My Defining Moment

Life has its obvious defining moments: graduation, fighting illness, experiencing success, bouncing back from failure. But what is it exactly that defines us? Some say it’s our actions. Or perhaps our intentions? Is it our thoughts, our attitude, or maybe just our day-to-day outlook on life? I believe that what defines us are those solitary moments in our lives that often go unnoticed by others. These are the moments that make us who we are. I had the pleasure of experiencing such a moment eleven years ago.
It was a morbid day. The sun was scorching and the air was sultry. My grandmother, clutching her walking stick in one hand and my arm in the other, led me through the bustling city streets of Nairobi where we had come buy seeds that she

I could no longer feel her rough but loving hands clutching onto mine. It took me some time to comprehend the fact that I was lost. Looking around everything seemed unfamiliar. I tried to retrace my steps to where we had begun walking but it was all an effort in futility. I started to panic. Instead of breaking down to tears, I started walking into every building that I thought my grandmother could be in but I still wasn’t able to find her.
I must have walked into more than twenty buildings searching for my grandmother but no one seemed concerned with my plight. Everyone just said they hadn’t seen her and continued with their own business. Luckily a man saw how worried I was and decided to help me. He told me he was a physics professor at a local university and since he had a lecture to deliver at the time, took me with him to his class and told me to wait. He was the only person who had shown genuine interest in helping me so I trusted him.
As I sat there and listened to his lecture. All he was saying seemed very unfamiliar to me. But he was explaining it in a way that seemed very interesting. Everybody seemed to be paying attention. His words sounded like music to my ears. They somehow strangely seemed to be in sync with my mind. For a moment I actually forgot that I was