Last week in class we read the Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. The book showed what’s it’s like to overcome adversity at anytime even when times are bad Jeannette Walls overcame her father’s alcoholism and her mother’s psychoness. The family was also going through a financial crisis so with the weight of everything on her she had to get over so much for her to be able to succeed in her later life. Jeanette was a very strong and determined person and she didn’t allow herself to use the homelessness or her father’s alcohol problems but more as opportunities.
She felt as if the hardships were making her who she was and it allowed her to become such a strong and humble person. I have had much adversity but this was the hardest for me. A couple years ago, I lost my best friend which ties in the sense of loss Jeannette may have felt when her parents let her down. Jeannette was not unhappy with her life but yet intrigued. She felt that all the events that was happening to her was all for a reason and she was never discouraged of anything. I was pretty young at the time so understanding it was pretty hard especially when they were always there for you.
My grandma was in her late 60’s and she was a pretty healthy woman. She had a bad smoking problem for many years at it started to take a toll on her later in her life. One night my grandma was getting ready to come to one of my tournament games and while getting dressed she fell and hit her head. This was when her life and mine changed. My grandma was now suffering from an aneurysm inside the brain and the only thing they could do was immediately perform surgery to stop the bleeding inside the brain. My parents told me that night that my grandma had an accident and that we were going to have to go to the hospital.
My grandma was in the hospital for months upon months receiving care at all times day and night. With her time there she received two brain surgeries to repair the aneurysm in her brain. It took away a lot of body function especially in her face. This was hard for me to look at because I had never see her in this state. The hardest part for me was not being able to talk to her or have any contact with her whatsoever. It was to the point where the surgery took away everything from her and she wasn’t even able to talk at all. Slowly her memory started to go and she didn’t even remember any of us not even her own kids.
She was in the hospital for months and then went to receive care 24/7 at a home. She started to recover and everything started coming back and she was now able to be taken outside in a wheelchair. She was finally released to go home to receive 24/7 care but this is where everything took a turn. She fell one day on the same side of her head that she had surgery on. This was the last straw for her and from that day forward everything went wrong. This accident has made me who I am today just like how her parents flaws made Jeanette who she was later in life.
All of the setbacks and all the ups and downs show to everyone that you can never give up even when it seems that everything is bad in life. My grandma fighting for that many months not being able to talk or remember really shows how strong and loving of a person she was. This is when I decided that I need to push through life even when you’re going through a rough time. She is the reason I have motivation to do anything because know to this day that she would keep fighting and fighting if she was still here. It has also giving me a positive outlook on life and that anything is possible even if life seems like it can’t get any better.
It is going on 4 years this summer and my life still feels really different without seeing her everyday but I do my best to keep going and having a positive outlook on life. Life goes on and I know that she does not want us to give up on anything because she fought that long because she wanted to be able to see her grandkids grow up and be successful. I feel as if a lot of the stuff I’ve wanted to give up on to this point from her passing and didn’t is because I do a lot of things for her because she always used to tell me she wanted to be the best for my own self and no one else.
The 4 years doesn’t seem like that long because every year we all go visit her grave and spend a while there. I have become a very sociable and happy person because the death of a loved one really makes you have a different perspective on life. It makes you not take anything for granted because one moment everything is fine and lovely and the next can be the complete opposite. I am a lot older and more mature at this stage of my life so I know how to handle adversity better than when I was younger because I understand more and have personal experiences to help relate to if adversity is hitting me hard.
Life has been good because I know that she will always be with me even though she’s not on the earth with me anymore. My grandma passing was really hard for everyone in my family and I feel as if I have done a good job moving forward and living life to the fullest. Hardships make us who we are and they show what people will be able to get up from them and make something great of themselves and not let it depict who that person becomes later in life. One time I saw a tiny Joshua tree sapling growing not too far from the old tree. I wanted to dig it up and replant it near our house.
I told Mom that I would protect it from the wind and water it every day so that it could grow nice and tall and straight. Mom frowned at me. “You’d be destroying what makes it special,” she said. “It’s the Joshua tree’s struggle that gives it its beauty. (Walls 38) I have never made this an excuse for anything. I could tell people this is why| don’t try or want to do anything but I don’t because I know that my grandma would never want. I feel that anyone going through the loss of a friend or family member should always think of the positive outlook instead of the negative.
Looking at the negative side of it can create all different kinds of problems for a person. If you look at the positive you can use that as motivation to do anything in life. Life can get hard but you can never let the hardships depict and destroy your life. You aren’t on this earth for a long time so you have to make the best of it. Adversity was something I have struggled with just like Jeannette did throughout her life. My grandma passing away has made me more mature and understanding on how the life works and that everything in life isn’t perfect and that everybody is going to have hardships.
Life keeps going and I have realized I have to live my life to the fullest because we don’t know how long we are on this earth. I have had adversity since my grandma passed and I am pretty good at handling it because when something so drastic happens in your life you know how to handle it later in life. This adversity has made me who I am to this day. Jeannette and I can relate in this aspect but I have never experienced other things that she did in her life. Jeannette can be a role model to many people because she truly knows what it is like when life is hard.