Real Knights Write (2017) English 9 - Section H
Introduction - Mr. Donohue
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ALWAYS STUDY: By-Kevin Edwards
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FOCUS! -By Andrew Kwon
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You Can Be Anything: By - Owen Morales
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Do it right or don't do it at all: By - Johnathon Shannon
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Packed Backpack: By - Dimitri Tzilvelis
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Don’t Be That Kid: By - Jorden Bennett
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Always Be responsible! By - Michael Brienza
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My life,My choices: By-Kyle Burger
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My First Bicycle: By - Nicholas Cogliandro
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Have a filter: By - Demetri Daliapes
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Figure It Out: By - Dominick Demarinis
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Independence: By - Matthew Flores
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Doing The Right Thing: By - Brandon Knight
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Learning to Have Responsibility for Yourself: By - Jeffrey Li
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Cold World: By - Nicholas McCarthy
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Life of Responsibilities: By - Domenic Pedalino
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Carry Your Own Bag: By - Cosmo Sanicola
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Understand Your Own Abilities: By - Andre Snoddy
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Fundamentals of Soccer: By - Nicholas Tabbanella
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Responsibilities In Life - By: Carmine Vasiadis
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It’s All about Respect: By - Matias Vergara
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Pain: By - Dillon Wilkins
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ALWAYS LOOK: By - Michael Wegimont
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Play Your Own Games: By Alan Zhao
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Work hard and you will succeed By: Thomas Von Toussaint
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My Stuff, My Responsibility: By - Stamati Stakias
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Learning to Float: By - Nicholas Arhaniotis
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Just Keep Swimming By, Nicholas Gutleber
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Introduction - Mr. Donohue One of the more powerful tools that Google has added to its arsenal is the capability to publish the work you create instantly. The Freshman students at Holy Cross write. They write often, and they learn to write well. By the midpoint of the year, they have had many different experiences in both reading and writing. They are proud of what they have accomplished as am I. With this in mind, the class worked on a longer lesson in how to write a personal, reflective essay. According to the textbook, a reflective essay is one where the writer explores the meaning of an experience. In class, the students read an essay titled “Carry Your Own Skis� by Lian Dolan. In this essay, she explores the importance of the lessons she learned as a child. Using this essay as a model, the students wrote about their own childhood experiences and how these have shaped who they are today. When the class completed their first draft, they edited. And edited, and edited until they created a version of their own story that they want to tell. They prepared their work for publication. What you see here is the result of all of their hard work and effort. Please read and enjoy. Mr. Michael Donohue
ALWAYS
STUDY: By-Kevin Edwards
There are many ways to learn new things, you can learn from your mistakes or someone can just teach you. You can also go through a certain type of punishment so you know not to do a whatever you did again.I have learned many different things throughout my life, but there is one thing I did that I could never forget and I was taught to never to do something behind my parent’s back again,and that I should always tell them what is going on. I also learned to study for a test the night before. One day, a long time ago, in the second grade. I was in school and we had a math test,and after we had a test we would have to bring it home to get it signed and corrected. The day I took the test I did not know what to do on the test because I did not study the night before. I took the test and I did really bad on it and I did not want to show my mother the test because I did bad on it,so I kept it from her. The next day I went to school and my teacher asked everyone to turn in their test with the corrections. I did not have the test but I did the corrections so I told my teacher that I will bring it in tomorrow,and she said ok.I went home and I forgot about the test.The next day in school the teachers asks for the people that forgot yesterday to bring their test up now, and I remembered about it at that point. There was nothing I could do so I told my teacher I am looking for it, but I was looking for another test so that I could try and trace my mother’s signature. I sat there at my desk trying to trace it on the bad test and I did it and gave it to my teacher. Then a few minutes later she called me over to her desk and said why did you trace this, and I said because I got a bad grade, then she explained how I should never do that again and she called my mom and told her what I did and I got into a lot of trouble.
The moral of the story is study for a test the night before and don’t hide things from your parents just them know right away and get over with it. After what I did that day I learned to never do something like that again because what I did was against the law and I did not even know. If I just studied the night before then I would have gotten a good grade on the test and I would not have gotten in trouble.
FOCUS! -By Andrew Kwon When I was 8 years old, my dad would lecture me for losing my north face jacket a couple of times in school. He would always go to my elementary school and pick up my jacket from the lost and found bucket, located in front of the school next to the security’s desk. I would come home from my after school program daily and wait for my dad to come home. My dad would come home with my jacket and lecture me for at least thirty minutes. He would tell me that it’s not his jacket and he told me that he’s not always going to pick up the jacket for me. After his lecture about the jacket towards me, he would tell me that the most important job I must do is FOCUSING in class. At first I didn’t understand what focusing meant to me so, I decided to ignore it and fool around in my elementary classes instead. I got bad grades on my report card such as ones and twos out of four for the whole five years in elementary school also known as PS 107. Whenever I got a couple of three’s and a single four on my report card, I would be so excited about it until I read my teacher’s comment about me on the back of my report card. The teacher said I was improving but I needed to FOCUS in class. I still didn’t get the reference of focusing. I handed my report card to my father and he would be a little upset. It wasn’t because of my bad grades but because I didn’t participate in class such as not focusing. The whole idea of focusing started to disturb my mind so I started to give it a try when I got into middle school in 7th grade. I started getting decent grades such
as eighties in my classes and receiving a silver honor roll on my report card on all four quarter. My dad saw my report card and became satisfied. I started to get the idea of focusing in class and decided to focus throughout my life in school. Everything was so easy to me as I constantly focused in class, taking every single notes in class, following directions from teachers, and completing my homework like a piece of cake. Later on, when I got into my freshman year, I started wondering about how I changed from hating to focus to like focusing. To be honest, I didn’t even like focusing in class because I thought school was just simple. Focusing is not just using it in school, it’s also using it for your future needs. If you focus on your task when you need to, your life becomes much easier to live like a piece of cake.
You Can Be Anything: By - Owen Morales I have learned many lessons throughout my life so far. Some of them make sense, and some of them don't. For the most part the most valuable lesson i've learned would be to stay away from negativity and negative person. At the time i didn't think this would be any good. I knew that growing up there would be many people who would hate on me dislike me and do anything to bring me down. There have been many people who have told me that i couldn't do this or that or that I would never be what I wanted to be. My parents have showed me I can be anything I want to be a long as my put dedication and focus in school. They old me to not lose focus on anything that wasn't important but school. Once I lost focus because I let people get to my head and I started to get bad grades. Thanks to them I've learned to ignore all the negativity. In highschool I've told people what I've wanted to be and all they did was laugh in face. The person always tries to bring me down and call me names, but I still don't care what the person has to say about me. I've been taught to just ignore it and don't let it get to me. Multiple times occasions like this have occurred.
