Language Arts - Life Changing Event (Turning Points) speech.
Event or events that have affected who you are today. I really can't say anything significant has happened to me yet. =/What was a life changing event in your teenage life?Why don't you write about how 911 has affected you? Or are you to yong to remember that?What was a life changing event in your teenage life?When my mom threw me out- aged 14.What was a life changing event in your teenage life?The greatest life-changing event for me was my junior year of high school. I had some horrible friends and a final situation tore me out of that group and into the group of a more loving friend group. That new group introduced me to the God who I had left behind and I have never been happier.What was a life changing event in your teenage life?My father went into an uncontrollable rage when I was 13. He picked me up by the scruff of my shirt and back of my pants - gave me my first really bad wedgie. If it would have ended there that would have been bad enough.
He carried me all the way to our bedroom and heaved me as hard as he could against the wall over my bed. After I dropped onto the bed, he went completely psychopathic and beat me with both his fists until they were so bloody that he had to stop because of the %26quot;pain in his fists.%26quot;
He took off his belt and continued beating me with the leather end. I was screaming so loadly for my mother to help and stop him that I did not understand what he was saying. Then he turned the belt around taking the leather end wrapped around his hand and began to beat me all along my back with the large buckle.
Finally, I stopped screaming because I was passing out and coming too from the pain and could not scream any more. I heard him say, %26quot;Stop your screaming and crying.%26quot; Ah, I noted that if I stop making sound that the beating would perhaps stop. So I stopped making any noise at all. I just lay there very still and I quietly forced myself to not cry in pain. He stopped beating me. I was bleeding over about 60% or more of my body. I missed 3 weeks of school just lying quietly in bed not saying a word, not crying, not complaining and even refusing to speak to my mother. I know for certain that he would have completed killing me because of his later behaviour. I almost died from that beating. To this day I still suffer from pain in several bones including vertebrae in my neck and back. I never forget the pain. That day is as clear in my mind as if it happened yesterday.
I swore that I would never cry again under any circumstances and that I would never speak with my father ever again. In fact, all I obsessed about for years was killing him in his sleep. Why did I not kill him? Because I was in the church choir, went to mass almost every day and I always got 100% in my RC religious studies. The Police or prison were not any deterrent. I never gave that a second thought. I knew that it was wrong to kill no matter the reason - even if I strongly believed that it was for my own self preservation. I did not even understand that concept at the time.
With respect to my promise never to cry again, it was 28 years later during therapy that I first cried again.
I was always the top student in my class. I was very ambitious and I desperately wanted to escape from that very dysfunctional family environment with 9 out of control boys; a manic-depressive, psychotic father; and, a submissive mother whom my father also phyically abused and who also abused us mentally and physically when our father was away. There was also mental, physical and sexual abuse from the two oldest brothers to some of the younger brothers. They attempted it on me at age 10, but I fought and screamed until they stopped. My choir boy's voice carried for more than a few blocks. They threatened to kill me in my sleep if I told my parents. This is just the tip of the iceberg of the dysfunction in my family. There is still denial and avoidance to this day.
Fifty-seven years ago there was no recourse to the Police, Child and Family Services, children's abuse hotlines, etc. There was only %26quot;Reform School.%26quot;
Just before I turned 16 I read a large ad from the Canadian Army in the newspaper which I read every day. The Army was recruiting 16 year old boys for an %26quot;Apprenticeship%26quot; program that was for a minimum of 5 years of service with an option to extend it to seven years. I very much wanted to become an Electronics Engineer. I called for an interview. They promised (orally) to send me to the Royal Military College in Kingston which was just a few miles from Vimy, the Royal Canadian School of Signals. They said that I could complete my grade eleven and twelve at Vimy during the two years of training and study as a radio technician. Then I would be ready for entrance to RMC, officer training and four years of study to become and Electrical Engineer. Of course nothing of the sort happened.
