There were electrons, neutrons, and protons building
fortresses and warring around me. I was weeping because of the pain I felt from
watching them hurt each other. I was hallucinating due to a hundred and four
point one fever, but at the time, it seemed entirely real to me. My mother
decided it was time to take me to the Emergency Room, and for my sake, it was
the right decision. The war continued to pop in and out of my reality as I rode
to the Emergency Room just down the street from my home. It seemed to take an
eerily long time to drive there, but when I arrived they rushed me to a private
room where the doctors began testing me for various illnesses. The results came
back and the doctor said I was dying from dehydration due to vomiting from an
allergic reaction to antibiotics that were wrongfully prescribed to me and a
high fever from mononucleosis. He told my mother that if she would have let me
sleep through the night, I would have more than likely passed away in my sleep.
The doctor gave me fluids and I was on my way home, but my troubles were not
over yet.
I
stayed home from school for almost two and a half weeks and even after I
started back to school, I had to come home early because I was morbidly weak. For
the next year and a half, I was ill at least once a month, so I could hardly
participate in anything outside of school. I was extremely disheartened because
the thing I loved most about doing things outside of school was making people
feel loved and I was tired of not being able to communicate because of illness,
and I was running out of homework to do for my classes and wasting away
watching television.
I began searching for something that would
fulfill my need to interact with people and that is when I found video games. I
had always had a love for video games, but I decided to take my love to a new
level and venture into the world of online gaming. I ended up finding the video
game League of Legends. Within the first week, I had used my education of the
Spanish language to communicate with other players, I had made new friends
across the globe, and learned about various mentalities of people. I had always
been interested in the different ways people act and why and this game helped
me understand a lot of this and helped me become more empathetic to people of
all backgrounds. Every day that I was unable to go out of my home, I would get
online and talk with the people I had made friends with over Skype as we
played. At that point, I played the game to get to know others.
I made one particular friend that I
met and played the game with for hours at a time changed my life. This boy I
met had had a very difficult life. He explained every difficult detail to me in
confidence and I would listen to him for as long as he needed to talk. I always
tried my best to make him feel loved and to know that I would never judge him
for his past. He ventured on to join the military and we talk every chance we
can. He is what made me realize the importance of empathy and the importance of
giving people of all backgrounds a chance at friendship. Without him, I think I
would still be living a disheartened life.
Altogether, I cannot believe the
journey I went through. I never would have thought that I would be at this
point in my life today. It all started out with me being deathly ill and
progressing to a life with purpose. It all made me realize that I want to get a
college education to make a difference in society in any way I possibly can. If
I can make one person’s life better with everything I do for the rest of my
life, that would be worth everything to me.
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