This I Believe
3rd Place "This I Believe" Essay
by Kenny Fritz Jr.
Screams of fear are close; emotions run through my head as I rush to the living room. Fear is a common feeling, but the screams I am chasing may lead me into a familiar nightmare. This nightmare becomes reality as I witness my father beating my mother bloody. My brother, sister, and I have the disgusting scent of alcohol running through our nostrils, begging our father to stop hurting our mother. Regardless of our pleading, my father continues the beating and charges out of the house on the prowl for an uneasy way to relieve his non-existent pain. We tend to our mother by stitching her wounds and easing her pain. With our present poverty we cannot afford a trip to the doctor, let alone walk to a hospital in the middle of the night. As a 7-year-old child, I’m used to the conditions of my life, but they are a nightmare for other children. Looking into the eyes of my mother, I feel pity, sorrow, anger, and God’s hand on my shoulder telling me everything will be okay.
This is one of the many horror stories my mother has shared with me, her son, to this day. She always makes sure I know what not to do and what not to be in life, as she always has. As a baby, she has raised me into the young man that I am today: a believer in God, good morals, happiness, and the values of family. Her love and compassion have surrounded me with safety and the feeling of existence; my mother will do anything to protect me, anything to keep me from living the life she once had. Whether it is new clothes, shoes, a car, or our home, my mother always makes sure I come before her, making sure I have better than what she did. I feel ashamed to ask my mother for something because the sacrifices she has made in her life are endless, some that I couldn’t imagine. My mother never wants me to feel ashamed or to think of the nightmares she has gone through; she is happy to help me in any way.
The love she gives me, the knowledge she teaches me, and the way she raised me will never be taken for granted. For a human being to live how she once has and to grow into the person she has become today is a blessing to everyone she comes into contact with. Her smile will make anyone happy, turning their horrible day into a new, enjoyable one. My mother’s beautiful face isn’t a mask that hides her horrific past; it is a face that shows her blessed spirit and how the events of her life have made her into the angel she is today. I thank God daily for my mother’s life, love, knowledge, and the blessing of being her son. I believe in my mom, and without her, I would be forever lost.
Fritz is a graduate of Brown Deer High School in Brown Deer, Wis.