To me, this lesson is the most important because some people take things personal and it's never good. People get bullied all the time and end up hurting themselves. I just ignore it and carry on with my day because at the end of the day no one is important to me. I thank my parents for teaching me this lesson. This lesson helps me a whole lot through the day.
Do it right or don't do it at all: By - Johnathon Shannon The first lessons I learned as a child were the most simple and the most straightforward lessons a child could learn but one lesson stuck out. When I was a young boy i used to help my parents out with almost everything, whenever i helped out i was told one thing “Do it right or don't do it at all”. As a boy the age of 8 I didn't quite understand what this meant. So i just kept helping and doing chores not understanding what this meant. One day at the age of 10 I was shoveling the snow on our part of the block and i didn't quite do a good job. When my dad came outside to see if I shoveled correctly he saw small pieces of snow dotting the sidewalk. I was called over in an upset tone from my dad. He said “I thought I told you to do it right or don't do it at all”. I replied with “i tried my best dad” while looking down at the ground. I was then told to keep shoveling until the snow patches were off our part of the sidewalk. “This was my first time shoveling and I already had to shovel perfectly,” I thought to myself. In school there were the kids who did it right and there were the kids who didn't do it at all. Some kids worked hard and got the math problems correct each and every time. But there were also the kids who didn't try and always called the teacher over to, basically, give them the answer. When I look back at this now I see the kids who are going to go to high school and beyond solving every problem life will throw at them. I also saw the kids who were going to become the McDonald's workers and crumble from the problems life will throw at them.
Now in 9th grade the work is a lot harder and more challenging. There are many more problems than before and doing well in high school will be the deciding factor of whether me and my colleagues will succeed in life or not. I have to do everything right because you only get one chance for a test and one chance of whether you will make principal's list or not. I now realize that that lesson I learned over 6 years ago was not taught to me to make it easier for my parents, it was taught to me to help me succeed in life. Little did I know that this lesson would set me on the track to greatness in life. That this lesson would make me who I am today. In the future even more responsibility will be added to the pile of responsibility that I already have. I will need this lesson to guide me to live my life and to help my children in their lives.
Packed Backpack: By - Dimitri Tzilvelis In first grade a drastic change in my life occurred. Not that I was a lazy person but I was just used to a pattern. The pattern was everyday after school I would get picked up by my mom. I would get dismissed by my teacher and would walk over to my mom and hand her my school bag. Then I would finally walk over to my car get in the backseat and my mom would drive me home. I was used to this pattern from Pre-K to Kindergarten for the past 2 years at 4 and 5 years old. I was 6 and it was my first day of school back in 2008. It was a good day and when I left to go get picked up by my mom. I waited for her to naturally just take my bag from me but she didn’t. After waiting a good 20 seconds I asked her “are you gonna take my bag”. She replied “No”. Obviously my next response would be the same as every child my age and generally the most common response a child would say to their parent. “Why?” was my immediate response that came to mind. When a kid
ask their parents why they then have two options: to reply to the question with a logical explanation or to just say “because I said so” or ignore the child. My mom then said because you have to learn responsibility. I didn’t understand what that could possibly teach me about responsibility but I didn’t respond and carried my school bag over to the car. From that point on in my life as a very young child I always carried my bag into the car and when we would arrive at our house I’d bring it inside. A couple of days my back would be hurting and my mom would carry it because it was very light to her but I never put up an argument or asked her to carry it if I didn’t need her too. Now that I look back to when I was 6 years old and throughout elementary school this taught me a good lesson. Responsibility. Of course I would learn responsibility many other ways as I continued to age but this was one of the very first steps. Something as simple as that provided such a good lesson in my childhood. To take care of my own things.
Don’t
Be That Kid: By - Jorden Bennett
One day I was going to football practice in Valley Stream. I was 12 years old and my maturity level wasn't very high. I was playing all day before not getting my equipment ready for practice. I needed to be ready by 6:00. I needed to get my uniform out of the landry and get my football pads out of my mom’s car before 5:00 because she had to go somewhere. So, I played outside until 5:45 when my grandma called me telling me I had practice in 15 minutes. I ran inside and got ready. My grandma drove me to practice. However, when I got to practice, I realized I was missing something. I had forgot my helmet and shoulder pads in my mom’s car. So, I had to call my mother to bring them. I didn’t know that she was in an important business meeting and I was calling her in the middle of it. She answered very
angrily because she was doing something serious. I told her that I had left my stuff in her car and she grew even more angry because she had told me to get them earlier before she left. She said she would be on her way. She purposely came when the practice was ending to teach me a lesson. I felt bad because I interrupted her meeting. I felt depressed and useless. My mom came and her face was very angry. Her normally calm and pleasant demeanor slowly changed and her face showed it all; consuming anger; her nostrils flaring, her eyes flashing and closing into slits, her mouth quivering, slurring words that were unintelligible. I also wasted my coaches and teams time because they needed me to do offense and defense and I couldn’t do that because I had forgotten my stuff and I told everybody that my mom would be there in 15 minutes with my equipment. The practice went bad because the coaches were stalling until my mom was supposed to be coming in 15 minutes. My teammates were bugging me about where my stuff was. It got annoying after a while but I knew I had to suck it up and deal with it because I brought this upon myself. And with her showing up at the end of practice, it looked bad on my part that I am not responsible to keep track of my own equipment. From this I learned to focus on what I need to do and that I need to be more responsible with MY things. I realized that at the end of the day, it's not my mom's fault that I didn't have my equipment, it's not her duty to bring the things I need for something I choose to do. My mom would always tell me “If this is something you want to do, you have to give 110% commitment to it”.
Always Be responsible! By - Michael Brienza One day at my old school, St Mel's, I was in 5th grade and I forgot to write down my homework for my english class in the assignment pad that school provided us with. I never really wrote down my homework, I always just remembered the work that I had to do, but this day, I got a ton of homework.
