iliketoshop
Oct 21, 2012
Undergraduate / 'Do not let your guard down' - meaningful event and how it will make you a better UF [3]
In the space provided, please write a concise narrative in which you describe a meaningful event, experience or accomplishment in your life and how it will affect your college experience or your contribution to the UF campus community. You may want to reflect on your ideas about student responsibility, academic integrity, campus citizenship or a call to service.
No one enjoys hearing bad news. After all that's why it's called BAD news. It shatters your world. It makes you feel vulnerable and weak as if everything is falling apart and like nothing is going to go right ever again. That's exactly how I felt on January 24th, 2008.
My mom sat me and my two younger sisters down, and broke the news to us: "your father has cancer". It was as if the world stopped spinning for a minute, I was frozen with astonishment. My heart felt like it slipped right out of my chest, and shattered into a million litter pieces. Cancer, that's pretty much a death sentence. You wouldn't wish it upon your worst enemies, and yet it was happening to my dad. It shook my family like an earthquake; it was hard on all of us. My dad wasn't the same person anymore, he was weak but he kept fighting. He was spending more and more time at the doctors and less time with us. He couldn't run around anymore, or even stand in line for roller coasters. Eventually, the situation starting looking up. The chemotherapy was working and his cancer starting shrinking; he was on his way to remission. This was just what we needed to hear. We could see the beacon of hope on the horizon.
When you let your guard down, that's when you're the most susceptible. The cancer attacked again. It was stronger than ever, and resistant the chemotherapy. Even our last resort, radiation, wasn't helping. My dad became so skinny, as if he were a Skelton with skin and all the medication he was taking made his thoughts foggy and unclear. We were losing him and it was obvious.
The following January my parents sat us down again and broke some even worse news to us: "there is nothing else the doctors can do" they started, "he has maybe 3 months left if we're lucky". I remember thinking to myself that if I pray every day that he might make it to my 8th grade graduation in May. Unfortunately, a little less than a month after they broke the news to us, he passed away; two months shorter than we expected. On February 10th, 2009 he shut his eyes for the last time. Everything seemed even more broken than it was before; it was so hard to pick up the pieces and carry on; but it was necessary. I couldn't let this stop me from living; my dad wouldn't want me to. Instead of letting a tragedy ruin the rest of my life, I've learned from it. I don't let hard times stop me; they make me stronger and push even harder to pursue my goals. Although I would give anything to have my dad back, I know that as a UF alumni and a huge Gator fan that he would be incredibly proud that this university is the one and only choice for me.
yes i know there are some spelling and grammar mistakes, ive already fixed them in a new copy.
In the space provided, please write a concise narrative in which you describe a meaningful event, experience or accomplishment in your life and how it will affect your college experience or your contribution to the UF campus community. You may want to reflect on your ideas about student responsibility, academic integrity, campus citizenship or a call to service.
No one enjoys hearing bad news. After all that's why it's called BAD news. It shatters your world. It makes you feel vulnerable and weak as if everything is falling apart and like nothing is going to go right ever again. That's exactly how I felt on January 24th, 2008.
My mom sat me and my two younger sisters down, and broke the news to us: "your father has cancer". It was as if the world stopped spinning for a minute, I was frozen with astonishment. My heart felt like it slipped right out of my chest, and shattered into a million litter pieces. Cancer, that's pretty much a death sentence. You wouldn't wish it upon your worst enemies, and yet it was happening to my dad. It shook my family like an earthquake; it was hard on all of us. My dad wasn't the same person anymore, he was weak but he kept fighting. He was spending more and more time at the doctors and less time with us. He couldn't run around anymore, or even stand in line for roller coasters. Eventually, the situation starting looking up. The chemotherapy was working and his cancer starting shrinking; he was on his way to remission. This was just what we needed to hear. We could see the beacon of hope on the horizon.
When you let your guard down, that's when you're the most susceptible. The cancer attacked again. It was stronger than ever, and resistant the chemotherapy. Even our last resort, radiation, wasn't helping. My dad became so skinny, as if he were a Skelton with skin and all the medication he was taking made his thoughts foggy and unclear. We were losing him and it was obvious.
The following January my parents sat us down again and broke some even worse news to us: "there is nothing else the doctors can do" they started, "he has maybe 3 months left if we're lucky". I remember thinking to myself that if I pray every day that he might make it to my 8th grade graduation in May. Unfortunately, a little less than a month after they broke the news to us, he passed away; two months shorter than we expected. On February 10th, 2009 he shut his eyes for the last time. Everything seemed even more broken than it was before; it was so hard to pick up the pieces and carry on; but it was necessary. I couldn't let this stop me from living; my dad wouldn't want me to. Instead of letting a tragedy ruin the rest of my life, I've learned from it. I don't let hard times stop me; they make me stronger and push even harder to pursue my goals. Although I would give anything to have my dad back, I know that as a UF alumni and a huge Gator fan that he would be incredibly proud that this university is the one and only choice for me.
yes i know there are some spelling and grammar mistakes, ive already fixed them in a new copy.
