This I Believe - By A.J. Poole
Landon School Speech 2019
Have you ever felt like the whole world is fighting against you? Have you ever accomplished something so significant and meaningful that it changes who you are for the rest of your life? If you don’t have an answer to this question, you are bound to have an event or a series of events that will change you and your beliefs forever.
For me it was not one quick and short event; it took roughly three years. I was a caretaker for my grandmother with Alzheimer’s disease.
I took on the role as a full-time caretaker when I was nine years old, and my brother Charlie was ten. Before my grandma moved in, she lived in Champaign, Illinois for all her life, where the University of Illinois is located; that is where my mom grew up too. Every break we had we would drive up and visit her and her little white Maltese dog named Precious. I remember her house as a happy and safe home.
Over the years of visits, my family had created a large group of friends that became like family. I always got excited when we’d visited Illinois because I knew I would see my grandma.
How Alzheimer's works are it deteriorates the brain over a long period causing memory loss and loss of other vital life abilities. When she was first diagnosed with the disease, my family hired a personal assistant that came to her house every day to take care of her. Soon after we found out that she wasn’t showing up and we were wasting our money, grandma got hurt because she was alone, so we decided she had to move in with us.
When she and Precious first moved in with us, I thought to myself that this was going to be the best thing ever, I had just brought Illinois to my house.
We moved Grandma into the guest bedroom with all the things you could have, mini fridge, computer, TV, and a lovely bed. A couple of months had gone by and things were going great. I ate dinner with Grandma, gave her medicine, fed her dog, doing my homework with her after school and talked to her all the time. Grandma was my best friend.
But suddenly things started to become strange quickly.
She began to grow very angry and had a short temper with my parents. Also, we had to cut up her food for her because she forgot how to use a knife.
Every week she forgot something new, each more important than the other. She began to forget who my mom and dad were, and sometimes she didn’t recognize my brother or even me. She relied on us to do her everyday needs. We had to feed her and help her use the bathroom. It even came to help her bathe.
Seeing Grandma change for the worse was miserable, and in her final weeks, it got to a point where she needed to be monitored 24/7. My family eventually had no choice but to put her in hospice care but only for the last 2 weeks of her life. Hospice is a place where you can put a chronically, terminally, or serious ill patient’s pain and symptoms will be eased, and their spiritual and emotional needs will be attended to. She passed away in June of 2015.
Now, you may think that I had this awful situation, and I'm not saying it wasn’t bad, but it was easy compared to what other kids are going through.
Sure, I couldn’t hang out with my friends sometimes when I had to deal with my grandma, but some kids provide care for their actual parents even when they are in high school where grades and attendance count.
There are even kids who are starving, not knowing when they are going to eat again.
After what I experienced, I have learned to take nothing for granted because no matter how bad I think I had it, someone out there always has it worse.
Still, I believe that tomorrow is always going to be better and I can never let anything get in the way of me and my goals. One of my biggest goals is to help other kids who are in a caregiving situation.
Remember that things will always get better if you strive to make them better.
Learn from your past. My past has taught me no matter how hard things are, there’s always a way to push through. I want other kids to know that.
Landon School Speech 2019
Have you ever felt like the whole world is fighting against you? Have you ever accomplished something so significant and meaningful that it changes who you are for the rest of your life? If you don’t have an answer to this question, you are bound to have an event or a series of events that will change you and your beliefs forever.
For me it was not one quick and short event; it took roughly three years. I was a caretaker for my grandmother with Alzheimer’s disease.
I took on the role as a full-time caretaker when I was nine years old, and my brother Charlie was ten. Before my grandma moved in, she lived in Champaign, Illinois for all her life, where the University of Illinois is located; that is where my mom grew up too. Every break we had we would drive up and visit her and her little white Maltese dog named Precious. I remember her house as a happy and safe home.
Over the years of visits, my family had created a large group of friends that became like family. I always got excited when we’d visited Illinois because I knew I would see my grandma.
How Alzheimer's works are it deteriorates the brain over a long period causing memory loss and loss of other vital life abilities. When she was first diagnosed with the disease, my family hired a personal assistant that came to her house every day to take care of her. Soon after we found out that she wasn’t showing up and we were wasting our money, grandma got hurt because she was alone, so we decided she had to move in with us.
When she and Precious first moved in with us, I thought to myself that this was going to be the best thing ever, I had just brought Illinois to my house.
We moved Grandma into the guest bedroom with all the things you could have, mini fridge, computer, TV, and a lovely bed. A couple of months had gone by and things were going great. I ate dinner with Grandma, gave her medicine, fed her dog, doing my homework with her after school and talked to her all the time. Grandma was my best friend.
But suddenly things started to become strange quickly.
She began to grow very angry and had a short temper with my parents. Also, we had to cut up her food for her because she forgot how to use a knife.
Every week she forgot something new, each more important than the other. She began to forget who my mom and dad were, and sometimes she didn’t recognize my brother or even me. She relied on us to do her everyday needs. We had to feed her and help her use the bathroom. It even came to help her bathe.
Seeing Grandma change for the worse was miserable, and in her final weeks, it got to a point where she needed to be monitored 24/7. My family eventually had no choice but to put her in hospice care but only for the last 2 weeks of her life. Hospice is a place where you can put a chronically, terminally, or serious ill patient’s pain and symptoms will be eased, and their spiritual and emotional needs will be attended to. She passed away in June of 2015.
Now, you may think that I had this awful situation, and I'm not saying it wasn’t bad, but it was easy compared to what other kids are going through.
Sure, I couldn’t hang out with my friends sometimes when I had to deal with my grandma, but some kids provide care for their actual parents even when they are in high school where grades and attendance count.
There are even kids who are starving, not knowing when they are going to eat again.
After what I experienced, I have learned to take nothing for granted because no matter how bad I think I had it, someone out there always has it worse.
Still, I believe that tomorrow is always going to be better and I can never let anything get in the way of me and my goals. One of my biggest goals is to help other kids who are in a caregiving situation.
Remember that things will always get better if you strive to make them better.
Learn from your past. My past has taught me no matter how hard things are, there’s always a way to push through. I want other kids to know that.