A Person Who Has Influenced My Life
There is always a time in one’s life when a hero comes along. Someone who has inspired you can really help you learn what life is about.
I ____1____ it as if it was yesterday. I was fifteen years old that year. It was around eight o’clock one evening when my mother ____2____ a phone call from her brother-in-law, who told us my aunt was in hospital and that the doctor ____3____ them she would need an operation immediately. My family became very ____4____ about my aunt’s situation.
While my aunt was in the hospital with special ____5____, my cousin Mark, who is mentally disabled, spent time with my family. Mark was seventeen at the time, and had been born with severe mental disorders, which ____6____ a wide range of social and physical problems for him throughout everyday life. He never had any true friend ____7____ no one could relate to him. I must ____8____ that at the beginning I was filled with uncertainty as to how much of a ____9____ my cousin would bring on my family. Now looking back it saddens me to see the ____10____ I once showed.
Over the two weeks when Mark lived with my family, I probably ____11____ more about life and its meanings. Thinking back, I took ____12____ in daily life for granted, believing it would always be there. I never even thought about being able to do things like walking, brushing my teeth, or going to the bathroom on my own. Now I see how ____13____ I am to be able to do these things independently.
Mark was seventeen, but learned on a nine-year-old ____14____. Although his learning ability was slower than most, he could still learn. He explored ____15____ to do most of the things everyone else did. ____16____ he did pretty well and succeeded at almost everything he tried to do. He ____17____ his illness and showed an ambition to love life. To him, having a successful life means achieving goals on his own terms and at his own ____18____.
Mark is my hero, for his disability has forever ____19____ my viewpoint on life. It seems like a well-deserved life when you’re fifteen, and it is amazing how in a period of time your point of view can change so ____20____.