Hello my name is Oginali and I decided to talk about what my life was like, before it gets hectic for about nine months, but thats irrelevant right now. In case you haven't noticed I am an oocyte cell. Everyday we go to school while we are in the ovaries. We learn about what we need to do to get out of the ovaries, down the fallopian tubes, and and on to the battlefield (uterus). We learn how to prep ourselves for fertilization and what to do if we become fertile, which is far from easy. Another thing is we oocyte cells are eukaryotic, spherical, and are about 120-160mm. We are located in all female mammals, but me inpaticuler am located inside of a human being. An egg goes down a different fallopian tube each month and if the egg is not fertilized then it takes anywhere from 3-7 days to exit the body. This will happens again about 28 days later.

Now that we have gotten through some boring basic information, lets try and get to some more interesting things like names. Well I already told you my name but the meaning of it is friend, which makes sense since i am friends with almost everyone, but I only have 3 best friends. Up here in the ovaries the meaning of our names usually describe our most noticeable characteristic. For example, the nicest egg cell I know is my sister/best friend Oaren which means loving . My other best friend is Obelia and she is very very strong, which makes a lot of sense since her name means pillar of strength. My last best friend always tells the truth no matter what, her and my sister are the closest out of the four of us, her name is Olethea which means truth (wow didn't see that one coming did you). I miss them all so much they have all been down the fallopian tubes and on the battlefield. the last time I saw my sister was 5 years ago, Obelia was 6 years ago, and with Olethea it was 8 years ago. I still remember like it was yesterday, when Olethea would help all of us on test questions we wouldn't understand.

*Flashback* " I don't get it" whined Oaren, Obelia and me. Olethea sighed heavily "You don't get what exactly". "I don't get how our structure relates to what we do?" Obelia let out frustratedly. "I don't know what we egg cells do exactly" I said emphasizing the what. " And I don't understand whether we work alone or in a group" responded Oaren. "OMG guys those are like the easiest questions ever, especially the question you asked Oaren" squealed Olethea. "Of course you would think they were easy miss know it all" yelled Obelia, "Yeah!" I cosigned. "Hey! Hey, guys calm down no need to be rash at least she is helping us. Plus you know its only super easy for her because She pays slightly more attention in class, ask questions about random things just because, and her lifelong goal is to become fertilized and create a living being." countered Oaren trying to calm me and Obelia down. "True I guess you're right about all of those" stated Obelia. " ...Okay were calm now, so can you please help us Olethea" I asked sweetly in order not to make her mad. " Sure no problem. How about I start answering your questions from easiest to hardest?" Olethea stated. "Yeah, sure" We said in unison. "Okay so Oaren lets answer your question first. Yes, we do work in groups, we work with the sperm cell to help create life." answered Olethea. "Wow how in the world did I not get that, silly me" responded Oaren. " ok so the answer to your question Oginali is, our function is to partner up with the sperm cell to create life and help provide it with all of the nutrients it needs" responded Olethea. "Thank you Olethea I do not think I ever would have got that" I exclaimed. "So last is you Obelia, the way our structure helps us function right?" Obelia nodded "It helps us move around to where we need to get to and helps to make sure only one sperm cell comes inside of us" Olethea explained. "Thank you for helping us out Olethea, especially me that was a pretty hard question to answer" stated Obelia. "no problem guys...Oooh do you guys want to hear a fun fact" questioned Olethea excitedly. "Do we have a choice ?" I argued. "Nope" she said popping the p. "Fine lets hear it" sighed Oaren "Okay, did you know that we have everything a eukaryotic animal cell has except we only have half of the DNA. While the sperm has the other half, isn't that just so romantic" Olethea fangirled. "You're such a nerd Olethea" we all laughed. *End flashback*

Oh what good times we had. Although I am happy that Oaren and Obelia are happy now. Obelia was the happiest when she was fertilized by Sagiv whose name means mighty with strength (isn't that ironic). She was so excited and said the boy they were making was going to be super strong. Oaren was nervous something would go wrong but nothing went wrong thus a beautiful baby girl was born. The sperm that helped was named Sebastian, which means revered one. Now that I think about it I remember why she was so nervous, it was because of what had happened to Olethea. We were all devastated on what happened. You already know that she was the most excited when it came to being fertilized. Well she did get fertilized it was be a sperm named Shakar, which means grateful. when she was two months along (almost past the 3 month scare) when something tragic happened, she found out she was having an Ectopic pregnancy. An ectopic pregnancy is when the fertilised egg implants outside of the womb. This condition is referred to as an ectopic pregnancy because the embryo will not survive outside of the womb, it is unfortunately inevitable that this type of pregnancy will not be viable. It was so depressing and it was super painful because bleeding can often be very heavy and is a very serious event and can be life-threatening for the woman if she does not seek medical attention. I remember my sister Oaren was so devastated, her and Olethea were so close.

Any way lets get to some more exciting news and off this depressing note. So last week I was sent down the fallopian tubes and on the battlefield. It was so exciting all I saw was lasers flying everywhere by the sperm cells trying to get to me. I felt so special and the one that got me, his name was Sigmund which means victory shield and victory protector. I almost freaked out when my embryo split into two fetus' only two days after fertilization. Then I remembered what Olethea told me one time and realized that I was having identical twins. I was so happy and full of joy it was amazing. Every time I really think about how I'm making two lives, I believe that one is for Olethea. Oh and I discovered that one is a boy and the other is a girl, how amazing. I just feel so special that I get the opportunity to make life and not just one but, two. I think Oaren and Obelia would be so proud and happy for me. Thank you for listening to my story I am truly grateful.

Works Cited

Mandelbaum, J. (2000). Oocytes. (Vol. 15, pp. 11-18). Oxford: Oxford University. Retrieved from http://humrep.oxfordjournals.org/content/15/suppl_4/11.full.pdf (Mandelbaum, 2000)

This source is reliable because it is from a student at Oxford which is an ivy league school. The source is reliable because the author used seven resources. Also, because it was posted on the oxford journals web page and they don't let anyone post on there. Another reason this is reliable is because the author is an assistant to a professor in research programmes on oocyte maturation and fertilization, human embryo development, spontaneous and assisted hatching and particularly embryo and oocyte cryopreservation.

N.A. (2008). Human reproduction update. Oxford journals, 14(2), 159-177. Retrieved from http://humupd.oxfordjournals.org/content/14/2/159.long (N.A, 2008)

This is a reliable source because it is on the site for oxford journals which doesn't allow any Tom, Dick, or Jane publish on there. All of the information posted on there has to be accurate and reliable. Another reason this source is reliable is because the authors used over 60 resources.