Odyssey 5

On the phone, I listened as my cousin told us of what had happened. “There was blood everywhere, I didn’t know what to do!” she told me. I spoke to her as my dad and I darted from the car to the elevator with a big sign that read “UCLA Medical Hospital Emergency room” on the front.  At the ding of the elevator I was off. I wove my way through doctors and nurses, down halls that smelled of cleaning solution and tears.  I saw my cousin Jenna standing outside of room D225. Seeing her so panicked had my stomach doing summersaults. As I looked around, I caught a glimpse of my cousin behind the curtain.  There were tubes running down his throat and wires stuck all over him. They wouldn’t let us see him until they figured out the problem. We sat in the congested waiting room for close to five hours before his doctor appeared at the door. He informed us that my cousin had a serious ulcer, but he would be fine. The knots in my stomach became untied and unclenched my teeth for the first time since Jenna called me. I sat more comfortably, knowing that he would be okay.

Odyssey 4

Waiting an Eternity 

Sometimes when you have to wait for something that is really important to you, even if it is just for a short amount of time, it can seem like an eternity. The six hours that I sat in the car on the way to
Sacramento felt like six years to me. We were driving up to see my family, but we were also about to pick up our first puppy. Every few minutes in the car I would ask how many more miles we had to go and the response was always, “We aren’t close yet, go to sleep.” I sat and thought of possible names until I drifted off to sleep. When I woke up, I again asked how many miles we had left. “We’re here, Annie!” my sister shouted excitedly. “We’re getting our puppy!” I began to shake with excitement. A puppy to my sister and me meant not only did we have someone else to play with, we had someone to take care of. We finally were not always the ones who needed to be watched over.  It gave me a sense of maturity. I leaned forward in my chair as if to make us move faster. Our car seemed to be completely stopped while the cars next to us were speeding by. My stomach twisted and turned inside of me, and I wouldn’t have been surprised if I exploded with excitement, but the moment I saw my puppy trot out to the car, all of the waiting seemed worth it.

Odyssey 3

Midnight at Norms.

It was a typical Tyler-Anna sleepover; jumped about, destroyed my bed, baked, took a walk, and somehow ended up lying on my floor in a huge human knot. After dinner, we slipped in our pajamas and smothered our faces in our ritual avocado clay facial mask. As we were watching Love Actually and the scene where they are at the school play comes on, both Tyler and my stomachs began to growl. Both hungry, we wondered what food we could possibly get at midnight. We walked into my dad’s office where he was up working late. Startled by our green, cracking faces he yelped with fear before settling down. I went over to him and sat on one of his legs. “Hi Sir Raphe. I’m hungry,” Tyler told him, hopping on to his other leg. “Me too!” he replied. “I have an idea! Why don’t we go to Norms?” Amazed that my dad was willing to take us out at such a late hour, Tyler and I zipped into my room to wash off our faces and put some shoes on. We bundled up in our pajamas and the three of us were off. I had expected Norms to be close to empty, but pulling up I saw that almost every table was full. Tyler and I jumped out to get a table while my dad parked the “man van”. A portly woman greeted us with cherry red lipstick smeared on her four front teeth. “Hey there honey’s, let me show ya’ll to a table.” She led us to a booth in the back where my dad met us. We immediately ordered two hot chocolates and began to look over the menu. Between the three of us we ordered enough to satisfy fifteen hungry Marlborough Girls. As the food came, we laughed and my dad told us stories about him and his brothers when they were little. By the end of the meal, we were al so full we could hardly move. When we finally found the strength to get up, I practically had to drag Tyler to the car. We piled into the van and drove back home. This has become a tradition for us, though no night would be as special as the time we spent midnight at Norms.

Odyssey 2

There’s always going to be that one defining moment in every situation. That moment that makes you question your strength. Looking up at the short hill in front of me, I felt confident. My team and I had run this course before and I had been fine. As I lined up next to my friends in the same purple uniform, my heart raced. I was never nervous until I stepped up to that line. As the organizer of the meet told us the rules I imagined the path I would be running. “GO!” My feet hit the ground as rounded the first corner. I didn’t remember the first hill being so steep. Each step I took was absorbed by the soft sand. By the time I saw the sign for the one mile point, I felt like collapsing. In the distance I saw mom’s with signs cheering us on. I knew I couldn’t stop even though my heart felt like it was going to explode. Ten more steps. Just twenty more steps. I kept telling myself that I couldn’t stop. When I saw the finish line I felt more accomplished than ever. I hadn’t given up, and I finished my race.

Odyssey 1

Identity does not derive from a single thing in ones
life. It is a combination of what one has been through
in their life, and how you choose view the bad and
scary experiences. I think of my identity as what separates
me from everyone else. I speak my mind with little
filter. There is no way that could be in my genes. My
parents are nothing but filtered. I have created my
own identity. Often people are the way they are,
because they know where they want to go in life. I am
the way I am, because I have no idea where I am going.

I don’t let the feeling of embarrassment keep me from
acting the way I want.

People know me as the loud girl who will always win
the random game, and I pride myself on making people
smile.

I choose to take bad news as a way of getting
stronger.