My beeper goes off and I'm called to the school office. I'm told that I'm supposed to be taken to St. Louis in a helicopter as fast as possible. This was the day that would change my life forever and I didn't even know it. I was the only child in the Jr. High who wore a beeper - some kids thought it was weird and some thought I was lucky that I got to wear a one. I didn't think I was so lucky; the reason I had happened to be wearing this pager was that my mother was dying. My mom had a rare disease that attacked her lungs, much like cigarettes deteriorate your lungs, but a hundred times worse. This disease was called Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Diffisionsy. I had never known my mother to not be sick. The pager going off meant that my mother could have a chance to live long enough to see me grow up a little longer. For the next three years, my family went through hell and back again, and I'm about to tell you how that huge part of my life has made me who I am today.
             We arrived at St. Louis Barnes Hospital early that afternoon. When we got there they rushed my mom in for prepping. We got to say a short goodbye, not knowing if we would see her again. The surgery lasted eight hours - eight hours that we knew basically nothing. That whole eight hours lasted forever, and sleeping on waiting room couches didn't help much. After the long-awaited eight hours, we heard that she was in Intensive care and that we could relax a little now. Knowing that we got a hotel room and stayed the night. Life after that night went so fast from then on. In one single day I went form going to school with my friends to a helpless mom in a town I had never seen before, feeling all alone.
             The next day we got an apartment set up and school lined up so my sister and I wouldn't fall behind. My parents were all about keeping us in check with our education so we could grow up and make something of ourselves.
             Through out the next three years many great ...