Hope

I believe in hope. I can remember in the summer of 2003 when I was 14 years old, I was at my parents house and heard my home telephone ring at 3:00 in the morning. I immediately knew something was not right. This thought was justified when I heard my mother start to scream to my father. There was a boating accident and my brother was being life flighted to EMMC in Bangor, Maine. I did not know what kind of condition he was in or if I would ever see my brother again. In sheer panic my parents and I jumped in our vehicle and drove as fast as we could to drive to Bangor, which was a little over an hour’s drive. My family and I are very close and before that day I never even thought what I would do if something ever happened to any of them. During that hour drive to the hospital I realized that my family is the most import thing in my life and I was taking them for granted. When I finally arrived at the hospital I was informed that my brother had been admitted to ICU. He was already in an induced comma and the doctors told us if he came out of it he might never be the same. If he survived the crash which he would need corrective surgery for his face. He had indeed suffered from brain trauma. It was in that moment that hope became the most important thing in my life. By definition, hope is the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best. I was lost and didn’t know what to do except. I could not let hope get away from me. He was in ICU for 3 nights. The nurses let me stay in a break room to take naps because I never left the hospital those 3 days. The way the nurses made me feel like they cared about me and what was going to happen to my brother touched me deeply. My brother finally woke up and had a surgeon come in and put him back together. I never thought that something horrible could ever happen to my family but when it did I had to have hope. I don’t have anything unless I have hope. It was in those three nights that I knew I was going to become a nurse to help give other families hope in emergencies. Everyone needs to have hope in their lives and that is why I believe in hope.