Math, English, Science, Religion, and Social Studies on the same day! That same night I had basketball practice for my CYO team. I was so excited to go because I used to really like basketball. The plan was I would go home and do my homework immediately. When i’m done i’ll head over to my friend Nick’s house, Nick’s dad was the coach by the way, and from there he would take me to practice, but that is not what happened that day... I got out of school at 2:45 and I run to my mom’s car as fast as I can because I have a lot of homework to do. I hopped into her car and we were on our way. I told my mother about how school was that day and that I had lots of homework to do. My mom says “Ok, just do it good, don’t rush through it.”. Now, we got home, I go straight into my room, and I start on my homework. First was math. It was pretty hard but I got it done fairly quickly. I had to be at Nick’s house at 5:30 and it about 3:30 when I finished math. Then, Science. I'm constantly check the clock and I finish at around 4ish. I do my Religion and Social Studies quickly. It's about 5:00 and the only thing I have left to do is English. I go to take out my vocabulary book, and It’s not there. I keep looking and I'm wasting time and that's when I knew, I forgot my book. I told my mom I forgot my book, and I wasn’t really a great student, so she got pretty mad. I kept telling her “It's just one homework, it’s ok,” when I know it’s really not. I look at the clock and I say “Mom we have to go to Nick’s, I have practice” She says “ you’re not going to practice after you forget your vocabulary book in school!” I was so bummed out. I was so excited to go to practice and I couldn’t. It turned out to be a bad night but I got the page printed from a friend and my Mom went and picked it up and I got English done very late. The moral of the story here
is even if you don't want to do something like write down your homework or not study because it’s “uncool” or you will be “wasting time of your day”, just do it because in the future, you will thank yourself because you will get your homework done, or pass that test you didn’t want to study for. I learned a lesson from this and I hope you do too. Always, Be, Responsible!
My life,My choices: By-Kyle Burger People are like snowflakes no two people are exactly alike. You only have one life be, yourself and make choices by yourself for your own good. Be yourself and take responsibility for you and your actions. When you make your own decisions you will realize risk or reward. Risk or reward means does the reward outweigh the risk of something not going how you expected. If it is worth the risk than follow through if not hold back. One lesson that parents always tell me is “treat people how you want to be treated” this quote means that if you treat people nice other people will treat you nice. If you treat people bad then other people will treat you bad. These lessons that my parents have tought me have are always in the back of my mind before I make decisions. Think about how you would feel if someone said or did that to you? Think about that before you say or do that to someone else. I have started to incorporate these lessons in my everyday life. I have been in a situation where I was in a heated argument with another person. The other person was very mad at me and did not want to hear it. I was trying to neutralize the situation and talk it out. I used these life skills to take on this situation. The other person was yelling and i was just listening and comply talking back to the person. No matter what he saying about me i was not coming back at the person i was staying com and relaxed. After a while the situation calmed down, and we made up and are cool now. In this life experience I was using the important life lessons that were taught to me. I used these mottos and morals to make the situation better. If i did
not react how I did the situation could of ended in a fight. By my actions prevented a fight. It doesn’t matter if you believe in karma or not. In life if you treat people bad they will often do the same thing right back to you. As long as you are the bigger person in arguments they will often work out in your favor. People can do the dirtiest,grimiest things to you or behind your back. As long as your are the bigger person and you don’t do the same thing back or react you will no longer have a problem. These people are looking for a reaction out of you and if you don't give them one then you will not have a problem. It will kill the other person inside that you did not react. I have realized through my personal life experiences that if you use these these life mottos in your life you will be a overall better person. A good thing to remember is that you only have one life so do your best to make it the best you possibly can. In the article the huffington post is says “As we grow up, we learn values and morals that help us become nice people, whether it be proper manners, compassion, consideration or a combination of them all. But research from the University of Buffalo suggests that our capacity for goodness may also lie in our DNA. In the study, scientists found that some people may be born with certain genes that give you specific receptors to oxytocin and vasopressin — two hormones in your body that are associated with feelings of love and generosity. However, that’s not to say that you’re only a nice person if you possess the right genes. Researchers also found that genetics work in tandem with your upbringing and life experiences, and the combination of both can suggest how social you become, Livescience reported. Either way, whether we’re wired for “niceness” or just brought up on it, our good nature is something that’s ingrained in us from an early age.” This quote shows that being nice is actually good for your health. If you are nice it makes you an overall better person. If you are nice to people than other people will be nice to you. Being a nice person goes a long way. One good act of being nice can affect a person’s day or even life. A person can be having
a bad day and you do something nice and it can affect a person. A person can be having a bad day then have a good day just by your actions.
My First Bicycle: By - Nicholas Cogliandro When I was a young boy, my parents taught me how to take care of my own things. They always let me have my own space with my toys, books, balls, video games and the many more things that kids have. They bought me most of the things that I asked for and things that all my other friends had except they taught me that if these things weren’t treated properly and put away they would get broken and lost. I have to say I really loved the things that I asked for. They gave me hours and hours of pleasure and fun. My parents would constantly tell me “Nicholas this all cost money you have to watch how you handle it or it won’t last, it will break and we won’t buy you another one. My most vivid memory of this lesson is when I was very little, maybe 3 or 4 and I got my first real bicycle. Not a tricycle that was very uncool but a bicycle that looked like something my bigger sister had and all my neighbors rode. I still remember getting it from Toys R Us for my birthday. It was shiny red and looked so much cooler than the tricycle I was embarrassed to ride. I was afraid that i would not know how to use it and I would fall off. I remember is was called my first Huffy and I really loved it. I rode it for a few weeks finally happy to have a two wheeler bike and then it happened. I left it on my easement and forgot to put it in the shed. The next day when I went to ride it, it was gone. I was so upset that someone stole my bicycle. Who would steal a little kids bike! Well it was gone. Never to be found. My parents refused to buy me another one. I asked everyday for a new bike because there was no way I was going to ride a tricycle but they refused to buy me another one.
My neighbors Tina and Evan felt bad for me and dragged an old blue small beat up bike out of his garage. It wasn’t as nice and my shiney red one and it didn’t have training wheels but at least it was something to ride. It was really small so i was able to sit on it and my feet could still touch the ground. And guess what? I learned how to ride that small blue broken down bike without training wheels. I was maybe 4 years old. We still laugh about it today. My parents tell me I was the youngest kid riding a bike without training wheels and guess what, I made sure I put the bike in the shed every night. The lesson I learned at that young age has been very valuable to me. I might be a little obsessed with keeping my things in order but I always know where my stuff is and it’s in pretty good condition and I am pretty proud of that. I haven’t lost another bike since then!
