Grace Sohoel-Goldberg

My Story

She fluttered her little eyes open and the bright light overwhelmed her
vision. She squinted as the fuzzy orange walls came into perspective and the
cross stitch pattern of the bed skirt in front of her became clearer. She didnt
really remember why she was laying on the floor of her closet or why the
closet doors were crushed in behind her. She wiggled her toes but they felt
kinda funny. When she tried to sit up, a pain surged through her spine
triggering a spasm than ran into her legs. Little tears ran down her cheeks
and she struggled to stand up. She picked up her white mouse Webkinz and
her Elizabeth American Girl doll and stepped through the doorway of her
room into the open hallway. It really hurt to walk but she could just tell
mommy and then take some Advil to make the pain go away. But it was
really strange because she couldnt find mommy. She searched her moms
room and the bathroom to the left and her brother Alexs room to the right.
Weird! she thought. Maybe mommy went downstairs to work on the bills or
watch The Bachelor. She headed towards the stairs but with each step her
back hurt more. Hmmm thats weird, I wonder why the iron door stop is by
the stairs instead of in front of Alexs door? She looked down the stairs and
at the bottom step she noticed a hand. Mommy why are you laying down!
Get up silly! She limped down the stairs and found her mommys body
almost lifeless on the last step.

Grace Sohoel-Goldberg

Recalling this memory makes me short of breath. It took me 1 hour just

to write that intro paragraph. In total, I have recounted this story to only 5
friends (not including family), so I would appreciate it if those listening did
not treat this as todays gossip. But I stand in front of you today praying that
your hearts and minds are open to my story because this is the story of a
little girl with a bit of a dent in her childhood. This is the story of a little girl
with a brother who went insane, a mother who filled both parental positions
and a father who drank this little girls story into oblivion. This is a story
about a little girl who had to learn that God doesnt give you more than you
can handle. This is a story about a little girl who learned what doesnt kill
you makes you stronger. This is the story of a little girl, and that little girl
was 6 year old me.
The introduction paragraph was a narrative version of a real life event
that occurred when I was 6 years old. My brother had a mental break, beat
me up, broke my back and then proceeded to try to murder my mom. Luckily
she got away with only a short coma, slight blindness, head trauma, a spinal
cord injury, broken shoulder, ankle and neck. After this event I lived with my
grandparents for a while because my brother could not be admitted to a
mental hospital yet and my father was a raging, abusive alcoholic who was
not safe for me to stay with. You could say that I grew up pretty fast when I
was 6 years old but that might be an understatement. Its taken me a long
time to come to terms with what happened 11 years ago and it wasnt until

Grace Sohoel-Goldberg

just last year that I forgave my brother and my father for what they did to my
mom and I.
I bet none of you wouldve ever have guessed that this sort of thing
had ever happened to me. I dont act like the stereotypical rebel teen with
the black hair and the loud music who smokes pot to get away from their
problems. My past is my past and I am not what happened to me. But, I
didnt always think this way. When I was younger, I refused to speak to my
father or even associate with my brother. Im not saying that you should be a
big softie and let people push you around but you should forgive people and
move on, even if it hurts years later. There is nothing worse than being stuck
in a grudge because A. you will not move on past the traumatic experience.
B. The traumatic experience will only flood your thoughts ALL of the time. C.
You wont be very nice to people. And D. You wont be able to focus on your
future.
So after years of an open hatred towards my brother and father I came
to realize that these feelings would never make me vengeful, they would
only make me miserable. So, I choose to move on and allow this experience
to shape me as a human being who wants to treat others with compassion,
kindness and love. Ive come to realize that this experience only made me
resilient against the bumps that I hit in life. Ive taken this experience and
allowed it to help me grow my spiritual life. I may not have a perfect
family, but I do have my family in heaven and theyre more reliable than any

Grace Sohoel-Goldberg

person on Earth. If 6 year old me can overcome something like this, I know
that God will never give me more than I can handle even if what he gives me
seems absolutely insane at the time. Life is too short to hate people and to
hate God for the things that have gone wrong in your life. Its absolutely
fundamental that we take the struggles in our life, whether they be
minuscule or ginormous, and allow them to: make our beliefs stronger, make
our relationships more valuable, make our outlook more positive and make
ourselves more genuine. So this my story assignment is supposed to have
a specific message, but I think that my story has a lot of messages but most
importantly: dont let your past define you and remember that no matter
what, things WILL be okay.