By Quentin Gordon-Smith My story started June 8th, 2005 when the doctors told my mother I had a 50/50 chance of living. I was born with my intestines outside of my stomach which led to multiple surgeries. I was a premature baby, I was born two months early and I had to stay in the hospital for a couple months before my mother could take me home. I am a miracle child. I am a fighter. That’s the biggest challenge life threw at me was death so whenever I face adversity I laugh because there isn’t anything I can’t get through. No matter how many times I fall I'll always get back up. When a challenge occurs in my life I look at my scars, it motivates me. My scars remind me of what I've been through and that a challenge I face in life is nothing. Another challenge I overcame was school during the pandemic. Covid changed a lot, everyone had to quarantine at home. School was now online, we used zoom for classes. After time I started to struggle with school. My grades were dropping, I couldn’t focus, I couldn’t learn. It was very stressful for me. I began to break down. I stopped going to online classes because I couldn’t learn that way. When covid died down, schools created hybrid learning. Hybrid learning was an opportunity for kids to come back into school. It helped me a lot, I was finally in person with teachers to help me. I brought my grades back up and started to understand my classes. One challenge that I’m facing right now is being a big brother. My little brother is 12 and he only has me and my mother to support him. My little brother lacks a father figure so I’m filling in. I try to be there for him as much as I can and do great things so he won’t get influenced by the negative things around him. It’s been very hard because we are not into the same things. I like sports, and he doesn’t. I connect with him by doing the things he likes, for example dancing. I can't dance but I do it with him for fun. Also art I can’t paint or draw but I do it for him, I’m even taking art class to try to get better. I’m just trying to be the best brother I can be. My future goal is to become an optometrist. Last year I took a class called vision care. Vision care teaches students how to make glasses. I was so interested in this class and eager to learn more about the eye. Then we started to actually do real hands-on work using different machines and learning the fundamentals of this field. I messed up a lot but nothing was stopping me from doing it right. I have been trialed and challenged through the face of adversity from every setback and loss, I have grown from the mistakes that were made to come out a better student in this field of work. Then I took everything I learned in class and made my first pair of glasses and at that moment I fell in love. I have continued to come back every year to learn the ins and outs of this career. This year we have the opportunity to learn through experience, taking care of patients as if we were professionals. My future life is going to be hard. I have a plan and goals to accomplish for my future. The work that I have invested into myself will set me up for success so when I am faced with adversity I will move past it, learning from every mistake that I make to become the best person that I know I can become. This is the power of my story.
3 Comments
Lynn Girven
1/3/2023 02:36:58 pm
Quentin - you will do this, and although Covid teaching and learning was a nightmare - - you overcame this
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Linda Dunsmoor
1/4/2023 11:49:11 am
Quentin, this was beautifully written. You are a bright young man.
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Dr. Shaun C Nelms
1/4/2023 04:48:45 pm
My girlfriend is an eye surgeon. If you ever want to shadow her, let me know. Great essay
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