“Memorable” (Mis)Adventures

It was the end of the school year; the time when students are antsy for summer to begin. I couldn't wait for the last day because four days later, I was headed to the great state of California on a roadtrip with my mother, grandma, and eight year old sister named Meredith. The night before our departure Meredith fell sick. She had a fever of 100.2 and was throwing up. My mother gave her tylonel and we waited out the night. Things were not looking up. We were relieved in the morning to find her fever had broken. We were back on schedule!

My grandpa gave us a blessing before we left. In it he said that we would have a safe and memorable trip. We left Altus, Ok at noon on saturday, 26 May 2012. We drove for half an hour before Meredith's fever and chills returned. We stopped at the nearest convienent store and bought her more children's tylonel. Her fever was off and on from there and we gave her tylonel every couple of hours. We stopped at the Homewood Suites in Albuquerqe, NM for the night.

The next morning our trip started again. Except for Merediths reoccuring fever, we had an uneventful ride. At about 6 o'clock we reached Strawberry, Az, where things took a turn for the worse. Meredith's fever was higher than ever and she was shaking so hard it seemed like she was having a seizure. Half an hour later we reached Mesa, Az and took her to the Cardon Childrens Medical Center. My grandma and I waited in the emergency waiting room. News finally came back that Meredith was being admitted into the hospital.

We were only supposed to be staying in Mesa for the night. While there, I was going to meet my biological father named Robert. I had not seen him since I was four but to me, that doesn't count. We didn't know how long we were going to be in the hospital and decided that we needed to still see him-though at this point it was close to midnight. My mom contacted him and explained the situation with Meredith. He came and picked my mom and I up at the hospital and we went out to eat at a 24 hour diner. Robert and my mom were excited to see each other again, but I felt no ties to him. Sixteen years is a long time to be without someone then have them suddenly re-enter your life.

We returned to the hospital and found out Meredith had to stay for three days. Once they had her on an IV, she became stable and she loved all the attention on her! The next day my mom and I went with Robert to meet his girlfriend. She was so nice and hospitible! After that, we drove to Apache Junction and met some more of Robert's-and mine, I guess-family. They were very nice and excited to meet me. Mom and I returned to the hospital and found out Meredith had a horrible kidney infection bordering on sepsis. She was released after three days of admittance and we continued our roadtrip to see family in California. Meredith has now finished her medicine and is healthy. And I have now met the other half of my family and maybe one day we will have a great relationship! It was definitely a memorable trip!

My dream is to study nuclear medicine and help save lives. After almost losing my little sister, I am especially grateful to those who went through extra schooling to help the public. It strengthened my want of becoming a doctor. With the help of this scholorship my dream can come true and innocent and unsuspecting lives can be saved!