When I woke up on that early June morning during the summer of 3rd grade,I didn't realize my life could have changed forever. I woke up around 9:30 that day, like I did every day. I came downstairs and sat down next to my younger brother Russell at the snack counter. Mom poured milk into my Apple Jacks cereal. Russell turned on the T.V. and we watched Tom and Jerry. While Russell and I watched T.V., my Mom kissed my Dad goodbye not even realizing our lives were about to change dramatically. Mom then said “When you finish your cereal, go upstairs and wake your sister up.”

“Ok, I will.” I said back to Mom.

So I did, I ran up the stairs so fast. My siblings and I would always make a game out of who could make it up the stairs faster. When I got up the stairs I woke McKenzie up. It always takes McKenzie a long time to wake up in the morning so, I would  just lay there and talk to her for a little bit.

When we both finally got out of her bed we headed back down the stairs when...BOOM!! When I heard that noise I remembered going to see fireworks every year on the fourth of July with my family and friends. I remember thinking that the sound of a firework shooting off was the loudest noise that I had ever heard. I was definitely mistaken this noise was the loudest noise I had ever heard, that sound could have brought my whole house tumbling down it was so loud.

I remember thinking what happened? and whatever did happen was awful. I ran back up the stairs even faster than the time before when I went to wake McKenzie up. What I saw was unbelievable. There was no way that this was real, I kept repeating in my head “I’m dreaming, I’m dreaming, this is not real.” The smoke pouring out of my Mom and Dad’s room was as thick as concrete. I didn't know what to do. As I inched closer towards the room I could see small flames getting larger by the second. Our house was on fire.

The next thing I knew I felt someone pull me down the stairs. It was my Mom, she took me outside to the mailbox because that was the furthest point on our property from the house. I turned around and saw Mom running back into our burning house. My heart felt like it fell outside of my body. There goes my Mom, my super hero running back inside of our burning house with no one there to help her. All I could think was what if this was the last time I would ever see my Mom. I knew what I had to do.

I ran across the street to my aunt's house and said “My house is on fire call 9-1-1!!!!”. My aunt immediately started to cry, she ran to the phone scrambling to dial the numbers. The fire department took such a long time to get to my house. The ten to twenty minutes it took them to get to my house felt like an eternity knowing that my mom was inside of our burning house.

Mom tried to put the fire out herself running back and forth between the bathroom and her bedroom with buckets of water. Once the fire department finally arrived they ran inside, got my Mom out and proceeded to put the fire out . After it was all said and done the fire department discovered that some kids from my neighborhood shot off a homemade bottle rocket that lost control, and busted through my Mom and Dad’s bedroom window.

At the end of that day I realized that life is on its own agenda. I knew that I couldn't take the little moments, family, and friends for granted. In an instant it can all be taken away from me.To this day I have been apprective of all the things, people ,and opportunitys that come my way. Like when I started going to a new church I didn't realize how much you can love a specific group of people. I feel blessed every day for those people, and I couldn't imagine a life without them.