Have a filter: By - Demetri Daliapes As a young boy or girl, we tend to speak freely as to whatever is on your mind. It can be inappropriate, silly, disgusting, or just not necessary to what you’re actually doing. Speaking what’s on your mind is good….sometimes. Other times what your thinking is definitely not what you should be saying. When I was young , maybe 10-11 years old I was much like this. I would think about things, imagine things, and day dream a place i would rather be or a person who I would want to be. But, sometimes I would simply open my mouth at any given moment and say what was on my mind with zero thought whatsoever. This problem was truly starting to become a huge issue, especially in school. Now, although I was an honor roll student with great grades and no so bad behavior I still had myself going to lunch detentions, the principal's
office, and even being asked to leave class. It was the fifth grade, last year of elementary and I was determined to have fun before I left. That was my mindset at the time at least. So, it was a hot june day, year was winding out, along with my patience and it was last period before lunch, gym class. In elementary school gym was a fun time, just getting to gym was the hard part. Gym class was a mob scene where kids would go in and out rapidly during in between periods. Eventually I entered, listened to directions, had a good time and left. On the way to lunch I had a thought, “Wouldn’t it be cool to have a food fight today?” I blurted out to my equally immature friend Malik, the same Malik who had been a 65 student with horrible behavior, and also had been in many fights before. He responded with yes. Now, I thought nothing of this little remark, because we were just talking about it, there was no planning. But when we entered Malik had other plans. Malik and myself sat down, and unpacked our food everything was going fine until he yelled out “FOOD FIGHT”. haos proceeded to break loose. Trays flew across the room, orange peels, sandwiches, you name it. Somebody threw milk at one point or another. In pure self defense I armed myself with food and began to strike back. Exchanges of foods to faces and whole meals being poured on people. It was a berzerk time to say the least. I had peaked the corner of the table and launched a full orange at a kid in mid flight a teacher walked by and was hit. That’s when the room went silent, and everyone stopped. It wasn’t a teacher it was principal Mcdonnell. Everyone was shocked, especially me. By simply giving my own friend an idea I was now going to inevitably be in major trouble. As iI previously suspected I was finished. I ALONE was put to rest of year lunch detention. From that day forward I knew that even if your mouth really wants to say it, run whatever you are thinking by your brain first. It will make life a whole lot easier and keep you out of unnecessary trouble. Have a filter and keep stupid thoughts in your brain, not coming out of your mouth.
Figure It Out: By - Dominick Demarinis When I was little, I was always told to do responsible chores around the house. I thought it was because my dad or mom was to lazy and didn't want to do it. As I was growing up I was told to start getting organized and be more responsible. One thing I was told to do is always make sure I put stuff where they belong and finish what I started. Never do something half way, and not finish it. This was taught to me in a few ways. It all started when I started to get in 4th/5th grade. I was told to place my shoes on the shelf when I come home. I would come home take off my shoes and put them on a white shelf. There would be my whole family's shoes on one rack. My dad told me to line up them all up and make them look neat and organized, which makes you look responsible. The shelf My dad told me if I don't know how to do something figure it out. One day I came home from school and there was no room of the shelf for shoes, so I thought to myself my dad always told me to figure it out, so I made a section for the shoes to be lined up next to each other. As I started to get into middle school, I had to do things a little harder. I had to start to bring up the basket with the clothes. I also had to put my clothes away in the right spot and make sure every shirt is the correct way. The correct way is to put all my dri-fit shirts in the bottom draw. The shirts I don't like that much I put in the top left draw. My NBA/NFl jerseys, I hang them up in my closet. The shirts that I wear the most go in the top right draw. One day I didn't know where to put some clothes that didn't fit, so I thought of what my dad told me about figuring things out and I used my judgement and made a pile on top of my dresser. I seen other kids that I know learn the same rule abouting being responsible and organized. They were told to do things as kids that would make them more organized/responsible. There are a
few kids who I know who did not do things growing up, so they aren't as responsible/organized. Things that I did, or learned in my early ages still help me up to this day. Putting your shoes away and bringing up clothes still helps me in my life today. When I do things like that, it still teaches me more responsibility. I also always remember what my dad told me, figure it out. Right now in my life, by doing all this stuff I did growing up, it taught me to stay organized and be more responsible. This will also affect me in the future. When I get older I will be even more responsible and organized. I will also always remember what my dad told me about, figure it out. I will even teach this lesson to people I know, or even my kids. This is something that happened to me growing up, and will affect the rest of my life in a good way. I would make my kids do things around the house which will make them more responsible and organized for the rest of their life. I had to put my clothes away and put my shoes on the shelf, which made me more responsible and organized. Always remember to figure it out.
Independence: By - Matthew Flores It was not very long ago when I used to always beg and plead to my mother about how much I wanted to be like my friends and walk to school. When I always saw the other kids walking who lived even further than I did I got very jealous. I felt embarrassed having being seen getting out of the car in front of the school. But no matter how much I asked them, both of my parents always said the same thing, “You aren’t ready yet.� I used to absolutely despise those words. Truth be told, they are very much helicopter parents that never wanted to let me out of their sites. It always got me very ticked off when my parents used to tell my brother Anthony to just be safe instead of lecturing him. He used to take two buses to high school and I was in the eighth grade and still was not allowed to walk seven blocks to school. I can remember one time, I
went in full on rage mode because my brother started to antagonize me and call me a mommas boy. I actually took his car keys and hid them just to piss him off and get back at him. My parents used to always say, “We’re just trying to protect you.” And I just used to sigh and go with the flow because I knew a battle with my mother, was one I’d never win. I used to get so mad that I was even jealous that my brother got so much freedom. And I can’t remember another time in my life where I was jealous of my brother. When the eighth grade year was about half over, I finally decided to take action. I was tired of being treated like a little kid and having to go on the embarrassing walk of shame from the car to the front door of the building. I could not bare the embarrassment anymore. I had to think about it for a very long time to find a way that would make both me and my parents happy. And one night, I finally had the smarts to come up with a compromise and said, “Would you guys at least let me walk if one of you were in the car following me from a safe enough distance.” And that was it, my chance to prove to them that I was finally ready to be more independent. But I realize now that I should have put a lot more thought into it. So the next day I met up with my friend Chris that lived right up the block from my house and we walked to school together with a couple of his friends that lived close by. We were about two blocks away from the school and I thought that I was gonna do it. But, one of Chris’ friends asks me, “Who is that creepy lady following us?” And I had no choice but to come clean. Even though I knew this could be the end of my reputation. “That creepy lady following us is my mother.” And before I even had the chance to explain my situation to them, they started laughing hysterically, and that was one of the worst school day of my life. And there was no walk of shame from the car to the front door, it was everywhere I walked around school that day, because what happened was spread around the school. And I was embarrassed once again.
