A life could flash in the blink of an eye; any moment of the day, the unexpected could happen. On May 24, 2012, my life changed forever. May 24 began as a normal day for me. I was in school, my fourth period. I was a teacher's assistant for Mrs. Withers, she taught a freshman level course, Earth and Environmental Sciences. I was called out of class and told to go to the office; in this moment I had no idea why. My mind raced as I walked down the stairs. One of my friends stopped me asking if I was okay and hugged me. At that moment I was the most confused person in the school. As I walked into the office I saw my mother and sister were sitting and waiting for me. As I saw their worried faces, I too began to grow more and more nervous. They sat me down and told me my father had been involved in a terrible incident with an explosion at the stadium. The explosion burned over forty percent of his body, mainly his face, arms, legs, and other parts of the body not really covered by clothing. This battle that my father and our family had to endure showed me truly what kind of man my father was, and the time period left both good and bad memories. To this day, the songs "Who Let the Dogs Out," "We Are Young," and "God Bless the USA," remind me of this day. Although they don't seem to correlate at all to each other, all of them relate to me in some way. These songs showed me that music can truly help the healing process. Music can also define a moment in time and create a memory that will be carved into my memory for as long as I live.
Every summer prior to the explosion at the stadium my father was the Operations Manager at the local baseball stadium in Fayetteville. I worked there as well, in the concession stand. The team was called the SwampDogs, hence the first song: "Who Let the Dogs Out" by The Baha Men.