An Exciting Vacation

Author's Note: This is a short story on how we found that I have a seizure disorder.

I woke up in a soft bed surrounded by two men and my mom. My mom looked down at me holding my hand for dear life. I see the men with wires, needles, and tubes. Connecting, what seems like, 5 million wires to me. Poking me with needles and drawing my blood. Then it hit me. What’s going on? I was too out of it to comprehend the fact that I was in an ambulance and something bad had happened. In fact I was so out of it I just sat there smiled, looked around, and didn’t say a word.

Finally, one of the men looked at me and ask what my name was. I looked at him puzzled, because I thought to myself, what is my name? I looked at him and said in a giggly tone “I know this one!” I said as if I was being quizzed in school.

When we got to the hospital I was lifted by a big man onto a hospital bed and was wheeled into a small white room. I could hear only pieces of what my mom was saying to the doctor and beeping from the 5 million electrodes attached to me, I was still gaining consciousness. All I could see were lips moving and my mom’s concerned face. “She had a seizure,” my mom said. What? I had a seizure? I thought to myself. I had no idea what was going on. The only knowledge I had of seizures is that one time we thought my sister had one when she got her blood drawn, but it was false.

 I laid there silent, I had nothing to do or say. The rest of my family came. They walked in slowly, not know really what to do. Instantly my eldest sister, Katie, walks to my bed in tears and hugs me while I’m still trying to figure out what happened. The rest of my family walks over and gives me a hug. Once the doctor walked in he explained everything that happened. It turns out Katie was the one who found me seizing on the floor, that’s why she was so upset.

 A few I.Vs later I was released and was able to go back to the hotel. Oh yeah! I’m on vacation! I remembered as I entered the car. I completely forgot the fact that I was in Florida, that did brighten my mood a bit.

 Once we were back to the hotel I fell right back to sleep as if nothing ever happened. The next morning I woke up and was completely back to normal and it was time for some explanation. Katie told me that she heard choking and found me out of my bed and on the floor twitching. She screamed for my parents and my dad yelled for my mom to call 911.

Turns out there are stages in seizures. Stage 1, the twitching. Stage 2, I started spitting up like a baby that was just burped. Stage 3, foaming. My dad said I had foam coming out of my mouth and that’s when they thought that they might lose me. Stage 4, being delusional. I had absolutely no idea who anyone was and freaked out until the ambulance came. My parents had no idea what was going to happen after that. Was it cancer? Brain tumor? Or would I even make it through the night?

Today I am now taking medication for seizures, because we found out that it will be a lifelong battle. What happened to me I look at in perspective. I could have a tumor in my brain or it could be even worse. I am just thankful that I have the loving, supportive family I have and that I am going to be just fine.

The House That Built Me (Revised)

Author's Note: This is a text analysis piece that I revised.

This is the house that you colored on the walls when you were three years old and got a time out. The house where you fell off your bed and got a black eye. Where you took your prom pictures. The house were the love of your life called you and asked you on a date. This is the house that built you. Miranda Lambert was thinking of memories of that sort while writing the song, “The House That Built Me”.

For example, “But these handprints on the front steps are mine.” This is something that I believe many people can relate to. Not specifically having your handprints on your door step. Things like an indent on the front door is where your dad ran into because he thought the door was open and you and your sibling laughed for days. I can really relate to this verse because it instantly reminds me of when I was younger and just learned how to spell my name, so I carved it into the wood on the windowsill. Memories of these are the ones that build you and the things you carry with you as you grow older.

As you get older, we all are really like projects being built by our past. We are built by our dings, cuts, and indents. “I bet you didn’t know under that live oak
my favorite dog is buried in the yard,” a memory like this that Miranda including in her song is just a little example of the things that we carry with us forever and make us who we are.

Miranda Lambert’s lyrics remind me a lot of Dierks Bentley. One of his recent songs is home and he talks about many different things he loves about his hometown. “It’s been a long hard ride, got a ways to go, but this is still the place that we all call home.” This lyric is what really reminds me of Miranda and her writing about her home. Dierks mentions how his life has been tough at times and that there will be more struggles, but we all have a place that we call home. Both of their music, if it’s personal or not, are popular because what they sing about is so real and they don’t sugar coat anything. They talk about how life can sometimes not be fun and listeners really like that.

Once you reach the end of the song Miranda writes about how we will get lost and get hurt, but we will always find our way back home. “I thought if I could touch this place or feel this brokenness inside me might start healing.” This verse is something you can easily connect with because we have all felt broken or alone and have searched for something to save us.

I can really easily connect with a song like this because I have so many memories with my family and the house I’ve grown up in. Miranda did a wonderful job writing lyrics that will make the listeners remember memories like hers that she writes about. By the time I’m older I know I will get stuck in a rut every once in a while, but I always will remember the memories I have in the house that built me.