by Codie Watson

Created on: February 27, 2009

I have sat here now for several days, trying to write a self reflection on my life. It's really a scary and disappointing feeling that I cannot do it. I feel like I'm lost and don't remember the life I have lived. Is it because I don't want to remember everything? Or is it because so many events have happened over the course of my life that I don't even know where to start? Here is my life story, or at least the most important parts to me, and what I still want to accomplish.

I was born October 5th, 1978, right here in Lufkin, Texas. I was the youngest of 3 kids, although later in life I would find out it was really 4 kids. There was a 14 year difference between my siblings and myself, so I was the baby, and very spoiled! We were always a very close family, who would celebrate anything just so we could all get together and visit. I reminisce quite often about going to church every Sunday, going to monster truck shows, going skating, going to splash town, and to rodeos. One of my most vivid memories is of my brother and sister taking me to the drive in theatre and watching Gremlins and E.T. out of the back of a pickup truck.

I recall my parents being such hard workers. My mom stayed at home with me and was a teacher's aide when I was in school. Dad is a Vietnam Veteran, although he talks about his experiences very little. Even though he worked constantly, it was still a struggle to pay the bills. He was a truck driver for several years, and I have memories of my mom and me going a lot of different places with him. Once, while traveling through California, they took me to Disney land. That was one of the best days of my life! I also remember daddy having to take a construction job and having to move a lot. We moved to Oregon, Virginia, Georgia, and Louisiana all in about a year's time. This was a difficult time for me because I missed my friends and family tremendously. I never gave my parents a hard time about it, though, because I knew they were doing what they had to do. Plus we got to visit really interesting places like Mount St. Helens, beautiful beaches in Georgia, New Orleans, and the Washington Monument.

Once we were back in our hometown, dad was doing construction work at a place called Winston Land and Cattle. A bull somehow got out of its fence and attacked my dad. It almost killed him. He had a broken back, broken ribs, and was really torn up. He has been disabled every since. This changed our lives dramatically. Dad could no longer work, and could

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