A determination to overcome

A memory I will never forget happened when I was ten years old. One day, we received a call that informed us that my aunt’s husband had passed away in the hospital because of asthma. So, my family went to the hospital to join our extended family and go to the village to attend the funeral. I stayed home with my sixteen-year-old sister.  

Half an hour after they left, my breathing suddenly stopped. I started to run around the room and jump from couch to couch. I even rushed to the window and stuck half of my body outside just to catch any amount of air. My sister was very confused and scared because she saw the terrible situation. She tried to call someone to help us, but unfortunately, our landline was cut. She took the phonebook and went to our neighbor’s home to make a call. When she came back, I had lost consciousness.  

That night, I woke up because I heard a lot of noise around me. I was shy to open my eyes, and I thought I had fallen asleep in the living room while we had visitors. The bell rang, and I heard my doctor’s voice. He came and checked me. He asked what happened to me. They told him that another doctor had come and given me medicine. So, after he checked me, he found asthma symptoms. He got angry because the medicine the doctor gave me was not suitable fro my situation. It was a life and death situation, and they had to take me to the hospital. My cousin picked me up and took me to his car. It was raining hard, and the weather was very bad. When we arrived at the hospital, the doctors and nurses took me directly to the ICU room. They put an IV and oxygen tubes in my nose and mouth. I started to cry because I was scared and because of the pain from the IV. I stayed there for ten days. 

My whole life changed. The doctor stopped me from doing many things I love. For example, he prevented me from playing sports in general, especially soccer, because my family mentioned that I played soccer every day. That was very hard for me. After a couple of months, I started to play soccer again. Approximately one year after, I joined a soccer club without my family knowing.  

That disease started to disappear with time because I was practicing, playing, running all the time. Sports helped me. The symptoms started to subside. That disease gave me determination and persistence to fight and not to give up. It let me know that hard work is the best solution to any problem.