Yvette Juarez English 1-1A December 5th 2018 Cancer I was dying of cancer, and there was nothing I could do about it except fight the cancer and take the expensive treatments that only made me feel sicker than I already was. Before the cancer spread and before I had no idea that I even had Breast Cancer. I was soccer athlete, 5’11, long blonde hair. No one at my school liked me because they thought I was a rude person for not talking to anyone, but the truth was I was just an extremely shy girl. I didn’t let it bother, I was going to make my life into something bigger and better. Well, that was the plan at least... until I got diagnosed with cancer. I was going to the clinic for my physical and for the yearly check, I thought I was perfectly healthy. All of a sudden his face looked confused, “Ally how have you been feelings these last couple of weeks?” “Perfectly fine, why do you ask?” “I need to run some more tests is that ok with you Ally?” I distinctly remember the blood running from my arm and through the clear tubes. The two hours of waiting for the results felt like the longest time of my life, like it was never going to go away. The doctor finally came back into the room, he had a yellow manila in his hand, he sat down in his chair and looked blankly at me. “Ally I am so sorry, but this lump on the side of your right breast has come to my attention. There really is no way of knowing without a scan which is why I am going to be sending you to someone who specializes with Breast Cancer”. As he said “Breast Cancer” my heart sank to the bottom, I went numb, no emotions, the room began to feel as if it was spinning and I had zoned everyone out. My mom tapped on my shoulder and I just felt myself jump out of my seat. “Dr. Zielnski is the specialist I am going to be referring you to, he’s great at what he does. I promise you Ally.” On the car ride to the clinic it was completely silent, I was looking out the window as we moved passed the trees and colorful buildings. My mom had a blank face as well, you could tell she was trying to stay strong for me but on the inside she was falling apart. She reached over for my hand “I know it’s scary Ally, but I' m going to here every step of the way. You’re not alone.” I just looked over at her with my red puffy eyes as they began to tear up again, I just looked away I hated showing emotions to people. It has always just been my mom and I, my dad abandoned us when I was four months old, as her only daughter she was so over protective. Although it was annoying I know she felt she had to be because she loves me. My dad never gave an attempt for being in my life, so I hadn’t seen him in 16 years. “You ready?” my mom asked I said to myself “How could anyone ever be ready to be told if they have cancer” but instead I just got out of the car and slowly walked into the building. Students Choice Reflections Answer all questions with complete, grammatically correct sentences. Be specific and thoroughly address each question. 1. List one thing you’ve already learned from writing this paper that you have applied to other writing assignments. - Adding hooks to pull your readers in.
2. Identify a challenge you faced while writing this paper (this can be at any stage of the writing process). How did you overcome the challenge? What did you learn? - A challenge I had writing the story was knowing how to leave it on a cliffhanger without making it seem like I just didn’t want to finish it. I overcame this challenge by asking Ms.Lehmann how to do exactly that. I learned that as long as you finish the part of your story you focused on and now you’re ready to transition into the next part you can end it because you completed the part of the story you were focusing on.
3. What genre does this paper fit? How do you know? -Maybe under “tragedy” I know this because the girl in my story (Ally) was just going about her day and getting her yearly check when she receives the worst/biggest new anyone could receive and now she feels as if her life is about to crumble.
4. Given more time to work on this paper how would you improve it? -Maybe add more of a back story to Ally’s mom and her.
5. Why did you choose to include this paper? What do you want me to learn about you as a writer? - I chose to include this paper because this is a paper that I've written and that I am proud of. I’d like you to learn about me being a writer is that I can add emotions to a story easily.