Stress. It’s like a persistent heat wave yearning to give me sunburn. In my case, it is not a façade but more or so a way I deal with it that allows me to handle my life in a productive manner. The pressure it invokes on me turns me into a neutron star, waiting to go supernova. My family’s like a single entity; if one of us feels something we all feel it. So before I begin, let’s start at the beginning which is actually fairly recent: the two weeks spanning from May the 2nd to the 13th, 2011.

The difficult times in our lives are the defining moments in which we really show how strong and ambitious we all are. A cliché sounding axiom but yet appropriate. For me the time period was during AP exams of my senior year. Not just because of the pressure that comes with sitting in a room for 3 hours taking one test that will determine how many thousands of dollars anybody could potentially save, but also the events that occurred while the tests unfolded.

My dad made a living in Austin as a jeweler and had to travel 3 ½ hours every weekend there and back. On May 4th, my father’s boss crudely and directly informed my father of the “reconstructions within the company” and that the boss had to let him go. My family’s financial situation was comparable to being stuck in a hole. The hole’s muddy and it’s raining so you could imagine the difficulty in an escape especially in this economy. I felt a dab, just a small dab; of insecurity because my family relies on my father as the main supporter and money has the ability to make way for a pleasant life. It will be alright because he always finds another job. Hopefully. It was a good thing I had an AP English exam the day afterwards.

May 7th was my brother’s birthday and my brother and I had just completed 3 rounds with some hot wings at Wingstop but we lost by KO. We departed and began the journey back home. My brother and I received a call informing us that my dad was in the hospital. What is so anxiously annoying about hospital calls is that they never give details concerning the situation; they just say somebody’s been hurt and that’s it. I sped through the streets as if I were a colorless ball skipping on the roulette wheel avoiding the black or red numbers except in this case I avoided the police. The fear and anxiety that goes with this type of situation is difficult to explain. Possible outcomes raced through my mind with the majority of them being negative while my hands dripped in sweat like a broken faucet that just won’t stop dripping in the a silver sink. The doctor informed us that he was going to be alright. A gamble was taken with my father’s life and luckily we won. A small victory but now we had to deal with the insurance company.

One day later on the 8th, my brother was let go from his job. Apparently there were “reconstructions” going on within companies all over Texas. Unfortunately we were one of the families that got screwed. My brother and I are extremely close so I felt everything he felt: ambition for a job and indignant towards the economy. I felt as if I had experienced every emotion possible within two weeks. It was a good thing I had an AP Government Exam the day afterwards then two more consecutively (per day) after that.

It is strange how certain events lead to such strong epiphanies, because everyday since then I always have one. I instantly learn a life lesson. Like yesterday I learned that material wealth is good but emotional wealth is better. The use of a million clichés could be used here however I’d prefer to call them universal truths. I will continue to push on in my life no matter what gets in my way, whether it is my dad’s need for a new kidney or my whole family’s current financial problem. New obstacles constantly try to cripple my progress in life and negativity always seems detrimental to optimism. But it doesn’t matter because in the end I’ll have my family and myself and no one or nothing can take that away. This is my senior year in high school and after this we will all continue on our lives in whatever fashion we please. We’ll stay in and study for a big mid-term exam or perhaps get completely wasted and can’t remember where our clothes went. It won’t matter because to me success isn’t measured in academics or money, its how content one is with his life. So even if I don’t make it as a Doctor in psychology or an application developer, I’ll always have myself and those I care about.