Kymermosst's Journal: Constrained writing

See here for explanation.

I stared at the photograph... it had been so long ago when I had worked in the onion fields. I had been a child, helping my family earn a living. As a kid, I had the fun job - squashing the bugs and other parasites that damaged the crops. Dropping firecrackers in mole holes. It earned me a small allowance and I had fun doing it!

When I was twelve, the volcano near my family's home had become active. A few weeks later, it erupted catastrophically. Nobody thought it would do what it did... we had evacuated just in time. After the eruption, we learned that our family home and farm had been scrubbed off the Earth in a river of fiery ash. Over the land that was once providing our living was a thick layer of ash. It would be a long time before onions could be grown there again. In an instant, we had become refugees. My family ended up sleeping in the boiler room of a school that had quickly become an overcrowded Red Cross shelter. We were jam-packed into the tiny space with five other families. We stayed there waiting for the insurance paperwork to go through.

When we finally recieved the money, it proved to be too little. There was enough to pay off some debt and put the down payment on a house that was too small to hold a family of five. My mom was forced to go back to work, something she hadn't needed to do for a long time. My dad was no longer his own boss. My older brother... my older brother had become a boxer. He died in the ring a few years after dropping out of high school. My little sister made jewelry and crafts to sell at the Saturday Market. As for me, I got a job at a local fast food place as soon as I was old enough to be hired. It didn't provide a whole lot of money, but it provided some. A few months after my brother died, I turned 18. I signed up with the Air Force, thinking about the GI Bill and the promise of an education.

The Air Force had me repairing generators for four years. I fixed generators around the globe and only got shot at twice. And when I left... I took the GI money and went to college The hard work all of my life had taught me to stay focused. After graduating with a degree in Aerospace Engineering magna cum laude, I went back on active duty in the Air Force.

Ten years later, looking at the photograph of my parents standing proud in front of the onion farm we had lost so long ago, I can't help but think about how a life of hard work, some hardship, and lots of experience had led me to where I was now: Looking out the window I can see the part of the world where the old farm once was. NASA spacecraft have the best view.