After that incident, I decided to never walk home as long as I attended that school. But my parents and I came up with another compromise since I did show that I was responsible enough to walk to school. We decided that my mother would drop me off two blocks away from the school so I would not be as embarrassed as when she dropped me off in front of the school. I learned a very important lesson that day, popularity should not be the top priority, safety and family should be. And to this day I still thank my parents for keeping me safe even when I thought they were just trying to embarrass me in front of my friends. And now, as I take the bus everyday to and from school, I always think about that eighth grade year, and I am always trying to be safe.
Doing The Right Thing: By - Brandon Knight It all started when I was in middle school. I was the cool kind of guy didn’t really bother people, but I was a trouble maker. I used to laugh and make jokes, get off task and maybe distract people a couple of times but still get my work done. But you know how teachers asked you to run errands for her/him? Or tell you to go drop something across the hall? Well I used to not like doing that for teachers. My teachers used to always like sending across halls and telling me to get stuff for them. So one day, I was in school and the teacher asked me to go and ask the main office if they can make copies since we had ran out. So I started to get a little attitude because I really didn’t feel like going all the way to the main office to ask for copies. But I still went anyway. I went to the main office and asked for copies and I got them and went on my way back to class.
I ran into my friend on the way back. I asked my friend “what are you doing in the hallway?” “ Oh I was just came from the bathroom.” my friend said. While we were walking back my friend came up with an idea that we should go outside of our other friends classrooms and say “hi” to them and then go back to class. I thought that this would be great because I didn’t feel like going back to class yet. So we went up to the fourth floor to were my friend was having science class. We peeked into the classroom and he was trying to see his friends. Little did we know the teachers was walking over to the door while we were peeking inside. My friend inside of the Science classroom was trying to warn me that the teacher was coming, but it was too late. We ran to the middle staircase and tried to go back to class. “ STOP AND COME BACK HERE!” the teacher screamed. We turned back and walked towards the teacher. She asked us “Why are you distracting my class from me teaching them?” “ Ummm I don’t know.” We said. She sent us back to class When I returned to class my teacher looked at me with a straight and she looked furious. She asked me “ Why did you go all the way up to the fourth floor and started distracting Ms. Roberts class?” “Umm I don’t know.” I said. She pulled me over and said to me “I thought I could trust you, that is why I sent you to go get the copies.” I thought to myself why didn’t I just go and come back. “ I’m sorry I will never do that again.” I said , “You have to be more responsible in life, you always have to do the right thing when nobody's looking.” “Alright, I won’t do it again.” I went home thinking why did I do that. Would she be able to trust me again? I learned that day that in life people will trust you to do things so you have to the right thing without anyone looking.
Learning to Have Responsibility for Yourself: By - Jeffrey Li As a child, I’ve learned how to to do chores which is common for everyone. I learned to do the basics that were necessary for me such as washing dishes, doing, laundry, folding clothes, etc. Doing these deeds helped me understand that I was responsible for myself and in life no one would be doing your chores. My mother taught me these things through her own demonstration. She taught me how to do
laundry by separating the colors and how much detergent to use based on the amount of clothes. By her demonstrating I could see how to do chores step by step rather than her just simply telling me the instructions. She’d guide me and walk me through each step she did such as when washing dishes she’d tell me to rinse the dishes before adding soap. When I was finished washing the dishes she’d tell me to dry them and put them away. People who have not learned the same lesson or how to do their own chores in general are lazy in my eyes. If their parents haven’t taken the time to teach to their kids how to do their own chores than they’re just as lazy. I find that kids who haven’t learned to do chores are less fortunate. They are less fortunate because when it comes to moving out of your parents house and being on your own they’ll be without their parents help so it’s important for them to know what to do when it comes to chores. They won’t know how to do laundry or fold their own clothes or wash their own dishes. Since they’ve never learned to do chores and have had their parents do everything for them their whole life they’ll be lost on their own as an adult. This lesson that I’ve learned as a kid applies to my life now by reminding me I have to learn how to be independent. If I didn’t do my laundry the day before school knowing that I needed my uniform, I’d be in trouble and it’d be my own fault because I’m responsible for myself. No one is going to do anything for me, why would they it’d only benefit me in the end not them so it’s important to have responsibility for yourself. This lesson is going to help me a lot in the future because when I’m an adult I won’t be with my family anymore, I’m going to be on my own. So that would mean that I have to do everything myself. I would know how to handle life on my own because I’ve already learned to do my own chores. Those who’ve never taken the time to learn simple chores as a kid will be very unfortunate later on in life because they’ll have to face reality, Mom won’t be there anymore to help you with everything. It’s time to grow up and learn our own responsibility.
Cold World: By - Nicholas McCarthy When I was young, like around the age of 5, I thought that i could get the best of the world, as if i could get everything so easily. I was wrong, and I had to learn it the hard way. I learned that there was more in life in which I had to see the bigger picture to it. It took a long time to understand this since I was just a little kid. My parents would work almost every minute of each day to get the money they need to feed me and my brother and sister, and keep a roof over our heads. My Father would work at parks and recreation to clean and enhanced the environment for the city, while my Mom would do hair for customers and do extra work by cleaning and organizing files. It was as if I couldn’t see them or have time to spend with them because they was always so busy at work. From that day, I took life more cautious and more seriously. As I was growing up, I started to learn about things that I wasn’t ready for from the past. I learned about things like many different types of relationship that you could be in, the many features of everyday life that I was missing out on, and it goes on forever. These thing were substitutes for goals that I had because before that day, I was waiting on the moment to come, and it happened. This was a sign of maturity that I was looking for. The fact that i had to wait a very long period of time to get what I wanted, was worth it. I also learned that the use of patience is all I needed to go through life. “Patience”was the key to my life. It was as if I didn’t realize that this was the thing that I needed to get through everything. I needed to know that everything that I do had to take time before it is completed. From there, I started to understand that life can be very hard for people, yet easy for others. Also, these examples shows that some people are different from each other because of the fact that people have different ideas and beliefs about different things that goes on in
this world. I learned that there are things that I’ll just have to wait on, or I just can’t get it because either I won’t understand the use of it or it could lead to someone getting harmed. I can state that there are people that has an impact in this world, people that don’t matter, or even people that can fall in the middle, like me as an example. The goal in life is to find what you want to do or how you can fit in the world. You need to find how you can feel comfortable doing what you feel that is right to do.
