Brianca Louis' family has gone through a lot and has pushed through life and its challenges beautifully. Her parents divorced when she was three, and she and her siblings moved in with her mom and her grandmother. A short two years after this, near thanksgiving, their house caught fire, and her mother had a heart attack. This was a major event in Brianca's life. It was a disaster, but her family made the best of it. They rented a little apartment and came together for thanksgiving, thankful that their family stayed alive and intact, and that her mother's heart problem was discovered and treated. As an act of hope and care, her Church sent their family to Disney World, where she had one of her favorite memories. In Jeykll Island, Brianca and her brother went to a ice cream shop and discovered "Cotton Candy ice cream." Ever since that day, whenever she has her special ice cream, she is reminded of her family, the bond they share, and the rough times they've been through. They moved back to their house the following summer but this event would forever effect and encourage Brianca.
Brianca's mother is a huge character in Brianca's life. She looks up to her. She wants to be a vision of her. This person to her is being the person people will come and talk to. She wants to be the person that people come toad say/think, "I need to go talk to her because I have something going on in my life and I know she can help me out, I know she can give me advice." She figured this out her second semester of sophomore year, and people started to come to her for advice, for comfort. She is becoming the person she always dreamed of being. She is impacted everyone around her in such a positive way.
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Meet Leda Catak, an amazing person who knows who she is and tries to better herself in every way possible. Her story starts on February 26, 2001, her birthdate and the day her grandfather died. This was an incredibly tough day for her mom, but she looked to the bright side and said, “God took someone away from me but he also gave me someone.” As Leda grew up, her family became a big part of her life. "They will stick with me and I'll stick with them throughout my life," said Leda. She realized this when her sister, Nadine, left for college at UGA. “It's weird to stay apart from her because, you played Barbie dolls with her, you went through a lot with her and you know that it’s not going to be the same, because she has a new life at a different place. A couple weeks ago I was on facetime with my sister at 11pm and she said, “I wish I was home,” my mom heard it and even though Athens is one hour and 30 min away from my house, she left to go pick her up and bring her back home.”
Leda feels her greatest weakness would be that she values and cares too much about other people. "I feel like whenever I care too much about someone and do not get it in return, it feels just like I’m worthless. Especially when its someone I really care about," said Leda. She has learned greatly from her weakness. She learned that "no one knows what you’re going through but you. You have a way of making yourself better, you have a way of making yourself worse. I’ve done a really good job being better, a better person, and caring too much is never going to come out the way you want.” Leda's Turkish blog and self-reflections help her through every obstacle she must pass. People now contact her and say things like “your writing what I feel," and this greatly impacts her as a person. It made her learn that she is "not the only one that’s feeling something in that moment.” A memory she told me of, also proves this very lesson that is so hard to grasp. “I have a friend and her mom battled cancer. She passed away with breast cancer because of a doctor’s mistake and I can never forget my friend crying so much and just balling. It just changed me so much because I know that if that ever happened to my mom, I would just be broken, you can’t know, you don’t know what it’s like until it happens" Control is something that Leda has put aside because she now knows that "you never know what’s going to happen.” Leda is all about being positive and sharing her "vibes." She wants to impact people in such a way, that at graduation they will point at her and say, ‘that is the girl that has like made a difference. "I try to do this by always being positive, I want to be the one positive out of the millions of negatives," said Leda as she explained how she wanted to be remembered. Her greatest hope is that other people know that they are not the only ones going through whatever they’re going through, that they grow out of fearing things that millions of other people are going through. “The most important thing is that they can’t rely on other people," said Leda. When asked to give a message to the world, she said, "Life goes on, everything depends on you.” “My story is me bettering myself, knowing my weaknesses, and acting upon them, and doing something about it, and just fixing myself as a whole person. I want to do this so I can help others and help them find themselves.” |
Madeline PowersI am a NC sophomore, with a passion for writing and photography. I plan to study at NYU and get a degree in journalism. I hope to one day become a travel journalist. Archives
March 2018
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