1) The author's world view was impacted by his step-brother Bill after the death of the author's younger brother Stevie in a tragic bus accident when the author was 7 years old. 2) After Stevie's death, the author's step-mother became abusive and his father was unable to help, causing the author to believe it was better not to trust people. 3) However, Bill showed the author kindness and continued to love him despite his home situation, allowing the author to start trusting people again and changing his negative world view.

1. World View Exercise
Jay Hundstad
Hum 133 Philosophy and World View
Dr. Drown
5/29/2016

2. The person who unknowingly impact my world view is Bill Woolridge, my step-brother.
The years are 1977-79 and I never realized it in the beginning but these next three years would
change my life forever. I had a half-brother who died at the age of 5; I was 6. That November, I
turned 7.
My Dad was a bus driver for our school. My little brother would ride the route with my
Dad, my half-brother's name was Stevie. The fate filled day started normal everyone getting up
for school, Dad, and Stevie was already gone starting the bus route and picking up children along
the way to our house to pick up my brother and step-brothers and me. Everything was normal
just another ordinary day. Or at least that’s what I thought. We were dropped off at school, so I
have to tell you what others told me.
I was told that Dad and Stevie dropped the children off at school, then started on their way
back toward our farm. They stopped at a store and Dad bought Stevie a new coloring book. My
grandparents lived in a large two-story house on the farm and we lived in a trailer house on the
property. My Dad would open the door on the bus and my little brother would sit on the steps by
the door. That day, Stevie was sitting on the steps with his new coloring book as Dad pulled into
the driveway by my grandparent's house.
Stevie was excited about his new coloring book and wanted to show it to our Grandma,
who was hanging clothes on the clothesline. He jumped out the open door, but when his feet hit
the gravel in the driveway, they slipped and he fell backward landing on his head right in front of
the rear tire of the bus. Dad did not know what was going on until too late, the tire had already
driven over Stevie’s head. He was killed instantly.

3. It was a terrible turn of events that lead to more terrible events that would continue to
shape my life. My dad and step-mother began drinking heavily over the next couple of years.
After Stevie’s death, my step-mom became abusive and my father was unable to do anything.
This change happened after the death of my little brother.
In mid-summer of 1978, my step-brother, Bill Woolridge, was 18 years old. Bill suspected
that I was being abused. He felt there was nothing he could do to stop it. On one of our visits, I
asked my brother for a cigarette. I noticed how it released the anxiety I was feeling. It became a
norm for me to smoke cigarettes with Bill.
Eventually, I asked him about the marijuana. Bill considered the question and finally
agreed that I could try it. I smoked a joint with him. Although it doesn’t seem like it was all that
important, it was something that I still used as a coping method for years. I was still smoking
weed until September of 2015 when I got my calling from God.
This story about my brother, Stevie, is true. Bill changed my world view because I
thought it was better for me to not let anyone around me because people would hurt me if they
could. Bill impacted my life because he treated me like nothing was wrong with me. He
continued to love me even though it seemed like everyone else hated me. Bill’s kindness and
love allowed me to start trusting people again.
When I told a friend about Stevie, he said that only the good die young. This told me to
not be good or I would die. I lived with this way of thinking until 2012, when I woke from a 2-
month coma and the doctor told I was supposed to die. Since then, I have lived like each day
could be my last day. I have tried to become a good person and changed my life for the better.

4. I have always considered these views to be my core beliefs. I am hoping that I can learn
to understand why I believe the way I do. I would also like to learn how to change some of these
views through this course.