Personal Narrative
Annette Cavender
RWS 305
Word Count: 1326
At the age of twenty-one, I thought I knew it all. I thought I had life figured out. Because I had fought through and overcome a good amount of obstacles throughout my life thus far, I felt as though I had a good sense of what the world was about. I couldn’t have been more wrong. My life changed forever on a random, seemingly normal afternoon. My secure sense of how things were, and how I expected things to continue, was shattered. All it took was one moment; in one instant, everything changed. Dr. Judith Rich refers to this as a “Sputnik moment.’ She defines a sputnik moment as, “events that jar our sense of reality.” These moments can be large or small, and they change the way one feels about reality. My sputnik moment changed my sense of purpose and understanding of life. On August 3. 2012, shortly before I turned 22, my mother suffered from a severe subarachnoid hemorrhage (also referred to as a brain aneurysm).The day that changed my life forever was not dissimilar from any other normal day. I arrived at work and took to my duties when I received a composed, un-alarming call from my brother. He informed me he called an ambulance to have our mother transported to the ER because she was acting, “super weird.” He told me not to worry, it didn’t seem serious. My mother and I have such a special, close relationship so of course I was still worried. I could tell that he could hear the concern in my voice. He assured me not to be worried, that although the situation sounded dramatic, it didn’t seem as though she was in any danger. He suggested she was probably simply dehydrated or malnourished. Being that the ER was less than five minutes from my work, I figured I’d meet her there, just to be safe. The scene I was met with will forever be burned in my memory. As I walked through the doors of the ER, my father approached me very hesitantly, muttering under his breath in his native language. It was not often his
RWS 305
Word Count: 1326
At the age of twenty-one, I thought I knew it all. I thought I had life figured out. Because I had fought through and overcome a good amount of obstacles throughout my life thus far, I felt as though I had a good sense of what the world was about. I couldn’t have been more wrong. My life changed forever on a random, seemingly normal afternoon. My secure sense of how things were, and how I expected things to continue, was shattered. All it took was one moment; in one instant, everything changed. Dr. Judith Rich refers to this as a “Sputnik moment.’ She defines a sputnik moment as, “events that jar our sense of reality.” These moments can be large or small, and they change the way one feels about reality. My sputnik moment changed my sense of purpose and understanding of life. On August 3. 2012, shortly before I turned 22, my mother suffered from a severe subarachnoid hemorrhage (also referred to as a brain aneurysm).The day that changed my life forever was not dissimilar from any other normal day. I arrived at work and took to my duties when I received a composed, un-alarming call from my brother. He informed me he called an ambulance to have our mother transported to the ER because she was acting, “super weird.” He told me not to worry, it didn’t seem serious. My mother and I have such a special, close relationship so of course I was still worried. I could tell that he could hear the concern in my voice. He assured me not to be worried, that although the situation sounded dramatic, it didn’t seem as though she was in any danger. He suggested she was probably simply dehydrated or malnourished. Being that the ER was less than five minutes from my work, I figured I’d meet her there, just to be safe. The scene I was met with will forever be burned in my memory. As I walked through the doors of the ER, my father approached me very hesitantly, muttering under his breath in his native language. It was not often his