Real Knights Write English 9 Honors
Introduction - Mr. Donohue It’s Not Always Just About You - By Ian Doyle Face the Music - By Nicholas Battaglia The Steps to Becoming A Young Man - By Tyler Chapman How do you win? - By: Allen Corona Make Your Own Lunch - By: Nicholas Farkash Do Everything By Yourself - By: Sebastian Libuda Do It Yourself! - By: Nicholas Lercara Pack Your Bag - By: Connor McGoldrick The Cleaned and Organized Room - By: Seamus O’Connell Take Care of Yourself: An essay about responsibility - By: Ryan Panagakos ¨Listen to other people's opinion¨ - By: Christopher Simone Always Watch the Stove - By: Jahir Morris “Do your own homework” - By: Thomas Moy
Introduction - Mr. Donohue One of the more powerful tools that Google has added to its arsenal of lineup 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 title “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 student wrote about their own childhood experiences and how these have shaped who they are today. When the class complete their first draft, they edited. And edited, and edited until they created hey 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
It’s Not Always Just About You - By Ian Doyle When I was first born, I had five years to myself without any younger siblings. I was an only child, and I had everything I could’ve ever wanted because it was all mine, I didn't have to share it with anyone.I was a little spoiled but until that day I never let it go to my head. It was 5 years later when the first “little bro” came. I liked the idea of being an older brother, I thought that was going to be pretty cool but me being my stubborn little self when I was younger. I wasn’t too fond of the idea that I had to share now, at least I did not need to change his stinky little diapers. When I first saw him he was so tiny and cute but he grew up very fast. Before the age of one he was walking and talking and he was fun to play with. I was sort of getting used to the idea that I needed to share and not only think about helping myself and what I wanted only, I needed to start seeing how I can help out my little bro but I didn’t fully understand that yet. Until two years after the first little “bro” came, the second little “bro” came. That’s when I started to realize, I needed to help out more, and at that time I was seven years old. I have finally accepted the fact that not everything was not about me anymore. I started to help my brothers and my parents with whatever they needed me to do. I started off by just doing little things to help out around the house, such things are like cleaning the the dishes after dinner. My mother was now able to do one less thing, out of the millions of things she does for me and my brothers. Then, I started to help my brothers with their homework and then I would do my homework after their homework was finished and ready to go. When my parents would get home, everyone homework will be done so they do not have to worry about helping my little brothers with their school work. I would do the laundry, so my parents can rest when they get home from a long day at work. I would always try help people before I would go do my own thing or help myself. Now, that I am fourteen years old, I am more willing to help out my family and just helping others in general. I am now more aware that I need to think about how others feel and how would things I do affect others and not just how these things affect me. I find a hoppy in helping people because it gives me a good feeling inside. I learned a very important lesson that I follow in every aspect of my life today, is to be altruistic which means to think about others before yourself.
Face the Music - By Nicholas Battaglia When I was eight years old, like many other kids I was a defiant child. I was a rambunctious boy, and I just wanted my way like many other kids. The only difference was my parents weren’t going to stand for this. Like other parents, they chose their battles. There were certain things I got away with, like staying up an extra hour here and there, but overall my parents weren’t going to tolerate a wild eight year old. It started out not wanting to do my homework. My parents have always been very strict when it came to school work. My mom double checked my work to make sure I crossed my T’s and dotted my I’s. My mother is what I, and everyone else calls a “perfectionist”. At eight years old this doesn’t quiet work in your favor. I would constantly test the waters, but one time I went too far. I decided that I didn’t want to do my English homework, which consisted of writing an essay in order to practice for the state exam. This was the first year I would be testing with the state, and the first year they had changed to “common core”. It was important that I got enough practice in before the test. However, I explained to my mother that it was a waste of time, we were working on it in school, and that I was physically too tired to write. My mother insisted that if it was a homework assignment, it had to be done. I insisted it wasn’t going to be done, and I refused. My mother quietly put my books away and sent me off to go watch TV. “I won!” I thought, I got away with it. In the back of my mind, I wasn’t sure what kind of game this was. I questioned if she would wake me up and make me do it in the morning, it was strange she had let me get away with it. I was happy, while all the other kids were writing; I was relaxed watching my TV. The next day, I went to school, my mother didn’t have any type of attitude or resentment regarding the night before. She just sent me on my way. The day was a regular school day, I took out my books, I listened, I participated. Then it was time… time to take out your essays. My third grade teacher explained that she had us complete the essay for homework that night because she wanted to give us a free period, with no homework over the weekend. She came around to check everyone’s work. I sat there quietly, hoping that she wouldn’t notice. Sure enough, it was my turn and I didn’t complete the assignment. The teacher asked the reason I didn’t complete the assignment, I turned beet red with no explanation. I had nothing to say, no excuse. My mother made me “face the music” at just eight years old. This means that my mother made me face the consequences on my own. She didn’t write me a note, or an e-mail or excuse for my missing assignment, she made me face my teacher. I remember sitting out completing the assignment while everyone had an extra free period at recess. In fact I didn’t complete it during the free period which turned into a weekend assignment, (lucky me). However, it was a lesson, a lesson that I will never forget. Facing my teacher without the
