text: As I lay on this floor bleeding out, I look back and wonder, why must it all end so suddenly? I had plans to go party with my friends tonight. Who is going to feed my dog? I should of asked out that cute girl at the gym.... Did I live my life to the fullest? I should have traveled more.... All these random thoughts vanish in my head just as quickly as they came. The truth is that I am currently dying and soon nothing will really matter. Its funny how life works, and entire sequence of events that seem to randomly come together and for what? For 3 damn bullets to end up in my chest? If it wasn’t for the agonizing pain I'm in right now I would be pissed, this is not how I pictured my life ending. Wow this is taking forever. I’m still waiting for my life to flash before my eyes, nothing is happening, I just feel cold. Well I guess I could go down memory lane myself, I just hope I have enough time to remember the important parts.... That’s right! I have a mother and a father... I don’t know why that just popped up since EVERYONE has one but I’m trying to recall my life from my earliest memories. We were a happy family once but sometime between my 2nd and 3rd birthday things went to shit. I don’t really know what happened and it doesn’t matter since this is my story and I’m the star!. Anyways things were bad where we lived, corruption was at its peak, gang violence prevented anyone from going outside after 6pm. I knew money was an issue even at that young age of 4 but I would never have imagined that it would drive my dad to leave our country in search of a better future. I didn’t even know what was happening when my dad said goodbye, I did not see him for 7 years. I try not to think about the time I was with my mother, every time I look back, it seems like a blur of abandonment, hunger, tears, pain and suffering at the hands of my many stepdads. She was young when she had me and even though I blame her age for what happened, I still resent her. Dad never forgot though, he would send money and try to be there for me as best he could from such distance. At the age of 11 he asked me if I wanted to go live with him. It was a no brainer. I applied for a visa and after an extremely long process, I got it. It seems like only yesterday I was a goofy looking kid from South America seeing a Burger King for the first time. I went from always being hungry to not being abled to finish my food. Life was good from that point on, I went to school, made many friends and had normal teenage years. It wasn’t until it was time to apply for college that I realized my peers had something I didn’t. You see, I had overstayed my visa therefor making me an illegal immigrant. Although my dad had applied for a green card two years before I got to this country there weren’t any signs that we would get one any time soon. I was one of the only seniors that did not have a plan after finishing high school. Life went on and on my 18th birthday, 2 months after I had already finished high school, my green card came on the mail. I should have been angry because it caused me to be left behind by my peers that had already went on to college, but I was just happy and grateful that the country that took me in when I was young considered me a legal resident. It was a euphoric sensation to finally feel like I belonged somewhere. That day I went to a recruiting station to join the U.S Air Force and try to give back to the country that had already given me so much. Until this very last moment I still think my life didn’t truly began until I joined the service. I honestly thought I would meet my end fighting for this nation because i love this country, I love its people and I loved the opportunities it was able to give a young immigrant kid from South America. The words: Land of the free, home of the brave keep popping into my mind. Who would of thought my trip to El Paso would end this way.