Resilience: A Fifth Grader's Journey

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“Lead The Way”
It was official, the first day of fifth grade was over, and it had been a great day. I was certain that nothing could ruin it. As my mother drove my siblings and I home we noticed an odd long black car in our driveway that was waiting for us, my mom told me and my siblings to go inside and start dinner. I ran inside to the window by the kitchen to see what was going on and I saw my mother crying, tears steadily dripping down her face, and her head on the shoulder of an Army Colonel. Two other soldiers stood to the side and waited while my mother was crying. The soldiers left a few minutes later. “Mome what is wrong why were there soldiers at our door?”, I said in a curious voice “Go start …show more content…

We packed our bags and started the drive to Dover, as I looked around the room I saw a picture of my uncle and I at my first baseball game kneeling on the ground after my first win. I thought back on our memories and it hit me that he was gone and I would never see my Uncle Todd ever again.
We arrived at Dover Air Force Base around eleven the next day and saw my Aunt, Todd's wife, and Kylie, my eight month old cousin. My grandparents and other aunts and uncles were also there. As the casket slid off the plane I noticed that his unit the 101st Airborne Rangers had put all of their patches on the casket. On the patch I noticed the words “Lead The Way” and that is when I realized my uncle died as a Leader, and a hero.
A month later my dad and I hung up the Gold Star banner on our window and it said “1st Lieutenant Todd Weaver 101st Airborne Rangers” and under that it said “Lead The Way”.

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