homework assignment showed me that we are all responsible for our actions. In fact, I think one of the biggest faults I see in other kids, and even adults I know, is not owning your mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes, you recognize them, correct them, and grow from them, if not life is going to be very difficult. I see my friends walk in day after day with missing assignments, late assignments, copied assignments, and this is just high school work. Then I see adults, friends of my parents, who overspend and continue to make the same mistakes over and over again. I overhear conversations about losing jobs, and homes. When will people take responsibility for their actions? I, on the other hand have learned to take responsibility for my actions. I come home, I do my homework, if I need help I reach out to resources. My mother doesn’t coddle me, or write e-mails and letters to my teachers. I don’t waste extra time in school in detention, my weekends are for me. I am responsible for me.
The Steps to Becoming A Young Man - By Tyler Chapman Life is a roller-coaster, you have joyful times and as well, highs and lows, mistakes and achievements, and everything else in between. Most people believe things happen for a reason, others believe we have a fate, a destiny that we can not change here on this planet. None of these beliefs have been proven, but I wasn’t brought up that way. My parents always taught me to become the person I want to be, things aren’t guaranteed in life you have to work for it. My grandmother would always tell me ”God has put you on the planet to make a change in the world, you might not know what the plan is exactly but God has given you the talents to do something and you shouldn’t let them go to waste.” Some of my family, friends, and other supporters tell me they see something special in me, I just have to find it for myself. When I was just starting kindergarten I would give up on a lot of things easy. I failed to do homework if I felt it was too much work, I wouldn’t listen to my parents and teachers if they told me to do something I deemed too hard. The worst part of all of that was my attitude. Some said I developed it from my mom, but some of it was my own doing as well. In class I was always deemed the class clown because I would crack jokes instead of doing work. Most kids that were class clowns didn’t know how to do the work, but I did it because I was bored. I was simply uninterested and didn’t see the point of doing work I already knew. I was a quick learner but this lack of effort needed backfired in certain events. It would translate to outside of school as well. The lack of being focused and being an overall lazy person as well as my attitude added up to being a very irresponsible boy. Now you are probably wondering what 5 year old has responsibility, but I would
do the easiest things wrong. I would lose something new everyday whether it was coat, gloves, scarfs, hats, pencils, crayons, and one time even my right shoe, you name it I lost it. My parents would always be upset with me, but it would go out of one ear and out the other due to my bad attitude.I would always get punished when I lost something, whether it was taking away my video games, no tv, or earlier bedtime, but that didn’t stop me. I didn’t wake up until I was older when all of my friends could get out of the house whenever they wanted to, they could go places without themselves, get on the bus or train by themselves, had keys to their house, but still I was still treated as little kid. It made me realize that it was time to grow up and be more like the young man I needed to be. All my mistakes in life are simply lessons, I have been reminded time and time again to always look at the positive things in the situation instead of always asking for a “re-do”. Things happened for a reason, but it’s up to me if they happen again. My decisions, attitude and maturity level has developed servilely since my pre-teen years. I rarely get in trouble in school and my grades have raised to A+’s instead of A’s and A-’s. I am taking school more serious and it has paid off. At home, I still give my parents headaches, but them as well as my family, friends, coaches and other supporters are proud of me, which makes me strive for even better results. The lessons I have learned while becoming a young man has put me in a great path, now it’s just my responsibility to make the responsible decisions.
How do you win? - By: Allen Corona How do you win? Can it be answered in one word or in one sentence? Can it be answered by practice or do you realize you won after you accomplished your goals? The meaning of winning can vary depending on who do you ask. From winning championships in sports to getting the job that you wanted, the definition of winning is universal. My old baseball coach asked our team what the meaning of winning meant to them. One kid said it was when a pitcher pitched 5 or more innings and their team was able to sustain a lead. Another said it was practicing over and over again. The last one said that it was what made people happy. None of them were wrong because that was their interpretation. However, my coach described winning in three words: desire, hard work, and discipline.
