Austin Yaeger
Mrs. Wiederich
English 2
11 April 2018
My Grandpa
During our class, we’ve been discussing adversity. We’ve seen adversity through novels that we read. From the book I read called, The curious incident of the dog in the nighttime, I saw how the main character had a couple adversities. I saw how he had to deal with autism and many family problems. I noticed how the main character didn’t let those adversities hold him back from what he wanted to do. In my life, I also have a couple of adversities, but not anything major compared to what Christopher had to deal with.
In my life, I have faced adversities and so has everyone else. My adversity is that I’ve never had the “Grandpa” experience. Before I was born, my grandpa on my mom’s side past away. Although my grandpa on my dads side is still alive, (as far as I know), I’ve never met him. From what I’ve heard, he isn’t a good man at all. He would abuse my dad and his brothers and sister. He would yell at people because of his temper. One of the many stories my dad has about him is that he was watching TV, when all of a sudden a newborn kitten walked in front of him. He decided to take his anger out on the kitten so he kicked the kitten across the room and broke its neck. All in all, he wasn’t the ideal person to be around. On the other hand, my grandpa on my mom’s side was the complete opposite.
He was a God fearing man who cared for his family. He had a love for music that wasn’t comparable. He played the accordion for others in his band and owned his own music store. At the store, him and his wife, my grandma, would give lessons. He would give accordion lessons and my grandma would teach people how to play piano. My grandpa would always make people smile and laugh whenever he could.
Unfortunately, he died before I was born. He died in late nineteen ninety nine, just a couple months before my sister was born. Everyone that knew him was touched by him and his love for music. My mom says that “You couldn’t go anywhere without Dad seeing someone he knew.”
In my life, this adversity doesn’t directly effect me. Sure it’s sad he died, but I can’t spend my life being sad. I’ve learned to get over the fact that I’m never going to see him until I go to heaven, so I’ve changed my mindset from being sad he’s gone, to being excited to finally get to meet him one day. Now I’ve never had the “Grandpa experience” either. Some people have a different idea of what that is, but my idea of it is having your grandpa teach you helpful tips or do fun activities outdoors with him. I don’t think my grandpa was ever the outdoorsman, but I could’ve learned a lot about music from him. Today, I play the trumpet in my high school band. I kind of enjoy playing it and push myself to hit higher notes and play at different paces.
What I’ve learned from this adversity is to not live life with a bad attitude. Don’t think about the downs you’ve had but rather focus on the future and what will come next. I’ve learned to overcome adversities by not thinking negatively about them. Even though it may be hard to overcome, try your best. I also learned to be confident in yourself. Don’t think of yourself with a bad mindset and don’t let other people push you around, but instead, stand up to them. Trust in yourself, but more importantly, put all your trust in God.
God has a plan for all of us and knows what each and every one of us deal with and will deal with later on in our lives. We can’t live our lives with our heads down. We all have a purpose and a calling to do. God calls every single one of his people to go out and preach the word to others who choose not to believe or just don’t know at all. When we focus on our adversities too much, we tend to stray further and further away from the goal that God set for us.

Author’s Note-
This text is in the final draft form. I don’t know what else to add or if I should delete anything. I kinda like the part when I talk about my two grandpas because it shows the adversity just that much more. I need help with most of this piece and how to make certain parts of it better; like run on sentences or things like that. I also want feedback on if I have short and choppy sentences, because I’m not sure if I have them.