In the book Hugh Glass, Mountain Man by Robert McClung, Glass survived in some extreme conditions with few chances of living; he was very close to death with no food, and skin ripped from the back. He made it to Camp Kiowa, 200 miles without anything. It’s really rare for you to be in this type of situation, but you still may be in a bad situation someday. Nothing that exciting has happened to me before, but my great-grandfather has been in a life or death situation before on battlefields.

           My grandfather joined the Chinese army at the age of 17 when the democrats and communists were fighting for the country; he didn’t really have a choice to join or not, because in his generation a group of people wanted China to be democratic instead of communist; if the democratic side won the war, then there wouldn’t be a “People’s Republic of China” now or back then, so he was kind of forced to join the army so that he would have a China to live in and so China wouldn’t go bye bye. When he first joined the army, he was a commander’s bodyguard, and as time passed, he could move up ranks; a bullet was once shot at him but thankfully his helmet blocked the shot, unthankfully, his helmet shattered and a shard hit his right eye, so he hasn’t been able to see with that eye ever since… another time, he and the rest of the army hiked and walked 200 miles over mountains and meadows covered in snow without any transportation, besides walking in -40 degrees C, to go where the democrats couldn’t go! Soon my grandfather became the division commander, but a few years later, he retired; he spent 12 years in the army and had badges from every battle he fought in. He is now 97 years old and is the only person in the province of Liaoning to have been in so many important battles, experienced and been a part so much of the history of China, and most importantly has survived; he is living history.