It is part of human nature to have the want to succeed. However, getting to succession is the long road where taking a wrong turn could lead to not being able to make it there. In theory, your dedication is what drives you to want to succeed. When i was in middle school, people who did not get good grades lost their desire to succeed. They wanted to get to their high school of choice but they did not want to study. It was like they wanted to skip steps but that makes it harder to win in the end. Their idea of a win was to get into the high school they wanted but their desire to study was not there. I found in life that skipping steps may look like the easiest way to win at first look. Once, I had a baseball practice before a game to warm up and i did not want to do the stretches. So, i went all the way to the back and while the coach wasn’t looking, i pretended to do the stretches. Then when i was playing in the game, i felt a little stiffer than usual. Because i did not want to do the stretches suffered the consequences in the end. Hard work is also a key in the road to winning. When I used to play baseball, I didn’t like having practices 5 times a week and then a game or two on the weekend. My coach said it was needed to win but i just saw it as doing the same thing over and over again. That was where my desire was lost and I stopped working hard.I lost one of the keys to winning. When you lose dedication, you don’t want to work hard to win. Instead, you don’t care about the end result. But thanks to my teammates, as we won my desire came back, i worked hard and wanted to win. For now, i can’t play baseball because of my back so hard work applies to studying for upcoming test and quizzes and focusing on doing good in school. People who did not know how to behave in middle school got a C and a D in conduct on their report card. Then they would go straight to the teacher and complain about why they got the grade they got. If they had the discipline to learn that it was their fault, not the teacher’s fault, that they got the grade they got in conduct, they wouldn’t misbehave for the next report card. However, they didn’t have the discipline to work better which always reflected on their grade. The balancing of fun and work is part of discipline. It a tough thing to do and in my case, I always enjoyed having fun before working. But as you grow up, it's important to learn that work comes before fun and if you have fun while you work, then your just killing two birds with one stone.
Make Your Own Lunch - By: Nicholas Farkash It all started one Saturday morning when I was in sixth grade, my mother told my brother and me to make our lunches for the week. At first, I wasn’t sure why she told us to do it, as she was usually the one to make our lunches. I first considered that she was currently occupied with something else. This notion was discredited, however, when she sat on the couch and turned on the television. Afterward, I believed that she was merely tired and needed to relax. However, the phone rang and she started yelling enthusiastically with her friend in Maryland. I was perplexed as to why my mother had instructed the both of us to make our own lunches. Up to this point, she had made our lunches. Nevertheless, I knew there was no use in arguing with her to get her to make our lunches. After conceding defeat, we each made our five lunches for the school week. The following
week, she told us to do the same. This repeated for a while until I began to assemble my own lunches without her asking me to do so. Unsurprisingly, I still make my own lunches to this day. Even after all of this time, I still don’t want to do it. It’s not fun having to take time, albeit 10 minutes, out of a Sunday to make 5 lunches. Each lunch included a sandwich, a water bottle, and (if I wasn’t feeling particularly lazy) a small snack. It was very tedious work having to struggle to get the aluminum foil sheets out of the box, then writing my name on each paper bag, then getting out what I needed for the sandwich, then assembling the sandwich, then putting a water bottle inside, then getting a snack, then putting everything away, then stapling each bag and finally putting it into the refrigerator. It was as monotonous as it sounds. Regardless, I did it anyways. It benefitted me because I made the lunches I wanted to eat. If I wanted a certain snack, I could put it in my lunchbox. Didn’t feel like having the same sandwich? Just make a different one. I had complete control over my lunches. This is something I see a lot of other students complaining about. “I don’t want to eat this. I don’t want to eat that. I’m tired of having the same lunch every day.” This is an issue that can be completely nullified if they would care for themselves and make their own lunches. Students wouldn’t be whining over the blue Gatorade they got if they put the red one in themselves. If you want something done right, do it yourself, no? Apparently, the others wanted no part of it. Instead of making their own lunches and being happy with what they eat, they prefer someone else to do it and then complain about it. Give your son his lunch, and he complains for a week. Teach your son to make his own lunch, he eats for a week. In the end, I’m glad my mother told me to make my own lunch. It taught me many life skills, such as organization when trying to fit everything into a little paper bag, responsibility when remembering to take a lunch in the morning, and self-care so I know how to make food for myself. Sometime in the future, I will be in college. Instead of just making my lunch, I’ll be making breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I won’t be taking care of myself until I get home from school in a few hours, I’ll be taking care of myself until I get home from school in many months. I’ll no longer rely on my parents to make my own food. If anything, I’d probably be cooking for them when I visit. Some of the others in my dorm will be starving, not even knowing how to work a microwave. This won’t be me because of what my mother told me when I was in sixth grade. “Make your own lunches”.
