downstairs to eat breakfast. While eating breakfast, I heard my uncle talking going swimming in Yankton. We decided to go to Yankton because there were a party and it is somewhere public where you can swim. So my uncle told us all to get ready. After we were all ready, we went ahead and got in his car.

As I raced toward the bottom of the mountain I suddenly realized there was a cliff not far from the base. My family and I were skiing in Colorado for a vacation. My parents were down in the lodge on the other side of the mountain, and only my brother and I were skiing. I was on the opposite side of the mountain as my brother because I wanted to prove that I was a better skier than him. I had to make a hasty decision to avoid tumbling off the cliff but I didn’t know what to do!

Eek! A shrill sounded through the air. Everyone turned to look at what the commotion was right as the camera snapped the photo. As I looked to the right, I saw my brother, Zak was the one who screamed and there was something emerging from out of the shell that he was holding. In June of 2013, my family had decided we were going to St. Petersburg, Florida for vacation. We had been to St. Petersburg before, so we knew it was going to be a fun vacation. Little did we know this funny moment was in our future.

When my mom and dad told me, my brother Timmy and Jimmy that are twins and my little sister Molly that we were going on a trip I freaked out I was so excited but they would not tell us where we are going. Mom said that grandma was coming, I was upset but i was not going to let that ruin my trip. I asked my mom if Skippy, my dog, could come and she said yes I was very happy. We loaded the car and we took the canoe so that gave me a hint of where we are going. We drive off.

Road trip to Maryland was totally awesome except for when I hurt my shoulder. It started out as a usual beautiful day in Ocean City, Maryland. Our hotel was so cool, it had a ice skating ring in the center. We also had a beach view, which was beautiful. We spent half the indoor pool and then we went to get lunch. After lunch my family and I head to the beach. We found a nice spot that’s close to the water but yet far. The water was not cold but no hot. It was perfect, the waves were heavy tho. We went into the water and played around for awhile and the really heavy waves started to hit us. We were ready for then because we went close to shore. We held on to each other because the waves were coming like elephants. I was holding my cousin on

At my grandma’s pool, sitting on the edge of the pool with my feet in the water. I was a nervous reck. I was sweating and my heart was beating so fast. I could not get into that pool. All i heard was my dad saying ‘’Emma come on in the water’’.

We flew there and the ride was horrible. I had to sit by some random person's baby. The child wouldn't stop crying. We were on the plane for 6 hours. Finally I had enough so I switched seats with my mom. She was seating beside two old women. So I just put my earbuds in and slept. We were finally there. Mom had to wake me up so I would get off the plane. We were staying at the most beautiful resort I had ever seen. Our room was on the 10th floor and was a ocean view, it was the fanciest room we had ever stayed in. It was probable 10:00 o'clock before we got settled in. My brothers insisted they swam, but my mom told them we would tomorrow. Morning came and it was the first day at the