Life of Responsibilities: By - Domenic Pedalino When I was younger, my father taught me many things that made me learn how to be responsible. These things made a very generous and respectful man. I thank him for the help that he rewarded to me at such a young age since it leaded it up for me to become who I am today. It all started when i was about 8 years old. He used to tell me how you have to become responsible for yourself or else you won't succeed in life. One day he sat me down and had a conversation with me about how you have to take care of your chores and help out us when we're cooking, cleaning, etc because we all work as a team and this is how you teach yourself to become a better and smarter person. At the time I was too young to understand this but, as I grew up I understood it. He explained the outcome of people and their habits if they aren't responsible for themselves. Many others who weren't taught this lesson are much different than people who are. For example, if you don't clean your room you become messy, if you don't do your laundry you then rely on other people to clean your clothes you become lazy. Think about it this way eventually you won't be living with your parents or people who can do chores for you and help you prepare, or if that's not the case let's say they're not around what are you going to do? These lessons helped me and can help many others
Carry Your Own Bag: By - Cosmo Sanicola When I was younger my parents always told me that I had to carry my baseball bag if I wanted to play baseball. I thought they were doing this because they were lazy and didn’t want to help me out and so at first I was mad. I loved playing baseball but couldn’t stand the way my parents forced me into carrying my bag. I was angry. When I was in third grade, my team played at the local park on the furthest field in the park, and I hated walking with my bag all the way to the last field,at a young age that bag felt like it a million pounds when it was probably about one. I don’t know what I hated more, the feeling of carrying the bag which felt ‘so heavy”, or watching teammates parents hold their bags for them. I remember one day seeing a teammate with a wheelie bag (like a suitcase) carrying all of his equipment, and crying to my parents that I wanted one only to hear no. One day, in 7th grade we had a double header(two games). I played great, I hit two doubles and pitched well. I was so tired and as I was about to leave I handed my mom my bag only to see her put it on the grass. I was pouting about how tired I was and the least my mother could do was hold my baseball bag. I said to my mom, “you can’t hold it, just once.” She looked at me and said, “It’s your equipment that you use, not me.” I angrily carried my bag to the car while faking complaints, “Mom my back please.” She responded no. I was starting to get used to this now and accept the fact that it was my baseball equipment nobody else’s and dealt with it going into my eighth grade season, until one day I finally got it.
It was Christmas and I had received about 100 dollars which was enough for a wheeled baseball bag. So I told my father that I wanted to pick something out from Dick’s with my own money. He agreed to take me and the first thing I went to purchase when we arrived was a wheeled baseball bag. He would not let me buy the bag. I was cursing and yelling that it was my money. He still wouldn’t give in. In 8th grade almost every kid was carrying their own baseball bag and I had been doing this since I was a toddler and it was almost like a natural thing. I had learned from my parents to become more responsible for myself and I feel that carrying my own baseball bag from an age where parents were carrying their sons made me more responsible. My parents weren’t holding my bag because they were lazy, but rather because they wanted to teach me a lesson.
Understand Your Own Abilities: By - Andre Snoddy When my mother was in her early 30’s she would try her hardest to lead me in the path for success. She would tell me everything I needed to know and Stay Away From, and more importantly she would tell me things that I need to accomplish if I ever wanted to fulfill my dreams. Even to this day though, I have found out that your parents might be able to lead you to things and tell you what to do and what not to do, but what actually matters is if you take responsibility to closely comprehend what they're trying to say by following their rules. I have found out that you have to do certain things yourself. I have found out that people can not help you with everything in life. I have found out that if you are not responsible and take manners into your own hands then you are just making it harder on yourself. For example there was a time when I had accidently left my phone on a train because I wasn't paying attention, and I made it difficult on myself because now I had to go a long time without having a
phone, which I use in my everyday life. Responsibility plays a huge part in everybody's character. I have fallen through a trapdoor of shock just thinking that I would have to do anything and everything by myself. Luckily, it didn't necessarily turn out that way but I knew that I had to start becoming more responsible with myself and making the right decision or my path would start to go downward. I was able to recognize this lesson in others because I have seen people in my school having to text or call their parents asking them to bring them something that they had forgot at home. A highly responsible person would have never had to worry anything like this and would make sure that they were compelled enough to make sure they had all the right items before they left the house. Another example that I have seen of this lesson was when one of my friends had asked me to share my homework with them so that he didn't get a zero. This lesson was an important one because it showed how my friend wasn't able to make time for his schoolwork and tried to take the easy way out. That is also another lesson that is crucial because taking the easy way out of things is never really a positive thing to do and never has been. This lesson that I have taught myself gives me not only inspiration, but discipline as well. I am clearly inspired by all the things that I have taught myself because it just shows me another example of being responsible right there. It helps me become a better person and it inspires me and motivates me to always want to do better no matter what. It pushes me to have a good character with many fulfilling traits which only leads me to right direction. Now I have also learned discipline as well and that comes in matter a fact as the most important one because if i didn't discipline myself or if my parents didn't then I would never be able to get better because I would always think that it would be easy to get myself out of things I started. Many people might think that, but that's not how life works at all, you have to learn how to discipline yourself if you ever want to get better at something because yet again it will lead you into the right direction only.
Fundamentals of Soccer: By - Nicholas Tabbanella When I was little my Dad taught me how to play soccer. He taught me the little things of soccer before we got to the hard things like skill moves and shooting. The easy things was the running and fitness. When I got to seventh grade I had soccer tryouts for a club team. He helped prepare me to get better and to make the tryout. The next morning I got an email from the coach at the tryout and I made the team. I was so happy that i told everyone. I thanked my dad because he made me a successful soccer player. In my soccer season I had 13 goals and wen made it to the finals and won. I thanked my dad for helping me succeed and making me better. One day, after I got to high school, I started to teach myself how to play soccer. Sometimes I bought a trainer to help me. He taught me to shoot the ball dribble and how to do skill moves like scissors and the step over. With the skills my dad taught me I may be a pro soccer. Years will pass by and I will become a trainer myself for the club I was playing for. I may be so good that I will able to coach for the pros.