Do Everything By Yourself - By: Sebastian Libuda When I was younger and to this day, I was taught to help my parents around my house to make their life easier. I was always too lazy to do all these chores. I thought my parents just didn’t want to do anything and they made me do it. Was it to annoy me? This was most certainly not the
case. When I got to an age that I could do more things by myself and understood the meaning of helping around the house , I realized why my parents always asked me to help. I always have a job around my house. There were many times when I didn’t know something. If I ever didn’t know something I was to ask. One time at about the age of 10, I didn’t know how to make my bed. I was struggling for about 20 minutes. I finally decided to ask my grandma what to do. She told me how and then step by step showed me how to do it. I finally knew how to do it. I was excited! Even though I knew how to do it now, I still always asked. I saw that asking someone for help could benefit me. I would now be able to do something that I didn’t know how to do before. I finally realized how much making my bed could benefit. It opened up a wider view of life. Even the littlest things like this helped me. By the age of 13, I understood the meaning of making my bed, doing laundry, and cleaning my house. Making my bed would would help me improve my life, even if it sounds as stupid as it is. It was to teach me the basics of life. One day during school in 7th grade, our teacher was talking about always helping our parents. She talked about how learning new things can benefit. She told me that parents always ask you for help and want to teach you new things. It was at this moment that I realized how important these task were t and how much they could help. Simple things like this would make me feel accomplished and proud of myself. My mother always told me, “ The smallest things can teach you the most, so do as much as you can in life to achieve the most.” From that day I started to listen to that. That one little saying helped me achieve so much to this day. From getting good grades to completing simple jobs around the house. As I got to the age of 15, which I am currently, I realized that doing all these things around my house as an adolescent have helped me to this day. Now in high school, I found out by myself that life was no longer going to provide all the things I need. I would have to do a lot of things on my own. My teachers always say that do your own work and you will benefit from it. It will help you later on in college and life. I could immediately notice the people that have never done anything. They are always lazy and asking everyone for everything. As I pursue my dreams, finish high school and go to college and later on life, I will realize the real meaning why my parents always wanted me to learn and do everything by myself. They always wanted me to always try, even if I failed to succeed. This proved to be true. Ever since my parents told me this, I have been trying harder to succeed. I have seen results because of this. I am in all honors classes and have a 4.0 GPA. This taught me to take care of myself. I am now able to do almost everything by myself. The most valuable lesson in life is to be able to take care of yourself and to be able to make or do everything by yourself.
Do It Yourself! - By: Nicholas Lercara When I was younger, my parents always told me not to forget things. I always thought, for the first four years of my life, that my parents would do everything for me and I wouldn’t have to do a thing. I was wrong. After a while I wouldn’t be reminded to bring things to school, nobody would buy me something that I probably would end up not using, and I would have to do things myself because my mother told me that she wouldn’t help me anymore with simple things. Unless I had a tough task ahead of me, I was on my own to do it by myself. One day, I was at the store with my family, and I wanted to buy a toy. I asked my mom for $20, and she said, “No, use your money.” I got upset and kept begging my mom and dad for money, and they wouldn’t budge. Eventually, my mom asked me why I wouldn’t use my money, and I told her that I didn’t want to. Then she said, “Do you not want to use your money or are you not going to use that toy?” She made me realize that I wouldn’t have used it and I ended up not getting the toy. This made me think about being responsible about how and when I use my money. This has happened to me many times and my mom, dad, and even my sister tell me to think more. My family helps me a lot but I should be more responsible, and they wouldn’t have to help me with things like how to spend my money anymore. A few months ago, I walked to school in sneakers and forgot to bring my school shoes with me. Once I realized, I called my dad and asked him to drive them to me at school. He said, “No, you can get a detention for not being responsible for your belongings.” After a short argument, I ended up running home to get my shoes and made it back to school on time. As I ran in my button-down shirt, khakis, tie, and sneakers, people looked at me with weird expressions on their faces. I realized that if I were responsible enough to bring my shoes to school with me, the people I saw would not have looked at me weird and I wouldn’t have felt humiliated. This helps me, now, to remember everything that I need for the day before I leave my house, so I don’t get embarrassed.
