College Essay/Biographical Statement

His name was "Evan". I didn't know him all that well. We were both eleven years old and riding the school bus home at the end of the day. Suddenly he began to stare, his eyes glazing over and saliva curled at the edge of his mouth. I was witnessing someone have a seizure right in front of my eyes. It was the first time I had ever experienced something this serious in nature; someone's life was at risk. At that moment I noticed that everyone started to back away as if disgusted by the drool coming out of his mouth. I heard kids yelling for the bus driver's help, but she wouldn't do anything, or couldn't do anything for that matter. She just kept driving and said she couldn't help him at the moment.

Since the situation was new to me I didn't really know what to do. From the back of my mind I recalled hearing that you should stay with someone who was seizing and keep them from "swallowing their tongue". I helped him to lie down on his side and got one of the other kids to help by getting paper towels to wipe up the spittle. Mostly I just stayed with him until his mom met us on the side of the road. This would occur over and over again during the next 5 years. The response from the people around him would be the same… revulsion and disgust. Eventually, people wouldn't show their disgust as much, wouldn't squirm as much, they would just slide over in their seats and stare.

A few years had passed before the next time I would encounter a situation like the ones I had with "Evan". I was on line waiting to go on a ride at Disneyland in California. I was talking with "Amy", one of the girls on the trip from my school, when she abruptly changed topics, with random questions about what she was wearing and what day it was. Then her speech slowed and she just started speaking gibberish. The left side of her face became contorted, looking like her cheeks were cramping up. Her muscles contracted tighter than I had ever seen before. Suddenly she dropped and with