“My current situation is not my final destination”. Whatever misfortunes I encounter will not dictate how the rest of my life will be. Before I was even 8 years old, I knew that the neighborhood I had known my whole life was not the safe haven I had always made it out to be in my head. Everyday, you hear reports of bad things happening to good people, but it feels surreal when it actually happens to you. In 8th grade, I couldn’t think of a better way to spend my time after school than by going to my best friend’s house which was only 2 blocks away. It was a typical sunny afternoon when I started the seven minute walk to my friend’s house. As I approached the corner of my block, I had noticed someone in the passenger’s seat of a van staring
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I continued walking, but the van had stopped at the same corner I was passing through. The passenger door opened, and out came a man that quickly approached me. I thought he would just ask me for directions and be on his way, but instead demanded the gold necklace hanging around my neck that I had received for my First Communion. I expected Ashton Kutcher to come out from the alley and say, “You’ve just been punked!”, because in my head, all of it just felt like some kind of cruel joke. I stopped breathing, and if it wasn’t for the gun that he held so strongly in his hand, I would have ran back home to the protective embrace of my parents. That day, it wasn’t just my necklace that was stolen, but also my sense of security. Who would do that to someone? Even worse, who would do that to a child? At 13, I was about to finally get the opportunity to go out with my friends and enjoy the perks of being a teenager. After this happened, all I wanted to do was confine myself to the four walls of my room, the only place I felt safe …show more content…
I’ve not only gained knowledge on IT and what the professional world is like, but I’ve met people who I am going to miss dearly. The first time I ever stepped into the blue room where training took place, I expected to just do what I needed to do to finish the summer training, but my peers grew on me. They’re all so different and it’s amazing how we get along so well despite all of the obvious and not so obvious differences we have. Aside from my fellow young professionals, my favorite part of going to training was getting to see my program coordinator, Kaila, and my IT instructor, Mariam. I have nothing but good things to say about them and I want to take the time to thank them for everything they have done and for getting me out of my comfort zone, where I have been staying for the past 17 years. I remember during one of the first days of training, we were assigned our first speech. We were to prepare a 30-60 second speech where we would introduce ourselves to our peers. I’m going to be completely honest, I dreaded going to training that day because the thought of embarrassing myself in front of total strangers did not appeal to me. I don’t exactly remember what I said in that very first speech, but I do recall stumbling over my words quite a bit and probably making a bad first impression among my peers. As the weeks
I continued walking, but the van had stopped at the same corner I was passing through. The passenger door opened, and out came a man that quickly approached me. I thought he would just ask me for directions and be on his way, but instead demanded the gold necklace hanging around my neck that I had received for my First Communion. I expected Ashton Kutcher to come out from the alley and say, “You’ve just been punked!”, because in my head, all of it just felt like some kind of cruel joke. I stopped breathing, and if it wasn’t for the gun that he held so strongly in his hand, I would have ran back home to the protective embrace of my parents. That day, it wasn’t just my necklace that was stolen, but also my sense of security. Who would do that to someone? Even worse, who would do that to a child? At 13, I was about to finally get the opportunity to go out with my friends and enjoy the perks of being a teenager. After this happened, all I wanted to do was confine myself to the four walls of my room, the only place I felt safe …show more content…
I’ve not only gained knowledge on IT and what the professional world is like, but I’ve met people who I am going to miss dearly. The first time I ever stepped into the blue room where training took place, I expected to just do what I needed to do to finish the summer training, but my peers grew on me. They’re all so different and it’s amazing how we get along so well despite all of the obvious and not so obvious differences we have. Aside from my fellow young professionals, my favorite part of going to training was getting to see my program coordinator, Kaila, and my IT instructor, Mariam. I have nothing but good things to say about them and I want to take the time to thank them for everything they have done and for getting me out of my comfort zone, where I have been staying for the past 17 years. I remember during one of the first days of training, we were assigned our first speech. We were to prepare a 30-60 second speech where we would introduce ourselves to our peers. I’m going to be completely honest, I dreaded going to training that day because the thought of embarrassing myself in front of total strangers did not appeal to me. I don’t exactly remember what I said in that very first speech, but I do recall stumbling over my words quite a bit and probably making a bad first impression among my peers. As the weeks