Adversity by Richard
Richard's entry into Varsity Tutor's April 2020 scholarship contest
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Adversity by Richard - April 2020 Scholarship Essay
It was only 9 years ago when I thought the inevitable was going to happen. I thought I was about to lose my mom. At the time I was only 7 years old when she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. When it first happened I really didn't understand what was about to happen. I just thought that she was going to get really sick then after a month or so get better.
As months started to pass I noticed that she was going to the hospital more often that she did when she first found out that she was sick. It didn’t bother me that she started losing weight and that we weren’t allowed to go in her bedroom as much as we used to; but it started bothering me and my sisters. I was only 7 and my oldest sister didn’t really know how to explain something like that to a 12,7 and 5 year old. Instead of breaking it to us that our mother might die she decided to start spending more time with us or play with us whenever we started to ask questions about our mom. Some people would call it a sacrifice to the last years in my childhood but I would just say that my sister took responsibility and wanted to do the right thing as are older siblings. This was a difficult time in my life because she ended up having to be admitted into the hospital; and that was devastating for me to watch and not completely understand why my mom was there and why I couldn’t stay with her.
She was in the hospital for about two months. While she was there I began to try and understand what my sisters were saying about her and why she was in there and what would happen if she didn’t get better. It was difficult for me as a child to understand something like that from my sisters. As time progressed my sister sort of took the role as a motherly figure spending most of my time comforting us. My mother started to get better her procedure and was able to come home. Me and my siblings were glad to see that she recovered well and she wasn’t sick anymore. Once she was able to get back into her normal routine I felt more relaxed and proud because I was able to say that I understand the role my sister and leadership showed me by being strong in that time of pain that our family was going through.