This is my "Watermark". In this, we were told to type the story that left the one of the biggest lasting impressions on us. Mine might be depressing, but most lasting impressions are. I do believe that it changed me for the better.
Christian Alfaro
Instructor: Regina Flores
English 9 Period 2
27 september 2016
My Little Brother’s Problem
When Colton was born, he became the little shimmer of light in our family. He immediately made us happy and he continues to. I grew up in a family of five. In every family, there is a runt and ours was Colton. He was another great thing that came out of our family (don’t mean to brag). Colton has always been a happy little hyperactive kid who loves to play sports, video games, watch shows and cartoons, and play with me and Aiden.
Colton and Aiden were both born in California, they are only about a year apart. Due to this, they always got along and enjoyed each other’s company. They would always enjoy it whenever I played video games with them due to how good I am. Laughing, arguing, and fighting, we always loved to play video games together. They always looked up to me and were inspired by what I could do. I was just born natural at them and they were always happy whenever they got close to beating me. They always wanted to beat me, I encourage them to do better than me. We mainly played Halo (greatest first person shooter ever) and Wii games like Super Smash bros. We would all love to play together all the time, especially on holidays like Christmas. We would love to open our presents and see who got the better presents. We all had a blast this past Christmas...But in January, Colton got pretty sick.
He didn’t want to eat because every time he did, he either felt like he would or did throw up. It was painful to watch him suffer, we never had to, so we took him to the Hospital. They wanted to see what was wrong with him, so they took a blood draw and sent it to a lab where they check to see what is in the blood. They said it could be some flu, or something serious...It ended up being something serious. Me and Aiden stayed home because we had school, but when we got out of school the day after his blood draw, my father took us to the hospital to visit Colton and to see what he had. What was supposed to be a 30 minute drive, ended up feeling like an hour (which it might have been due to traffic)? The hospital was a good one, it was the Salt Lake City hospital of Utah. When we got to Colton’s room, he said he knew what he had and wanted to tell us what he had. He let us guess. The FIRST thing I said was cancer. I wanted to start at the top of the worst at make my way down. I was right. Me and Aiden kind of smirked and looked at each other, then we looked back at Colton and our parents who were looking at us with the truest of faces.
Me and Aiden looked at each other one last time to which Aiden then asked, “Wait, your serious?”. Colton nodded his head with a slight grin. We all sat in that room for what seemed like a minute, nobody knew what to say because we didn’t want it to come of weird or rude. Soul tearing, heart breaking, I didn’t know what to say or do. He stayed at the hospital for a couple of days, but they gave him all the injections, shots, and pills, they let him come home with us. They injected him with a type of steroid that would help fight off the cancer cells. This caused him to be more grouchy, hungry, and tired. I would wonder to myself why it had to be him who got this. I would never wish this upon him, Aiden, or anyone I know, so how come he had to deal with this.
Sometimes I wish I got it and not him, because he always has to take these pills to help both the cancer and his own health (to make sure he doesn’t get sick). He doesn’t like the pills and hates having to take them. I know I could take them because it’s not that big of a deal for me, and yet the only one who hates taking them has to, almost every single day. We almost have to fight him on it every single night, sometimes my mom and dad have to hold them down and make sure that he does take them. Sometimes I have to sit in a room with him for minutes on end and convince him to take them. He has gotten better at it though. I would also wonder how this would affect not only our family, but everyone around us. We didn’t tell anyone at first, not even our closest of family. We didn’t tell any of them because we didn’t want them to worry about him. We decided to wait until his entire situation was in a better state. We especially didn’t want to tell Popo (our grandfather) because of how Momo (our Grandmother) passed away and much it would have broke his heart. He ended up passing away just recently and I am glad that he was able to go without any worries. Colton is still a happy little kid.
This has affected me in both a good and bad way. I will remember this as a time that I had to live with for three years, and in that three years, I bonded with my family, more than I ever did before.
Instructor: Regina Flores
English 9 Period 2
27 september 2016
My Little Brother’s Problem
When Colton was born, he became the little shimmer of light in our family. He immediately made us happy and he continues to. I grew up in a family of five. In every family, there is a runt and ours was Colton. He was another great thing that came out of our family (don’t mean to brag). Colton has always been a happy little hyperactive kid who loves to play sports, video games, watch shows and cartoons, and play with me and Aiden.
Colton and Aiden were both born in California, they are only about a year apart. Due to this, they always got along and enjoyed each other’s company. They would always enjoy it whenever I played video games with them due to how good I am. Laughing, arguing, and fighting, we always loved to play video games together. They always looked up to me and were inspired by what I could do. I was just born natural at them and they were always happy whenever they got close to beating me. They always wanted to beat me, I encourage them to do better than me. We mainly played Halo (greatest first person shooter ever) and Wii games like Super Smash bros. We would all love to play together all the time, especially on holidays like Christmas. We would love to open our presents and see who got the better presents. We all had a blast this past Christmas...But in January, Colton got pretty sick.
He didn’t want to eat because every time he did, he either felt like he would or did throw up. It was painful to watch him suffer, we never had to, so we took him to the Hospital. They wanted to see what was wrong with him, so they took a blood draw and sent it to a lab where they check to see what is in the blood. They said it could be some flu, or something serious...It ended up being something serious. Me and Aiden stayed home because we had school, but when we got out of school the day after his blood draw, my father took us to the hospital to visit Colton and to see what he had. What was supposed to be a 30 minute drive, ended up feeling like an hour (which it might have been due to traffic)? The hospital was a good one, it was the Salt Lake City hospital of Utah. When we got to Colton’s room, he said he knew what he had and wanted to tell us what he had. He let us guess. The FIRST thing I said was cancer. I wanted to start at the top of the worst at make my way down. I was right. Me and Aiden kind of smirked and looked at each other, then we looked back at Colton and our parents who were looking at us with the truest of faces.
Me and Aiden looked at each other one last time to which Aiden then asked, “Wait, your serious?”. Colton nodded his head with a slight grin. We all sat in that room for what seemed like a minute, nobody knew what to say because we didn’t want it to come of weird or rude. Soul tearing, heart breaking, I didn’t know what to say or do. He stayed at the hospital for a couple of days, but they gave him all the injections, shots, and pills, they let him come home with us. They injected him with a type of steroid that would help fight off the cancer cells. This caused him to be more grouchy, hungry, and tired. I would wonder to myself why it had to be him who got this. I would never wish this upon him, Aiden, or anyone I know, so how come he had to deal with this.
Sometimes I wish I got it and not him, because he always has to take these pills to help both the cancer and his own health (to make sure he doesn’t get sick). He doesn’t like the pills and hates having to take them. I know I could take them because it’s not that big of a deal for me, and yet the only one who hates taking them has to, almost every single day. We almost have to fight him on it every single night, sometimes my mom and dad have to hold them down and make sure that he does take them. Sometimes I have to sit in a room with him for minutes on end and convince him to take them. He has gotten better at it though. I would also wonder how this would affect not only our family, but everyone around us. We didn’t tell anyone at first, not even our closest of family. We didn’t tell any of them because we didn’t want them to worry about him. We decided to wait until his entire situation was in a better state. We especially didn’t want to tell Popo (our grandfather) because of how Momo (our Grandmother) passed away and much it would have broke his heart. He ended up passing away just recently and I am glad that he was able to go without any worries. Colton is still a happy little kid.
This has affected me in both a good and bad way. I will remember this as a time that I had to live with for three years, and in that three years, I bonded with my family, more than I ever did before.