Hayley Tierney

Mrs. Godfrey
Honors Leadership Studies
09 October 2019
My Story

Sitting in the ambulance, the first thing that came to my mind was that we were going to

be late for dinner. It was mid to late October of Freshman year. I am on my way home from

school when I ask my brother to stop at the orthodontist so I could pick up my notorious elastics

that shackled my teeth for a year. It was only moments later that I had gotten out of the car that

rolled over three times on a side street off of the powerlines the surrounded my hometown. We

had crashed. At that time, the only thing I could recall was that there was glass in my tights. I

wondered “​Tide​ works on a lot of stains,” but I wasn’t sure what their thoughts on glass removal

was. In my attempts to shy away from details that are irrelevant to my point, I will say one thing:

dinner. A specific dinner that my family had planned with my grandfather, now deceased, but

who lived in Florida at the time and was passing through on his trip to Maine. All I could think

about in that moment was “I wonder if I still have to go?” or “Do you think I can explain all of

this over an appetizer?” At the moment, I was thinking of everyone other than myself.

Putting your mind into perspective has always been an extremely hard concept for me to

grasp. For clarification, when I say “putting your mind into perspective” I am referring to the

idea that people have a tendency to program their brains into thinking from a certain point of

view. We all have different perspectives that are specific to us and vary depending on our own

personal life experiences. Growing up, my mom always said to me “When you’re feeling down

or think your world is ending, remember that someone else always has it worse.” Although a bit

twisted to admit, there is actually something comforting about that statement. It’s not the idea
that your life is simply better than someone else's, there truly is no justification of comparing

your quality of life to someone else’s, but my mom explains it like this: we all face battles at

home, with our friends, with ourselves, and with even broader and more serious topics like

anxiety or depression. If we just take a moment to sit back when we feel our world is crumbling

or when we feel isolated and alone, if we take a moment to realize that so many other people in

the world face the same thing, or in some cases, even worse, we can close in on this idea of

peace at mind.

Looking back on this now, I realized that my “perspective” had immediately shifted from

a tragic accident to a small family gathering in a matter of seconds. I’d like to say that this is

because I was raised with the mindset that when things get bad, there is a worse. I could have

completely broken down in that moment and made my experience worse than it was, but in

reality, my brother and I walked away scratchless and alive. On average, there is around 3,000

deaths a day in the United States alone. My brother and I were just two of the lucky ones, two

extremely fortunate kids who stand here today: one who types the words in this paper. For the

most part, we all have a roof above our heads, food on our table, and a supportive community

(whether that community be at home, at school, or through something else). I don’t know

everyone in the room well enough to say that everyone has any of these for certain, but it is safe

to say that most of us have something to hold on to in that sense, something I hope you naturally

related to when I told you my story.

Allowing our perspective to change and alter depending on our experience creates a safe

space for us to learn and to develop. It is from this day that I have made it my goal in life to reset

my perspective, and to remember that when I feel like my world is crumbling, some people may
be looking at my life and seeing how fortunate I am. The perspective that I grew up with my mo

preaching about is not only something I choose to live by, but it is a constant reminder that

everyone is going through something, and that ​I​ am one of those lucky ones.