Maddy Pokorny

MNGT 5560-001
Significant People & Events
There are a lot of significant people in my life. I’m very lucky that I am able to say
that. One of the most influential people in my life is my sister. She is my best friend and
favorite person. No one makes me laugh as hard as she does and no one knows me
better than she does. It’s not nice to have someone in my life that I can be my complete,
authentic self around without any worries. While we are best friends now, it wasn’t
always that way. When we were younger we used to fight a lot. I think that was just
because of how young and immature we were. We are only seventeen months apart so
that created a lot of tension. However, now the small age gap between us only brings us
closer. We go through a lot of the same life events together like high school and college.
I’m so lucky to have her in my life. She has shaped me into a funnier, more confident
version of myself.
Another significant person in my life is my mom. She is the strongest person that
I know. I’m so lucky to have her as a role model. Her childhood was hard but she
always tells us she feels like it shaped how she chose to parent my sister and me. She
is kind and loving but can be strong and protective. My mom always made it clear that
we could go to her with anything and everything. That has made our relationship with
her so strong and unbreakable. She is my favorite person to go on long car rides with
and my favorite person to hug. My mom has influenced who I am as a person because
of how she raised me. She always emphasized independence and loving ourselves first.
One of the best pieces of wisdom she’s given me is the fact that I don’t need anyone
else to complete me. I complete myself.
A significant event that truly shaped who I am was getting knee surgery at twelve
years old. I have a condition called osteochondritis dissecans which means that a bone
is not getting blood flow. In my case, it was my right femur. I had my first surgery on my
knee at twelve, my second surgery at sixteen, and my most recent surgery at nineteen.
The last surgery was a full knee replacement with an organ donor part to replace part of
my right femur. My whole life I played competitive soccer and earned a scholarship to
play Division I soccer at the Villanova University my freshman year of high school. While
playing Division I soccer was my dream, my senior of high school I made the choice to
give back my scholarship and stop playing soccer. Because of my condition, I was
faced with the decision to either continue playing soccer but not be able to walk on my
own as an adult or give up soccer and remain healthy. I decided the latter. Soccer was
my first love and my everything for so long but this has been one of the greatest
decisions I have made in my life so far. It has led me to amazing friends, my boyfriend,
and Auburn University, a school I wouldn’t have even considered attending 10 years
ago. It was one of the most difficult decisions I have ever had to make but I am so glad I
made the choice that I did. I am now more grateful for the present moment.
Lastly, my family moving to Maryland last January has influenced my life. My
parents both grew up in Maryland but didn’t meet each other until college. They have
had many moves in their lives. My mom likes to refer to herself has a professional
mover. Before marrying my mom, my dad lived in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and
Maryland. After they got married they moved from Maryland to Rhode Island where my
sister and I were born. Then, we moved to California. After that we moved back to New
Jersey. I was barely four years old at that point. And after 18 years in New Jersey, we
made our move to Maryland in the town my dad grew up. From this move it has made
me appreciate family even more than I already did. When I go home from Auburn it is
just about the four of us being together. My cousins are also super close to us so we get
to go to their lacrosse games. This move has made me want to live in Maryland after
graduation.
 Heroes
One of my heroes is my dad. He is my hero for a variety of reasons. One of the
main reasons is how amazing he is as a dad to my sister and me. The qualities that
make him a hero include his charisma. He really captures any room he walks into. That
is one of the qualities I most admire about him. Additionally, he is confident and honest.
He’s always straight forward and delivers the truth even if it is hard to hear. He is also
protective and puts his family before everything. My mom, my sister, and I are his
highest priority. Overall the five primary characteristics I associate with my dad include
charismatic, confident, honest, protective, and selfless.
Another hero of mine is my mom. As I talked about in the previous prompt, she is
the strongest person that I know. Her qualities that make me view her as a hero include
loving, fearless, protective, selfless, and caring. She shows our family so much love and
is protective of all of us. Her and my dad share the heroic qualities of protectiveness
and selflessness.
My sister is also one of my heroes. This is because from the time she was little
she has always know who she is. She confidently knows herself so well. She is strong,
confident, loving, funny, and supportive. Evidently, she shares the heroic qualities of
lovingness and strength with my mom and the quality of confidence with my dad.
My fourth hero is my boyfriend, Jack. He has an aura of calm that I aspire to
have. His patience is unmatched and he approaches every situation with the utmost
kindness. His heroic qualities include confident, patient, strong, supportive, and caring.
Some of these qualities are shared with my heroes above.
My next hero is the co-host of my favorite podcast, The Morning Toast, Claudia
Oshry. She is outspoken and confident in who she is. She is funny and charismatic and
captures the room. I admire her confidence in her ability to make others laugh. The
qualities that make her one of my heroes include her charisma, confidence, sense of
humor, ability to entertain others, and intelligence.
In connection to Claudia, my last hero is her co-host and sister, Jackie Oshry. I
love their dynamic on the podcast. She is so intelligent and funny. She is less
outspoken than Claudia but this is what I admire about her because she is still able to
get her point across. The qualities I admire the most about her are her intelligence,
sense of humor, confidence, ability to laugh at herself, and love for her family.
Overall, my heroes share a lot of qualities. This makes sense because they are
all qualities that I highly admire. The qualities that my heroes share include: charisma,
confidence, strength, intelligence, sense of humor, selflessness, protectiveness, and
love. There are not many differing qualities. I would rate the heroic qualities as such:
1. Confident
2. Selfless
3. Loving
4. Fearless
5. Intelligent
6. Strong
7. Patient
8. Kind
9. Caring
10. Supportive