Shelley’s story illustrates how an early event that affected a family member set Shelley on her career path:
Everyone has a childhood memory that influences the choices that they make and alters the path that they take in life. This is my story that influenced my life decisions.
I can still remember August of 1995; it was my favorite time of the year because all the neighborhood children would gather at the pool and go swimming. I was swimming underwater watching all the kids play, but my sister is the person who stood out to me. I can still picture the sparkle of her tears rolling down her face while she sat on the pool steps watching all the other kids have fun. I just remember thinking how could someone be so mean and irresponsible. The devastation happened three months earlier.
In May, my mom decided to take my sister and me to a new lake the city just built. My sister went swimming that day. Afterwards she started feeling sick. The next day at school my sister was playing the telephone game at school, and one of the kids whispered in her ear the word, but my sister couldn’t hear her, so she whispered again, and she still couldn’t hear her. My sister realized that there was something wrong with her ears. After school my mom took my sister to the doctor’s office, and the doctor discovered that she had bacteria in her ears that was causing tumors. Over the next couple of months my sister had to get numerous operations on her ears, but the damage was too severe. After numerous operations my sister lost complete hearing in her left ear and partial hearing in her right ear.
Read the rest of Shelley’s story in the extended entry:
Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers, Quintessential Careers Press, ISBN-10: 1-934689-00-9. Find out the ways you can own the entire book.
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o this day my sister still cannot get her ears wet, because the tumors could grow back. She has had to live with difficulties that the hearing loss caused in school and in her personal life. Because of the lack of government regulation and laws, my sister lost her hearing. That memory has shaped my decisions for trying to become a lawyer, so that way I can fight for people’s rights and bring justice to people who cause harm to individuals. That experience has caused me to work harder in school so that way I can become an attorney. It gave me the determination, drive, strength, and passion to excel, so I do not disappoint future clients, my sister, or myself.
