Anna woke up and looked at her clock. It was 3:36 a.m. She woke to a crackling noise coming from what sounded like something was beneath her. She lived in an old, rundown apartment complex on the corner of Broadway and East Street in Index, Washington. The crackling was not that of someone walking in the apartment below hers, or something being cooked. However, there was a smell. Not too strong, but strong enough for Anna to know the smell was smoke.
She anxiously woke her husband. “Andrew! Andrew!” He sat up, curious as to why she was shaking him.
“What?” He asked
“Do you smell that?” Anna asked.
“No, just go back to sleep” Andrew mumbled as he hunkered back under the covers.
Anna jumped out of bed and ran to the door. She hurried to unlock the door and stepped out onto the deck, then ran down the stairs to peak in the window of the apartment. She could not see through the dark curtains but could see the flickering red glow on the window shining up from under the curtain. She ran back up the stairs to get her son out. The first thing she did was run to the freezer, where they hid the little money they had. She didn’t bother to take the time to close the freezer door and ran down the short hallway to the back room of the apartment, where her son lay fast asleep. She gently picked him up, trying not to startle him. As she went by her bedroom she kicked on the wall, cracking it as it was thin, and yelled “Andrew, you need to get up!” This time, he spent no time rolling back under the covers. He hurried to pull some clothes on and ran out through the door behind her.
  By the time they were out, the glow was bright enough to be coming through the dark curtain of the first floor apartment. Anna set her son Joshua about 20 yards from the complex on the side of the street wrapped in his fire truck blanket holding his ragged stuffed chocolate lab. Anna sat and held her three year old as he dosed back off to sleep. Andrew ran back to the complex, banging on doors to warn people. The fire trucks could be heard coming from a distance off.
By now people were starting to file out of their apartments, and the fire had spread to more than half of the East Street wing. When the fire department arrived, flames could be seen coming out of the roof of complex. First out of the roof of Anna and Andrew’s apartment, then to the sides. Andrew held Anna, his arms wrapped tightly around her waist as she looked at the building and cried. Even though they didn’t have much, she know that the little they did have was gone. All of the sentimental things like Josh’s baby pictures, wedding pictures, the blanket that they brought Joshua home wrapped in, and the topper to their wedding cake. It’s the little things that mean the most.
Sitting in the coffee shop across the street, Anna and Andrew tried to come up with a game plan. They had $1,300 to their names. They could try to find a new place to live, or there was the option of going to live with Anna’s parents, Alf and June. They live around 15 minutes out of town. “That is our best option for now” Anna said. Even though she isn’t that close to them, given the situation, they would be more than willing to help out.
Anna was eighteen when she found out that she was pregnant. She was a senior in high school, and that caused troubles at home. At the time, Andrew was 20 and Anna’s parents did not approve of their relationship. Five months along in her pregnancy, and three months away from her graduation, she moved in with Andrew. After a summer without talking to her parents, she with to their house one Sunday afternoon with newborn Joshua. Their relationship is better not, but Anna’s dad still doesn’t like Andrew.
A month after the fire, Andrew was notified that he would be losing his job at the greenhouse he worked at. He worked in the landscaping department, where they would be taking their crew from eight to six. Andrew was one of the two laid off. Anna hadn’t worked since the summer after her junior year in high school and they relied solely on his 15 dollars an hour wage.
That night at dinner, Andrew brought up his job.
“Come two weeks from now, I’m going to be without a job.”
You could see the wheels churning in Anna’s head. What would they do now? Alf spoke up.
“I could help out.” Alf is a contractor. He had been designing houses, malls, and building complexes for almost 40 years.
“I’m almost 60, and soon I plan on retiring. I have saved enough money to be able to do what I want until I die. You could have the same opportunity, Andrew. You know the landscaping aspect of the job, I will just have to teach you the designing aspect”
Andrew had been designing floor plans and properties on paper since he was young. He had always had the interest, just never perused his dream. Now he had a chance to go after his dreams, how could he resist?
“What about your business? How could you build something so important to you, and ask me to take it over? What if I run it into the ground? What if…”
“You can’t worry about tomorrow. Just worry about today. Today, you can start learning how to run a business, and what it takes to be successful. I want the best for my daughter, and with my help, you can give her the best.”
The following day, Andrew went into the greenhouse and the first place he went was the manager. Going into the office, Andrew stood tall and broad, full of confidence. He was losing his job anyway, he had nothing to lose.
“Please take a seat” said the manager.
“If you need be today, today will be the last. I won’t be in tomorrow. I already have a new job lined up which I will be much better off than this rat hole.” Andrew proudly said.
“We don’t need you today, I hope you enjoy your new job. Good luck.”
After one month of working with Alf, Andrew and Anna moved out and were renting a nice apartment. After six months, they bought a piece of land and started the plans for building their house. Alf and Andrew built the house, and of course, a contractor has to have a nice house. A “look at me” house. A house that shows his potential in landscaping, designing, and constructing.

Just because you hit a low doesn’t mean you can’t bounce back. With determination, strength, and support, you can bounce back from any low. “Don't measure a man's success by how high he climbs but how high he bounces when he hits bottom.”
-George S. Patton