During the first year as a 'boy soldier' I was bullied and mentally and physically abused much worse than at home. After a year of this, my body had developed from a 109 pound weakling kid into a small shadow of a man. My best friend taught me how to fight back and how to protect myself from bullies. He taught me a lot more about self defence than the military. I used any and every available weapon and tool available to defend myself. I told each bully that if they ever even looked at me the wrong way that they had better be prepared to kill me because I was prepared to and would kill them first or later in their sleep if they ever touched me again.
I did have several fights - especially with my other best friend - the biggest man/boy in the whole school of over 2,000. I hit him with every thing I had in the solar plexus
. He went down like a ton of bricks, dislocated his shoulder and spent two weeks in the hospital. Every other fight I took the other person with a very fast and very hard punch to the center of the forehead, to the temple or to the Adam's apple part of the neck.
I never lost a fight from the age of 17 until last June 15, when the other much larger man suddenly grabbed me before I knew he was going to attack. Then he head butted me. I spent the rest of the day in the hospital. I have since tried my best to avoid every confrontation possible.
After leaving the army in 1959 I tried one year in partnership business with my eldest brother. All of the negative memories were repressed but I hated being around him and his deceptive and manipulative manner. He was also very rude, boorish and crude.
As for my father, after nearly 10 years of counselling and Psychological therapy, I finally started speaking to him in a meaningful manner when he was 72 - three years before he died of lung cancer. We had made our peace without discussing, resolving, healing or bringing closure to my wounds - physical, mental and spiritual. I just had to let it go for his sake. However, about 10 years ago I started to have %26quot;flash-backs%26quot; and I still suffer mental anguish from time to time. It is baggage that I just have to live with. For the most part I am a very happy man.
I decided to return to school to redo my grades 11 and 12 Matriculation for University entrance. Since I was in absolute poverty, I had no means to support myself and pay tuition, books and room and board. I worked during some evening and weekends as a cab driver and as a radio and TV technician for my brother. In the summer, I worked at hard general labour. I also took two years off from university to work up in Northern Manitoba with Manitoba Hydro on the new High Voltage AC line from Grand Rapid to nearby Winnipeg. The pay was more than twice the pay in the city.
I started back to school in February 1960 and I received my BSc. degree in Electrical Engineering - Electronics - Telecommunications in May of 1968.
I started with Manitoba Telecom Services in my dream job of research and design in the General Staff Engineering group of the Engineering Department. I stayed in Standards and R%26amp;D for 25 years in many positions of great interest and challenge. I progressed up into technical project management and finally into a middle management position just under a department head. The pay was incredible and beyond my wildest dreams.
I started working at 30 years of age, $12,000 in student loan debt, and I had to retire 25 years later at 55 because it was less expensive for me to retire than to continue working. I retired independently wealthy.
I had an awesome and wonderful career. I was always most happy at my place of work and while doing work - even at home.
I had a dream and passion to become and Engineer since I was 12. I realized my dreams through continual visualization, raw ambition and incredible determination.
Looking back, that near death beating from my own father was the pivotal point in my life and I somehow made something very positive and rewarding for myself. I will never say that I am grateful that it happened. I detested my father's behaviour and I hated him for decades because of what he did to me. And, I have never fully recovered despite over a decade and many addition months of professional counselling.
Sorry about the %26quot;tome%26quot; but this is what %26quot;I needed to say.%26quot;
How young are you? You are very fortunate that %26quot;I really can't say anything significant has happened to me yet. =/%26quot;
Regards, Phoenix: ****
****
%26quot;A phoenix is a mythical bird with beautiful gold and red plumage. At the end of its life-cycle the phoenix builds itself a nest of cinnamon twigs that it then ignites; both nest and bird burn fiercely and are reduced to ashes, from which a new, young phoenix arises. The new phoenix is destined to live, usually, as long as the old one. In some stories, the new phoenix embalms the ashes of the old phoenix in an egg made of myrrh and deposits it in the Egyptian city of Heliopolis (sun city in Greek). The bird was also said to regenerate when hurt or wounded by a foe, thus being almost immortal and invincible ?a symbol of fire and divinity.[1]%26quot; ****
I also use the %26quot;The phoenix from the Aberdeen Bestiary%26quot; picture as my own picture or Avatar in many of my other sites.
See Reference:
