Pieces of You

Pieces of You

The Topic: Defining Moment

Some people say there is one moment in their life that made them who they are today. Do you have a defining moment? Tell us about it.

It should be something profound, something that rocks your world to the very core of your existence. It should deal with love or someone that loves you. At least that's what we'd hope.

It should be a moment that you'll remember forever. Something that when you are old and sitting on a swing on your porch, recounting your life to your grandchildren or great-grandchildren, you'll remember more vividly than anything else.

Have I had one such moment?

Perhaps, but not in the warm fuzzy type way that I would have liked. The moment that changed my life was a day in January, Martin Luther King Day, actually 1996. I had just gotten over a bad case of the flu and our town was digging out of a blizzard. Classes started in about a week and I needed my books for the semester.

Still not up for the drive, my parents drove me to Washington, PA, where I was working as a file clerk for an attorney. I was there for no less than 2 hours when the call came. My mother had been life-flighted to Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh.

That is the moment that shaped my life. I was 20 years old and scared to death that I would lose my mother. I was on the threshold of life, and yet I've just about given it up, to stay close by.

Since that day, she's suffered several more heart attacks and has had a pacemaker now to keep her ticking properly.

That moment changed me. It made me realize that though opportunity was out there, it probably wasn't for me. Family comes first. That's one of the reasons I'm 30 and still at home. The others need not be mentioned.

Sure there were other choices that I could have made after that, but I didn't. I chose my life, and though it is nowhere near what I wanted it to be when I was a college student ready to tackle the world, I wouldn't have walked down another path.

That's my defining moment. I hope it's made me a better person. I know it's made me who I am.