A New Birth

On August 27th 2004, I woke up in the early morning to hear my mother and father “yelling” at each other, because my mother was going into labor. I got nervous, but realized that I was a grown teenager and I should toughen up and help with anything my parents needed. I helped my mom get into the car and off we went towards Salem hospital in Salem Massachusetts.

I was thirteen and kind of anxious on how my mother was feeling and if my sister would be healthy. I sat in the waiting room pacing back and forth waiting for my beautiful baby sister to enter this beautiful world. My younger brother sat on a couch sleeping, while my older sister was filled with excitement and wanted nothing more but to see the beauty happen right in front of her eyes.

I was nervous on the way there, but also amazingly anxious to finally see my baby sister in all her glory. My mother was screaming in the background holding her stomach and all trying to relieve some of the pain she was experiencing. I tried to tune her out with a picture of the beauty that was going to happen, but my mother was as just too loud. I was thirteen and I figured all this screaming couldn’t b a good sign. No one was letting me know it was okay and that my mother was screaming because of pain. I then realized that birth is a very painful process and that every woman screams during birth. I began to cool down and not worry so much, but my sister was annoying me as she was so excited in the background, because she has already witnessed me being born years before. My mother became my hero that day, because she was dealing with it and not getting too crazy, she must have been used to it, because she had already went though this process three times before having my brother, sister, and me to show for it.

Finally, it was over and I saw my sister, Aaliyah Dineen Ortiz. She was beautiful and healthy. I loved her from first sight, and from that moment on it inspired me to be more of a man and more responsible in my life, because I had a new baby sister to protect and watch over for years. My mother is a hero, because she took it as if it was another day in the life of a new birth and I respect her for that.

Over the years, I became devoted to my sister and appreciated every moment I spent with her. To this day, I am still proud to her older brother and for me to be a guardian and a role model to her. The process of birth really brought a lot out of me and made me realize how precise life truly is and that we must protect those we love. The day of that beautiful birth, I realized how much I loved and respected my mother to go through with the process not once but four times, and to not complain about it once. She is tough and made me more mentally tough as well as more responsible for having to deal with my little sister. My life is now devoted on making the life of my mother and father as easy as possible.