Responsibility is key to living a good life. It teaches people like me, to do things on their own. Right now in my life being responsible can help me do good in all my classes. Later on in life, responsibility can help me get a good job. Finally, all throughout life responsibility can help me choose good people to hang out with and call my friends.
Pack Your Bag - By: Connor McGoldrick Ever since I was 8 years my mom has been telling me to pack my bag. Ever since then my parents have told me to bring my all my stuff to school, my games and practice. If i didn't bring my stuff I didn’t play and I would miss out on the game and just have to sit on the bench and just watch. I would just sit there and watch for the whole time thinking about all the fun I was missing out on. I thought it was my parents fault for not reminding me to bring my cleats, shin guards, or my jerseys. I didn’t know back then what they were trying to teach me but now I understand. I know now that my parents were trying to teach me to have responsibility for myself. When I was 9 I remember asking my mom when we were in the car driving to Canada to play my championship game “did you pack my away jersey?” and she simply replied “Did you?” Then for the next 10 hours I sat in my hotel room thinking about why I just didn’t make sure my bag was packed. I was thinking while frustrated of why my mom couldn’t have just done it for me. After the 90 minutes of me sitting on the bench I was near tears after my team lost the game wishing that my mom just packed my jersey. But this taught me a the most valuable lesson in life that no one is going to do everything for me. I started to realize this as I grew up in. Especially when I went to 7th Grade. As everything in school became much more difficult such as the more books I had to remember and the hours of homework I had and I had to remember that no one was going to pack my bag for me. I had to wake up and realize if I forgot a book that was a detention or a zero because I was wasn’t responsible. I remember walking into school feeling like I forgot something then when I walked into math class only to hear my teacher saying “everyone hand in your take home quiz” I looked in my bag and I didn’t see my math folder. The next day when I saw a zero on edline I knew what my mom was trying to teach when I was younger. Now I realize the people who weren’t taught personal responsibility. These are the people who don’t have a pen during a test. Or the kid who doesn't have the one book his teacher asked him to bring. These are the kids who make their moms pack their bags for school and have them make
sure they have their uniform, and gear for their sport. The ones who whine when to their parents and blame them for getting a detention for not having a book. I wasn’t going to be that type of kid. I would have my books my bag would be packed and I would be prepared. The day before when everyone was joking around my bag was packed and I doubled checked to see If I had everything. After I realized the lesson my parents were teaching me i wouldn’t make the same mistakes again. I would know the kids who who didn’t pack their own bags. They would be the ones with nne of their books. They would be the ones who were sitting on the bench without their gear. I wasn’t that person. I was the person who was responsible and didn’t need to rely on anyone else to do things for me.
The Cleaned and Organized Room - By: Seamus O’Connell Has your dad or mom ever bust into your room and start yelling at you to clean it up? Ever since I could remember one thing that came with the privilege of having my own room was having to clean it by myself. I used to be lazy and always see if i can put it off until later. To me, this was the only negative part. Don’t get me wrong a room to myself was and still is one of the best things ever. But the negativity of cleaning it will always be looming over my head. Why do I need to clean it? Can it be done later? One specific day, I was supposed to head to my friends house for his birthday party. I came downstairs all prepared and ready to go but when i hit that last step, my dad hit me with that one question i hate, “Did you clean your room?”. Of course as an eager 10 year old waiting to go to your best friend’s awesome birthday party, I did not have my priorities straight and that room was a mess. I just wanted to get to that party. But my dad, who at the time was looking out for me, told me to make sure it was clean or the party was a no go. My eagerness made me go back in the room and clean it. I made the bed, cleaned up my games and toys, and made sure everything was in the right spot and organized. Of course as a dad he wanted me to soar to the heavens with achievements and always wanted me to dream big. But at the time I didn’t understand that he was teaching me to be
organized so I could do the things I dreamt to do. And since he taught me to be organized, I think it has helped me to be where i am at. High school was a big change, and being organized is important. Similar to when i was 10, like my room, having a Clean locker and the motive to check for all of your books, is necessary to succeed. Simply because of my dad making sure i cleaned/organized my room, doing these things
Take Care of Yourself: An essay about responsibility - By: Ryan Panagakos As soon as I got to an age where I was supposed to help, my dad would come home from work and start asking me if I made my bed, cleaned my room, and brought everything that belonged to me to my room. Was he just trying to annoy me and make me do things that I thought of as unnecessary? Possibly, but he was also trying to teach me that nothing in this world is done for you. By making me do these “unnecessary” tasks, he was illustrating the point that you have to do stuff on your own and can’t rely on somebody else. When I was younger, I used to forget to bring my belongings up into my room. My dad didn’t remind me to do these tasks. I thought he was just being more laid back but at the end of the week I began to notice that my belongings started to pile up. My dad said, “See what happens when you don’t take care of what you’re supposed to do.” The point he was trying to get at was that you must be more responsible. I didn’t pay much mind to this lesson at the time but little did I know how important this lesson of responsibility really was when I grew older. When I got into middle school I found that the workload was much greater than the workload in elementary school.. I had to balance my time between schoolwork, baseball, basketball, and any other activities I took part in. I had to be able to get my stuff done. I was able to see in my peers who took care of their own responsibilities and who relied on their mom or dad. The ones that took care of their own responsibilities would have their homework due friday done by Wednesday because they knew they had other stuff due Friday. The ones who didn’t take care of their responsibilities would have it done on the due date. I was able to see all of this just by the lesson my dad taught me when I was younger. This helped me be more responsible and more organized which helped me by more mature.
