In Beth Johnson’s story,” Bombs Bursting in air”, She speaks about being shielded by ignorance when you're young. As you get older, you realize how bombs start to impact your life and the lives around their detonation points. You start to love immensely and be thankful for what you have after a close call. A great lesson to learn from her writing: Love while you can, Enjoy life day by day because you never know when a bomb can detonate and destroys everything you hold dear. Live with no regrets, if you live true from the start. The day my son was born was my bomb that impacted directly and sent shockwaves through my life. I learned the lesson first hand. It changed the way I think of situations and changed the route of my life all together.
Nine strikingly fast months have slipped away since I learned about the surprise Amber had for me. It was time to meet our baby boy. I’m anxiously waiting in what has been our “luxury suite” in the Labor and Delivery Department of our Hospital. Amber was taken for surgery
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preparation over 20 minutes ago, so it wouldn’t be long before I would be they would take me too. The door knocked, I expected the nurses, but my father peeked in with a smile of pride and amazement on his face. He rushed up to me and locked in his arms . In my 23 years I have never, that I can remember, been hugged by my father. I was in awe after seeing the tears on his face, another thing I have never seen my father do. “What’s wrong dad?” I asked, astonished at what I was witnessing. “Son you know I’m proud of you, right?” He said tenderly,” I know I wasn’t around much when you were a kid, but you see, I’ve never had a choice. I had to work to keep the roof over your head and clothes on your back. I wish it was different, God, how I wish it were different.” He cut himself off , knowing there were no excuses or things he could say to take back the past 20 years; so he stood up and put his massive, callused hand on my shoulder and offered a piece of advice for a happy life: ”Life is short, Preston. Really short, don’t waste it like I did. I just worked and worked, feeling that if I had more money we’d be happier. It’s not true, I would have been truly happy if I could have watched y’all grow up and not just seen it in photos. I missed allot, Preston, don’t do the same.” The words my dad spoke was weighing on my mind as I followed the nurse to the operating room to watch my son be delivered. There was no time to think about it anymore the time was finally here. In just a few moments I will get to meet the little boy that stole my heart from the time I laid my eyes on his ultrasound. The nurse grasped my and lead me a stool by Amber’s head. I gazed down at Amber; she had a intoxicated smile on her face. She was apparently on some strong medication to help with anxiety. I mentally chuckled at her, She told the doctor she did not want to be aware of what was happening. I think they succeeded. Suddenly, I heard my son cry for the first time! They had put up a curtain in front of Ambers face so she couldn’t see the operation in progress, but it also obscured my view of my son. I stared intensely as they brought him across the room to the cleaning station. He was so tiny, so perfect. My body trembled as a wave of reality hit me like a sack of bricks. He arrived. My life changed tremendously in that moment. No more wondering what it was going to be like. No more feeling worried that you’re not ready, cause ready or not he’s here. The nurses going through their procedures looked like a savage beast at a fresh kill. I watched in horror as they pulled, washed and rubbed him. I would like one whole baby ,please! Noticing the obvious panic in my eyes, she motioned me over to come see him. I stood up carefully, my legs have turned to jello and stomach to mush. This is all happening way too fast. I proceeded delicately toward the cleaning station , in trepidation of fainting or knocking something over. I studied him for the first time, He was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. My mind was an explosion of activity, I couldn't comprehend one word of the information it was trying to send me. With a gloved hand I touched his face, his body heat seeped through the glove. The nurse picked up the scissors and gestured toward the cord. My hands were quavering, but I had to do it. My father, my grandfather, and my great grandfather all cut the cord. I refused to be the only one couldn’t because I was afraid it’ll hurt the baby. The nurse put the clamps on the umbilical cord, one was near the belly and the other right above. I stared at it for a second, swallowed my fear, and cut. I was stunned; it felt cutting a rubber tire with a dull pair of scissors, just gumming away at it. After a few snips it finally cuts away, I was relieved because I honestly couldn’t have taken much more. “Alright Mr. Stephens, You did well! Now follow me, we are going to bring him to the nursery to do what they need to do.” The nurse said perkily. I greeted my family in the hallway, as I strolled beside the baby to the nursery. Everyone looked in awe. The joy that was streaming from them was incredible. I’ve never been so ecstatic, so proud. We entered the nursery and the nurse indicated the camera around my neck, ”Sir, you need to take some pictures. I don’t think the misses would want to miss this.” She spoke the truth. I took hundreds of photographs as she did different procedures with the baby. When she completed the routine she asked me to leave. It was time to set him down for some rest. I rushed over to my friends and family. I greeted them all with hugs and thank you’s. My father looked at me and smiled,” Hold on tight, boy. Your life just began. Make it all count, so you’ll have no regrets when you meet our maker.” Preston Jr.
had turned 8 months. My father’s words and the experience of having a child has made my life better than I ever thought it would be. Before, I was working every day; passing off time with family just to get a paycheck. Now, I just want to be there. I want to experience everything with my son. Not like my father who only seen his children an hour a night, and regretted the time he missed out in his family . I resigned from my job and enrolled in school. I was bound and determined to get a job where I can be a part of my child’s life rather than just be the provider and miss out on what life really is. Time feels like it’s passing at breakneck speeds, and if you blink it’ll pass by without a second thought. I live life day by day and make sure to be happy and full of love. Life is too short to waste it . I’ve learned a powerful lesson from my father: Work to live the way you want, but do not live to work. Family all ways comes
first.
Louder than a Bomb is a documentary by Jon Siskel and Greg Jacobs. We are invited into the lives of four different Chicago teenagers as they prepare for the city wide poetry slam. These four students come from various backgrounds and schools.
Almost twenty years ago, around this time of the month, you had a baby girl on November twenty-six. Like every parent you are happy, smiling at the baby, holding my hands and taking pictures. I grew up, stood up, walked for the first time, said my first words, and lost my baby teeth. It’s time for me to go to my first day of school; you don’t want me to go because you got use to my presence in the house. Meanwhile, you are low-key wishing for me to stay a baby girl, when you know perfectly that it isn’t going to happen.
John Hersey shows that the atomic bomb is merciless by explaining the effect of the bomb on children. Hersey describes a mother’s search for her children to do so, “She heard a child cry, ‘Mother, help me,’ and saw her youngest, Myeko… buried up to her breast and unable to move. As Mrs. Nakamura started frantically to claw her baby, she could see or hear nothing of her other children” (Hersey 10, 11). He uses an example of children in danger because they are usually perceived as vulnerable, which helps Hersey make his point. Consequently, the reader undergoes feelings of sorrow because those who are attacked are not capable of defending themselves. Hersey is able to easily prove his case by illustrating the suffering of the most vulnerable of victims.
Erica Howard is a 19-year-old African American female who dropped out of high school due to becoming pregnant with her first son, Eric. Erica’s boyfriend Jayce is supportive of her and the baby. Erica’s newborn is only 6 months old and she is surprised that she is pregnant again. She is now in her second trimester and has a lack of prenatal care. When she received her first ultrasound, at 14 weeks, she was concerned when she saw that the baby was almost fully developed. According to the doctor, she became pregnant only three months after her first delivery. When spoken with Erica she expressed that she was very ill with this pregnancy and the baby does not move at all. The doctor explained that the baby might be
This shocking, life changing, news had me at a stand still in my life I didn’t know what to do. Seeking advice from my family I turned to them and what I should do, most of them had told me I should take a break from college and settle into becoming a mom and pick school back up later on,“I didn’t want to leave. But it felt like that was maybe the reality of the situation.” Maybe taking a break from college was the best option, I hadn’t even decided on a major at this point in life, why did I think going to college and bring a life into the world was something I could
She was given her due date, July 17. Shortly after, she would feel the thump, thump of mine and my sisters ' kicks against her stomach, you could even see our hand and foot-prints extending out from her stomach. On the 22 of may, my mother was awoken in horror, surrounded in a puddle of blood. She was rushed to the hospital where she was told she had hemorrhaged, one of her children went into respiratory distress, and she had placental abruption which caused the hemorrhaging. An emergency C-section was needed immediately if she wanted my sister and me to live. They wheeled her in, and began the procedure. At 7:40 in the morning, my sister was taken from my mothers uterus, not breathing or eating; I followed two minutes later, perfectly healthy. A breathing tube was placed into my sister, pumping her small fragile lungs with essential oxygen, and later a feeding tube was placed. Because of our prematurity, we were extremely small. My sister, who my mother decided on naming Taylor, weighed four pounds two ounces, I was three pounds twelve ounces. We had to be incubated until was at a healthy weight for an infant, and until Taylor reached the breathing and feeding stage. We shared an incubator, I would scoot towards her. Doctors were not sure whether I did this to make sure she was okay, to protect her, to give her warmth, or because we were in the same position in the womb. They released us from the hospital a few weeks later
Sitting down was just about unbearable; wall to wall pregnant women, as far as the eye could see. "Was this what the doctor was going to tell me, that he made a mistake while doing my partial hysterectomy and now I was pregnant? No; that couldn't be it! It's been a year since I had surgery. So, what was so important that he couldn't tell over the phone? May be the endometriosis came back; yes, that was it, it had to be. Why wasn't my name being called?" It had been 20 minutes since I signed in. Waiting when uncertainty was on one side of the door and clear was on the other, waiting was the hardest thing to do.
