I Am Trying to Be Responsible

Topic: Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you, and describe that influence.

My little cousin is shouting and whining during our walk home from school. I am trying to be responsible as I tell him that he has homework to finish and tests to study for, but he will not listen. “Take me to KFC! I’m hungry and I want to play in the Kid Zone!” I would like to take him to have fun, but I know it is not the right time. I only let him see my calm, unwavering expression as I repeat to him that he has work to do. Suddenly, he bursts into tears and begins screaming that I do not love him, and he runs away from me. I stand for a moment in shock of the abrupt shift. He is just like me. I start to chase after him.

After my parents divorced, I was sent to boarding school. Even during visits back home my parents would hardly have any time to spend with me. When my aunt stepped forward to care for me I could only see her presence as my parents’ absence. She cooked for me, helped me with my schoolwork, washed my clothes, and in return I threw tantrums and made her the target of all my frustrations. When my aunt offered to attend a parent-teacher conference, after my parents said they could not make it, I completely lost control. I insulted her and ridiculed the idea that she could ever replace my parents.

With age I began to understand the complications I was part of and I began to recognize the love I was fortunate to receive. But, it was not until my aunt fell ill did I at once feel the years of devotion she had given me. Though I was never told how severe the illness was, I could tell by the worry on my family’s faces that I was going to lose my aunt. The medicine she received through daily injections gave her bruises and lumps that covered her arms; the side affects made her thin and frail. Only through my own private research was I able to identify her illness as Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension. Though