Responsibilities In Life - By: Carmine Vasiadis When I was about 7 years old, my mother said “one day you will need to be responsible and take care of yourself, just like I do�. I took this in as I wouldn’t need to worry about it, and that I would never have to have responsibilities in my life. What my mother said grew on me a lot, and I started to realize how many responsibilities my mother had. She had taken care of me for years and I needed to start contributing. Later on that year I decided I would want to start learning how to clean the
floors and do the laundry. This came to me as a big responsibility because I was only 7 and I had so much going on and I wanted to know more about the world. I realized that when I got older that I would need to get a job and be responsible and that it was more than just doing the laundry and cleaning. Obviously I never knew how to clean or do laundry so I asked my mom and she explained to me that “you have to put in the soap first, then turn the water on”. Sometimes I made a few mistakes like putting a red shirt in the wash with a white shirt and the results weren’t good. I messed up a few times and ruined some shirts but it wasn’t that long until I got the hang of it. Sometimes my Mom gave me money for helping her but, I never helped her for the money. I did it just to be a good person and that's what made me realize that one day when I had a real job I would have to fend for myself. Responsibilities will always be necessary for somebody one point throughout their lives, but if you are responsible then you will be able to get through your struggles. Sometimes it might be hard to get a job and make money to be able to live in a house but if you put the work in, you will achieve whatever you want. That is what my mom taught me when I started to do the laundry and clean the floors around the house.
It’s All about Respect: By - Matias Vergara When I have was young, I didn’t have any respect for anyone. At that time I didn’t know what that meant. When I didn’t respect my mom she would yell at me or send me to my room. If it was from my dad then he would do the same thing but with a little tone on his voice. Then my dad told me something that i would remember for a long time. He said that when you get mad you don’t think, when you don’t think bad things happen. When he said that to me I completely ignored it.
I didn’t understand what that meant until I started to grow up and understand more about life. ,But as of now, I was very young and didn’t really care about the stuff. Everyone says you should respect your elders, when I was young I didn’t respect them at all. If my grandma made a mistake I would just be mean and disrespectful. Now I adore my grandmother because one day she will not be here. My mother was very strict with me. Like the time I threw some toys at my sister, that was when my mom disciplined me like I was a criminal and she was a police officer and the judge. She knew I didn’t respect her so she had to discipline me. My Mom taught me how to stand straight and talk in a calm tone. My Dad was also pretty scared to me so I didn’t want to cause trouble when my dad was there. Then my Dad came up to me and started to say that I’ve been doing good in school and I need to keep them up. That’s when I knew that I have to respect. One of my friends didn’t respect his mother. He in other words disliked his mother. They would constantly get into fights and it was pretty ugly. He doesn’t like how she is always up in his business all the time. So as of today he disapproves everything from his mother. I try to tell him that he has to respect his mother because respect is the way of life. If I treat my mother like that, she would yell and hit me and I don’t want that. There are some kids who respect their parents, but they don't when there friends are over. I don’t do that because I want to show the person that I love my parents and that there the best thing that ever happened to me.
Pain: By - Dillon Wilkins
Growing up was always a challenge for me. I was always looked at as the youngest or the baby of the family. I would be known as that because of my older brother, he’s 4 years older than me, and a lot of times I lived in his shadows and I hated it. always excelled in sports, it was kind of like a gift that my whole family had been given, during his football games I was always the waterboy. At the time I had been playing football but no one ever asked me about it, I guess that made my hunger grow more. And from then and there I swore to myself that i'd always fight for what I believe in. I faced a lot of struggles in middle school, but I never held my head down, Ive only used whats brought me down as assets. Throughout middle school I dropped most of my friends and only kept the people that were like family, for the simple reason that most of them were only holding me back and the ones that ride with me now have made sure I was on top of my game every second every minute. But, that was middle school , this is highschool and I’m in a whole new ball game. Now I'm playing high school football and it's pretty different from what I was used to. It's harder but I respect it because it makes me work way harder than I'm used to. I was once told by my coach, coach Omar, that if I ever wanted to be the best I'd have to get out of my comfort zone and do things that was weird. My best friend , my father figure, coach Omar always showed me that pain was not your enemy but was indeed your best friend. I'm now 14 turning 15 and everything I've grinded for days on top of days to achieve not only made me a better athlete but made me generally a better and wiser person. This expanded my mindset and matured it so much to the point of if you were to tell me I wasn't able to achieve something. I’d look you in the eyes and wouldn’t tell you I could but would in fact show you I was capable of doing anything I could ever put my mind to.
Although I didn't get any touchdowns that season and didn't play as much in my basketball season. I know I proved to everyone that I could work as hard as slaves. I’ve looked back in my life and throughout all the hardships I've faced from my mother’s cancer ,I’ve faced school troubles and I never gave up. These things only drove me to work hard to prove to EVERYONE that I belong here, and as long as i'm on this earth I will continue to work hard every single day, till my hands bleed, and my feet crumble. I’ll still look at you and smile, and when you look into my eyes you’ll see pain but you’ll also see the passion and drive I have for everything I put my mind to. The more it hurts to work hard the more you believe in it. And I believe in it because pain is MY soulmate and always will be…. Pain.
ALWAYS LOOK: By - Michael Wegimont When most people are young they learn some of the basic rules of like always wash your hands, don’t talk to strangers or run with scissors in your hand. These basic skills are learned at such a young age yet most people use them throughout their lives. basic skill I learned to always follow was always look before you cross the street. When I was about 3 or 4 years old my Mom and dad wanted to drill the basic skills to me. They told me never talk to people you don’t know, always wash your hands, always say please and thank you, and always look both ways when crossing the street. My mom and dad really put an exclamation point on always looking both ways. They would tell me stories of what happens if you don’t look both ways. You could get hit by a car or a biker or whatever else you did not see coming. One day i was walking with my mom and we heard a loud screech and a bunch of yelling. We
turned the corner and a lady had been hit by a car. The lady was badly injured. She was all bruised and battered. She was taken to the hospital and definitely needed surgery. The image of the lady laying in the street really stuck with me because I knew that if I did not look both ways then i could end up like that lady did on the street. From that day on I always double look to make sure there are no cars coming and I am safe to cross the street. The night the lady was hit by the car i saw it on the news. The news reporter said “There was a 41 year old lady hit by a car while crossing the street, she is in critical condition at L.I.J. hospital.”. When i heard it on the news i thought to myself “what if she is not ok, what if she dies.” I was 7 at the time and I just witnessed a lady get hit by a car and shot across the street. I can not stress enough that you should always look both ways. People may say to themselves, “oh the chances of me getting hit are slim to none” but what if you’re fresh out of luck that day, you could end up like that lady or even worse,dead. Never get ahead of yourself and think that it could never happen to you. Always be careful and look both ways. Throughout life many things that you learned from 3 years old you will use until the day you die. Sometimes it is could to experience what it would be like if you do not follow the rules. The reader should understand that even though you learn them during your childhood, they will still be just as important throughout your adulthood. When crossing the street, look both ways.