The version of childbirth that we’re used to is propagated by television and movies. A woman, huge with child, is rushed to the hospital when her water breaks. She is ushered into a delivery room and her husband hovers helplessly as nurses hook her up to IVs and monitors. The woman writhes in pain and demands relief from the painful contractions. Narcotic drugs are administered through her IV to dull the pain, or an epidural is inserted into the woman’s spine so that she cannot feel anything below her waist. When the baby is ready to be born, the doctor arrives dressed in surgical garb. The husband, nurses and doctor become a cheerleading squad, urging the woman to, “Push!” Moments later, a pink, screaming newborn is lifted up for the world to see. Variations on this theme include the cesarean section, where the woman is wheeled to the operating room where her doctors remove the baby through an incision in her abdomen.
Pregnancy can be an exciting and sometimes frightening experience for many women. It was a snowy Sunday afternoon, and I was not feeling very well. I remember all week long, every morning I felt nauseated. I was craving odd foods, and foods I normally would not eat together. I was on the phone with my best friend explaining to her how I was feeling. She said “It sounds like you are pregnant.” That thought never even crossed my mind until that moment. Sure enough she was right, I was pregnant for the first time. I was excited to have a baby and never realized how many emotions or complications can take place during a pregnancy. Everybody that I knew that had babies, had such wonderful experiences. Unfortunately, this happy moment became such a monumental, emotional and stressful time in my life. During my pregnancy, I went through many emotional experiences from almost losing my child, to the uncertainty of a birth defect and early delivery.
It was August 25, 2006 and I just received the news that I was going to have a baby. At that moment so many thoughts ran through my mind. I was extremely nervous and terr...
A new year had just arrived. I can still picture January in my mind, the mood was sullen and dark, I could feel the cold reaching my bones, but now I know that was the best feeling I‘d ever had. I had only a few weeks left to start college, which had been my dream since I can remember. My dad had already paid for my tuition, I was so exited I had promised to do my best. Then, I realized there was an obstacle in my way. I knew I needed to make a decision on whether or not keeping my pregnancy, it sounds rough, but it was definitive. I did not want to miss school, so I was definitely not taking this to the last term. I just could not think of myself being prostrated in bed for so long, as an impediment to start school. Never, nothing would make me give up on my dreams, and that was another promise I had made to myself.
When I found out I was pregnant I could never have imagined how hard my life was going to be as a teen mom. I remember my dad sitting me down and telling me he respected my decision to keep my daughter, but that I had no idea how hard I just made my life, I don’t think that in that moment I really realized what he meant, but I would soon find out. I was just starting my 11th grade year when my daughter was born so I still had two years of school left. I also had to work so I could take care of my daughter, so trying to do both seemed impossible, at one point my school wanted me to go to school during the day and at night so I could graduate. There was no way I could work and go to school during the day and at night. I had to think long and hard about what I needed to do, my daughter and I needed to be able to survive so I definitely needed my job, so I did
There were many days that passed when I felt as though I wasn’t going to make it and I felt as though I didn’t deserve to be alive, but who is really ready to take care of a child anyhow? I wasn’t. Then one day I woke up and realized that my life would go on, and that I just had to do the best I could and learn from my mistakes.
I had to mature quickly and learn how to take care of someone else besides myself. I am now a mother to four children. They have taught me how to have patience. This has become something I value very much. I have learned that in life you must wait for things. I now know that there was a reason why I had my son so early and wasn’t able to go to college upon graduating high school. I am so thankful that I had patience and waited for the right time to enter. It has been 14 years since I graduated high school, and I’m attending college and know exactly what I want to become. I had patience and took care of my babies at home before I decided to go to school. It hasn’t always been easy, but I’m so glad I
It was on a Friday morning at 4:30 A.M. that happiness and joy filled the hearts of both my parents. I was born on November 29, 1996 at Broward General Hospital in Fort Lauderdale Florida. My parents had five children, and among the five children that they had, I was the third (or middle) child from them. It started off as two boys, then I came along as the first girl, after it was another boy, then finally, another baby girl; so total was three boys and two girls. The way that my parents lived and treated each other was the same as if any other married couple that loved each other so much. They’ve gone through a lot to get to where they are now today, but they made it and along the way had us five children. They have been really strong with each other which made them only have the five of us and no other step children. My mom is a great cook and enjoy cooking for us; this is probably where my passion for culinary comes from. My dad is an amazing tailor, he is very good at making our clothes, and my passion for fashion probably came from him. My dad is also a teacher, one of the best math teacher I know, he is passionate about his job and his family is the center of his universe. I cannot finish this chapter without mentioning my grandmother, I was lucky enough to have ever met. I had spent part of my life time with her, like the rest of the family she is sweet, my grandmother Abelus,