Advanced Essay Writing, Spring 2013

If there is any one moment in life that I could point to, any point in time when I could say “that was a turning point for me”, it would have to be the fight in in 9th grade. I was waiting for my bus ride home after an afternoon of tutoring children at my old middle school. There were a few kids hanging around in front of the school, playing, roughhousing and the likes. I was watching the bag of a friend of mine, who was playing with them, when I saw my bus approaching. When I called out to him to gather his stuff so I could leave, another kid mimicked me. Being the silly and easily aggravated fool I was back then, I told him off for it.

That’s when he called over several friends over and started beating on me.

The police was called eventually, but they were too late to be of any real help. The next day, word of the fight had already reached most of the students in my high school. I was already in a few key individuals’ bad graces, so the rumors that were circulated were not particularly positive. In the midst of all this, I lost all the friends that I had from the very same middle school – we entered high school together.

This was probably the lowest point in my life, even with all the mess that has happened before.

Earlier in this same year, 2009, President Obama announced a plan to withdraw a majority of troops from Iraq by the end of August. Just as a conflict wrecked the country of Iraq, with an outside force only leaving a mess behind afterwards, my life was turned upside down with a single struggle.

That evening I felt pain in my chest and a shortness of breath. I decided to sit down and relax, but it did not get any better, so was taken to a hospital. I was diagnosed with a spontaneous pneumothorax and went through two lung surgeries. The doctor said later if I waited for twenty more minutes before going to the ER, I could have died. Being here by myself (having no family whatsoever), I had a hard time to go through, and I want to share my experience.

That happened on February, 2011, when the protests in Egypt got more intense and led to Parliamentary re-elections. In 2011 it is claimed that Osama Bin Laden was killed. Radko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb general responsible for killing 8000 Muslims is found and arrested (though he hardly walks- thats how old he is). Same year: terrorist attack in Norway, 68 people killed by a gunman. Russia: the parliamentary elections are found to be fraudulent; hundreds and hundreds of people protest near Kremlin. New York: same sex marriage act is signed, Occupy Wall Street protests start.

I cant really correlate any events that happened in the States or in the world with what happened to me that year. It is hard, because all these events are different and they have nothing to do with my surgery. Maybe I can draw parallels with only one, Bin Ladens death. He had been searched for such a long time, but eventually was found and shot (though he tried to hide so hard). The same with me: sooner or later the collapse should have happened, simply because my lungs are my Achilles heel. It is good that the surgery happened now and not later, because it could have caused more complications; same with Bin Laden: he could have killed more people, but he was caught before he caused any more harm (in the reality I dont believe this person existed and was responsible for 9/11).

In my essay I want to share my personal experience of a non-American going through a major surgery in the US, will tell about a language barrier (I am sure even native English speaker has to Google some of the medical terms), will try to tell a story from my prism of view, at the same time showing those who live in the States all the pluses and minuses of the American healthcare or of just being an American; finally, I will touch upon reevaluation of life after such a major disaster in someones micro life. I am sure it will be very interesting.