Play Your Own Games: By Alan Zhao I was very naughty and bad when i was a little child.My mother gets angry usual,i don’t listen to everyone even my grandparents.My father always goes out for his work so i couldn’t meet him every
day. I did not like to study, the only thing I liked to do is bother neighbors with others kid and do some bad things. But i was obsessed for badminton. I enjoy playing badminton.It is an amazing sport! At first I did not know how to play badminton. I was just thought badminton just fun, I was like holding the racket and shake it. My father wanted me to play sports, and he told me that “if I love playing badminton then I need to respect it and work hard on this sport!” Badminton is a personal game; it tests your speed, physical strength and reaction. If you love badminton you need to know what’s the real mean to tournament! So I really play it very hard during my summer vacation. I did it and I won a second place on a school badminton game. I was so happy and I finally knew how much fun is this game and how to respect people as well. I grew up after my last summer vacation! My 12th birthday came very soon. I am not that naughty and always get my mother mad boy, I am growing up. I know how to solve the problem and how to talk with people. Then I came America, and I am still playing badminton here. I have changed since I came here. I have been lots a things and met lots of people.I still love play badminton,it is my favorite sport.
Work hard and you will succeed By: Thomas Von Toussaint The message that will be explained is hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard. My parents have been teaching me this since I started school. They never needed to say it, it was implied. The best time I was able to experience this message was when I failed a test in the 5th grade. I had to take tests every friday to keep up with the
work but on one friday I was unable to pass. When I came home my family said that I should have studied harder. They said that I had a talent that would help me do better but I needed to work to make the talent stronger. I didn’t listen the first time and the next week the same thing happened again. I realized that eventually these grades would catch up to me and I needed to do better so I started to study. While I tried to study the result was still the same and each time my mother told me to try harder. She said that life doesn’t always go your way and you need to work to move it in your favor. So she told me to study harder and I will succeed. Each time I did and eventually it started to work. While my parents did see improvement they new that I could do better than the grade I received so they pushed me to study harder. Eventually I was able to receive 80s and 90s without having to study a lot and my parents were happy. Eventually while I did average these scores in the next grade my parents still felt that I could do more. They said that if I had really tried I could average 95s and 100s. I had the talent to do better but I didn’t work hard and eventually that caught up to me as well. My grades started to drop and eventually my talent had to work hard to do better. It took me the rest of the year but eventually it worked and I would be able to improve my grades that would help me . This helped me improve my grades and get back to where I was. Eventually I would be able to do better at a lot of topics for school. This story shows that you can be as good at anything as a person can be but without practice it will always fail eventually. This lesson shows me that later in life certain things require a different level of effort that works with the skill to get done what needs to get done. In the future when I have a job I can’t just do it on talent or what I know I need to try and get it done right so I don’t fail. If I fail in the real world the worst I could get won’t be a bad grade I need to try so that when it is time to get the work done I can get it done right.
My Stuff, My Responsibility: By - Stamati Stakias
When
I was a little boy in elementary school, my mother and my sister began teaching me how to fold and put away my clothes. I started separating different colors of clothes in there specific groups. I began to think i was too old not to be doing this at my age and I began to do what i was told. Growing up that was pretty much my job/task that I would do on a day to day basis. I thank my mother and sister for the things she did for me. Without these key everyday life jobs I would be the man I would of become. Later, in middle school, my teacher asked the class what our professions were growing up. I told her ¨my profession is folding and putting away my clothes really quick.¨ After what I think is remarkable my classmates laugh and laugh until they had no breath left in there lungs. That day was a very sad day for me. I told my parents what happened and they said, ¨who cares what others say it's your opinion that matters.¨ From that point forward, this quote has stuck with me till I can remember. More years even pass by and I had been in high school. Im now in my 9th grade year I've still kept this profession very close to me as a person. People would bug me about every week to be a matter a fact. As the weeks pass winter then comes into play. Winter for me was not as bad as the beginning of the year because it had a ton of snow that I can throw at the people who bothered me on a day to day basis. I finally found a way to I guess deal with the situation at hand. You can cop and deal with the situation any way you want, and you can do things any way you want to.
Learning to Float: By - Nicholas Arhaniotis There are many things that I haved learned in life, but one thing that I have learned is that there are many different ways to learn. Times such as a teacher teaching me learning from my mistakes, or teaching myself new things no matter
what it is. I have learned many new things in life but I will only talk about on and the one thing that I learned I thought to myself and that one thing is that I learned to swim on my own. The way that I learned how to swim was, when I was in the 2nd grade my parents decided to get a pool in our backyard. The pool was 4 feet deep and at the time I was not tall enough to stand up in it. So, I had to learn how to float and how to swim but I didn’t want a teacher to teach me how because I was just a stubborn child at the time. Mostly, I didn’t want a teacher because I didn’t like any teacher no matter who it was. After I had tried to teach myself I had been exhausted. After the first week of when we got the pool because I kept trying and trying until I learned how to float. After I had learned to float then after I had learned to float. Two weeks later I learned to swim all on my own. In all, I learned how to float and my own and swim. I also ended proving my mom wrong and not getting a teacher to teach me how to swim. I still try to do most things alone.
Just Keep Swimming By, Nicholas Gutleber When I was a young kid I was always scared of the water. My parents always told me “ have to face your fears.” Every time we went to a public pool I would see other people swimming very well and I was too scared to go in the water. My parents said, “You do not go in if you have to but you should try it you might like it.” My brother was a very good swimmer
and he would tease me because I was scared to go in the water. I was really thinking about facing my fears and going in the water. My family and I were moving into a new house with a big backyard. My dad said, “We are going to build a pool we have a lot of space” My brother and my Mom were happy, but I was scared. Not because I couldn’t swim, but because I knew my brother would tease me into not going in. I started watching videos on computer about how to swim but it could not imagine myself doing this. I was dreading the day that the pool was finished. Then the day finally came it was summertime and the pool was built. We had a big barbecue in the backyard and a lot of relatives and friends were there. It was a lot of fun and i had almost forgot about the pool. Everyone started to hop in and I did not want to go in. My mom said “ just try it just stand up on the shallow end. I gained enough courage to try it and i was not that bad. My Dad asked me “ would you want to try swimming”. I did not want to do it at first but i eventually tried. My Dad helped me and i eventually started swimming! I was really happy and I found out swimming was a lot of fun. I learned a lot of lessons from my parents that day. I learned that I should face my fears and to try new things. I am now a really good swimmer and I am happy that my parents pushed me to face my fears