Cooper 1 of 3

Kylie Cooper
Professor Echols
English Composition 1
29 October 2019
Paper 1
A New Way of Learning

“Come in the dining room” my mom shouted up the stairs in a worried tone.

I pad down the stairs of my two-story suburban home, only to come face to face with not

only my mom, but all my sisters and dad sitting at the table. I cautiously sit down, as it was only

around 3 o’clock in the afternoon. Way too early to be eating dinner. Once I took my seat my

mom and dad stand up, looking like they had some very important news to share.

My dad starts out with, “As you girls know, me and your mother don’t like keeping

things from you.”

My mom chimes in with, “This has been a very hard secret to keep from you four.... but

your grandma has cancer.”

Every noise in the room fades out as I try to retain those four words, “Your grandma has

cancer.” How could this be possible? Why does this have to happen to her? ...Why her? All those

questions swim around in my head I try my hardest to understand what my mom was saying.

I tune back into the conversation to hear my mom explain her cancer. She says, “She has

a stage four terminal breast cancer. The doctors don’t know how long she can survive with this,

they estimated 4 months to 3 years left of her life.” I slowly blink trying to get all of this. My
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mom continues with, “She has been responding well to the medication that the doctors have been

giving her, and if this continues, we hope in the future she will be declared cancer free.”

With that sentence I lose it. I slowly push myself away from the table and tumble out of

my chair. I walk back up to my bedroom, and collapse on my bed. This can’t be happening to

me. My grandmother is my world I thought to myself. She has taught me so many life lessons in

the past, that I would not give anything up for her knowledge and wisdom.

This has happened to me in the past. Losing someone to the battle of cancer. When I was

at the young age of 5, I lost my best friend, Skye, to leukemia. Entering into kindergarten with

that much pain, and sadness made me never want to repeat it again. I was so confused on why

she had left, and why I couldn’t go and play Wii games at the hospital with her anymore. I did

not understand the concept of death back then. All those memories come rushing back to me as I

hoped the worst does not happen in this situation. A week later I go to visit my grandmother and

talk to her about the news that I had previously received. She explained to me that although she

has cancer, that should not change the way I viewed her as a grandmother. She said that she was

still always going to be there for me, and she would love to still have daily chats with me.

Like my grandma, I shared a great passion of reading. I would read anything you gave

me, and did not complain at all. Over the years she introduced me to so many new books and

genres, that helped open up my mind to reading. I explored many different titles, only adding to

my list of books that I loved. I found reading to be a coping mechanism for me after Skye had

passed. It helped me get through the tough times, and cope with any pain and sadness that I

experienced. I used reading as a crutch in life to escape ordinary life, and tried to picture or make

up a new reality. I felt myself falling back into those habits after learning that my grandma had
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cancer. I would not really talk to many people, and I would just sit there and read for hours on

end. I found this to be a problem, and I wanted to get rid of it.

I started talking to my grandma nearly every single day, whether it was a deep and

meaningful conversation, to a ‘hey lovely weather we are having today’. She inspired me to take

my reading habits and change them to positive habits. She pushed me to start writing a bit,

thinking that it would be a way to vent how I was feeling, and be a great positive way to use my

creative mind. Not only did this reflect in my attitude, but my school work too. I was already a

pretty good student getting all A's, but these conversations and journaling helped improve my

writing and reading skills.

To this day my grandmother has had cancer for a year and a half, and is still receiving

treatment. I still visit her as often as I can, and soak up all the knowledge and life lessons that she

can give me. You may not think that tragedies can teach you a lesson, but in this instance it did. I

have lived the life of going by facts and knowledge that I already know. Now I try to live day by

day, preparing for tomorrow, and not dwelling on the past.