I walked to the top of the 3rd floor of my high school on the first day of my sophomore year and wondered how those few flights of stairs had made me so out of breath and why my heart was beating so fast. I just thought to myself that it must have been nervousness and excitement from looking at that cute boy sitting next to me in my new 1st hour. But still, I wondered why I had no problems running 2 miles, but four flights of stairs left me breathless. I continued my life as normal and thought nothing of this, not bothering to worry my mother over something so insignificant. I would rather tell her about how excited I was to see all my friends and every detail about my

Another month passed, and things went back to normal. I had no unusual health concerns and everything in my life seemed to be going great. Then one Tuesday night at my marching band practice I felt the pains again. I laid down on the football field, not worrying about the disgusting used athletic tape sitting on the turf right next to me. I knew something had to be seriously wrong with me when I realized that I was having a so-called asthma attack, and I had only been standing in one spot for over an hour. I hadn't done any real physical activity that entire night, yet was experiencing the same razor-sharp pain beating into my chest like a freshly sharpened knife. And my eyes were closed and once again drifting though what seemed like a new universe where all the stars had burned into abysses of nothing. This time when I woke up, my mom had already been called and she was so worried I could feel her tears dripping on me like a rain shower. It was then that I told her about my other similar experience.

The day of and weeks following my surgery were the most frightening time of my life. I learned to accommodate new ways into my lifestyle and new concepts into my brain. I also became more aware of things occurring abnormally in my body after learning that either of my two major attacks could have caused me to die. My mind and my soul began to appreciate life more and showed more respect for the opinion of my mother and of doctors. I still play my hardest at all my soccer games, and ev

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Approximate Word count = 1007
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)