Personal Narrative: The Legacy

When someone asks me what I want to do in life, one main goal always comes to my mind. That goal is to have a positive influence, whether it’s big or small, on the world around me. This may sound vague or cliche, but it’s the truth. This is why I am pursuing a degree in speech pathology and also why I want to participate in an alternative break trip. I want to take advantage of this amazing opportunity that the University of Delaware offers, to make a difference in someone’s life. Coming from a small, diverse town and high school, with an overwhelming majority of low-income families, I learned to never take for granted the life I was given. More importantly, I learned that I have the opportunity to help people that are less fortunate than I am, in a wide variety of

I along with my family moved to Canada in 2004, this was the biggest and happiest day of my life. I had great expectations for my future; since living in Pakistan, I understood that Canada was a land of opportunity. Unfortunately, due to the earthquake in Pakistan on October 8th , 2005, we had to move back to Pakistan since we had lost members of our family as well. The move back to Pakistan at that devastating time was very hard for myself and my family. My father enrolled me to a school in Pakistan since we were going to live there now. The school system in Pakistan just did not seem right anymore, I missed my school in Canada which I had attended for just a year. I struggled to live in Pakistan for three years and in 2008, my mother decided

At the beginning of my sophomore year, August 2015, I fractured my left ankle. My second season of cross country had just begun. The whole team had a Saturday practice at Atlanta Memorial Park. We came to this park for a time trial. Not being able to run was going to be a challenge for me. I loved running, and seeing myself not run was going to be hard for me.

I don’t recall having a hard time learning how to read. It was one of those things that just came easily to me for some reason. For the most part I enjoyed reading as well. The only time I didn’t enjoy reading was when I didn’t understand a certain word or a certain phrase. One of the strongest memories I have from learning to read was when I was unable to pronounce the word “the”.

On November 6th, I encountered a cultural disconnect with a friend. My friend is a white, female, and the same age as me. This disconnect happened on the Berkeley campus when we were walking to our next class. We were both walking and talking about what we have been up to that past week. I told her that I was swamped with midterms and projects coming up so I was “studying and dying all week.” She chuckled at my statement and she said she had two midterms coming up too and has not begun to study. I asked her why she did not start studying yet. I assumed she was too consumed with her part-time job or preoccupied with other important obligations, but she simply replied, “I didn’t feel like it.”

I quickly finished tying my shoe and hopped onto my purple mountain bike and we were off. Logan my brother who I love sometimes,Cassie My best friend, Easton Cassie’s brother,Sawyer Cassie’s brother, Mr. Wychers and I were going to ride our bikes through a trail off in the woods and go to Whistle stop and then cut through town and head to Houseman's. The sky was cloudy and the daylight was being blocked by a thick dark cloud, which looked a lot like a rain cloud.

The school I have attended is a college prep school, and seems did a good job in preparing me for college. This school has taught me time management, responsibility, and to be respectful to everyone. These three things have prepared me to being a successful member of the community. I’ve learned time management by, taking honors classes throughout high school. These classes are more rigorous than the regulars classes offered at my school. The classes have made me focus a lot on my studies and how to ration out my time properly to do well in the class. Thus, making me better at time management and also improved my study skills. Last year i was inducted into NHS, which has made me a lot more responsible. I’ve had to volunteer in the community which is actually great to experience.

In my freshman year, I made a choice to relinquish some of my social life and replace that time giving back to my community. I joined a non-profit organization called the Volunteer Corp. We spent our time at food banks, park clean-ups, and even hosting local events. This experience left a lasting impression on me in many ways; however, one experience changed my perspective on life and serve as a constant reminder of how the smallest contribution to others can be the most powerful.

“Crack”, “click” was what I heard before the most excruciating pain I have ever felt filled my right knee. It was on October 7th, it was just weeks before my junior season was going to start. I was at Massillon Washington high school at wrestling practice like I was almost every day. I was drilling with the assistant coach Percy McGee hitting single legs which was my favorite move. About 40 seconds into the drill I hit another single and all of a sudden my knee locked at about 90 degrees. Unable to straighten my leg I became very panicked but my coach assured me that I would be ok. Little did he know that it was going to be a life altering injury.

Albert Einstein once said, “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” Although I was not born with the best bike, I have learned to pedal through all the hardships—and that has made all the differences.

Lani: I was helping for someone’s project for COMM 245; I was in the video lab, in the studio. I was on campus and decided to contact everyone I knew who comes to the school. I remember I sent out a snap saying guys I think there is a shooting, be careful and then I started sending out individual texts to people making sure they were okay, like hey are you good? Stay out of an area. I didn’t know how many people were getting shot. I just knew it’s not good and that we have to be careful. At first, the campus was like we are unsure, just be careful, and then it took some time till I finally got an email that said stay on campus and were held there for about two hours, I just kept recording.

I have been doing some thinking about our conversation a few days ago and have concluded that I will take you up on the offer! I just sold my old bike and now have some money left over that I can use to pay for those seminars. I am going to see how soon I can get this done, I am going to look at the dates and send my form in.

The Tide detergent bottle gradually moved back and forth, as my father’s elbow creaked, refusing to cooperate. “It’s my own way of physical therapy, you see,” my father boasted. “If I keep it up, I think I’ll be able to move my elbow by the end of the month.”

Over the years, I have grown to be an increasingly active member of my community. I began in the sixth grade when I was a member of a local society called Students on a Mission, sponsored by my school. We did various things in the community around our school, such as, maintaining the vegetation and cleaning, and visiting the nearby nursing home. Outside of school, I worked in the community through my church. For a few years, on alternating Sundays, I visited the Heritage of Dover, and sang and interacted with the elderly there. It was always a fun experience because the residents would be so happy to see us and I enjoyed watching them clap, or even dance along to our music. On holidays, their faces lit up when we brought them candy, or chocolate, and presents. Not only did I

I was raised with Christian values in mind, and attended a Methodist school. I was raised in the Christian faith yet I find myself, as with some of my friends who were raised in the same conditions, we seem to be growing farther away from our upbringing as we age. I find myself simply not understanding as time goes by, a complete polar opposite from the song ‘Farther Along’. One of my hopes in attending PBA is to try and find answers and a reason to try and reconnect myself. I believe PBA, from what I’ve read, has a very friendly understanding environment. One where you sit down and go into depths about faith, instead of blindly following it because it was your parent’s