¨Listen to other people's opinion¨ - By: Christopher Simone When I was a lot younger not listening affected smaller things. But I have noticed that not listening when I should affected more important parts of my life such as baseball. You should listen to other people's opinion, especially your elders. Kids today think they are right and that their parents or other guardians are wrong. But parents or guardians know these things through experience. They are right even though you say ¨ what do they know, they don't even do this or that.¨ In my case my parents were also right.. One time ¨ I was at the batting cage, a place to practice hitting baseballs. I thought I was swinging correctly, but i wasn’t. My brother tried to correct me but i didn't listen. I was mad that he tried to correct me cause i was sure I was hitting well.¨ Years passed and I continued to do this and swing the same way up until this offseason. I noticed after i started hitting right, that they were right. They were saying the same thing when i was doing it wrong. All the time i've been swinging a bat, i have been doing it wrong up until now. I would think i was right and my dad and my brothers were wrong. Or at least i tried to fix my swing and listen but i was just so mad that i couldn’t bring myself to do it .¨ I only found out they were right up until recently when I thought I finally figured out how to fix it. But after i realized i noticed they were right all along. If i had listened before i would have been hitting the best i have ever hit before. You should listen to your Elders when they say something. This applies to me because I now listen more often because i could learn something.
Always Watch the Stove - By: Jahir Morris At last, I was finally allowed to use the stove of whenever I please. A long awaited reward for reaching a state of what i’d call maturity. Maybe my parents had gotten too old to cook meals on a regular basis, this is my chance to prove my intelligence, or so I thought. As a middle school student I always enjoyed the chance to take over in the kitchen. Fetch the spices, chop the onions, and boil the water were the usual tasks. The
others my mother would handle as she did many other task around the house. For she was both the woman with the most control in our house, and the eldest one at that. HOWEVER despite how enjoyable it may be, there was always one rule it’d behoove me to follow, straight from the matriarch herself. “Always watch the stove”. Of her many cement rules, “wipe your feet”, “put away your dirty clothes”, this one was of utmost importance. I can still recall, it was late that night, with the faintest whiff of confidence swirling through my head. The stove was on and the water boiling, the only condition for preparing macaroni. I poured the contents of the box directly into the steaming pot and covered it with the appropriate lid. It should only take 8 minutes at the most. There was nothing to this cooking thing. Then it happened, the television was on and I couldn’t help but veer away from the kitchen and watch intently on whatever show was on. I’ll only watch some, but by then i’d watched an entire 15 minute episode and the boiling pot had left my adolescent mind. Finally i’d realized that the stove was still on, and the pot of water was boiling over as a volcano on the Hawaiian coast. I switched off the stove and stared daggers at my ruined meal, overcooked and unappealing. Luckily my mistake only affected me, no one else was home and I just had to go without lunch that day. Since then I made the effort to watch that dreaded stove whenever I could, even when nothing was on. “All eyes on the stove”, that was my creed. Subsequently, i’d returned to my usual task just as before, but my mother had other plans. It was an ordinary night so many months ago, my mother let me fry the chicken for the family dinner. Unfortunately the only bird properly cooked that night was my goose. I rested the thinly sliced chicken in a pan of oil and sat in wait for them to brown. But a thought came over me, why wait in boredom when I could play a game in what would otherwise be wasted time. Minutes went by, first 2, then 5, and soon enough 13 had gone by with not a single thought about the searing poultry. Soon the faint smell of burning chicken came flooding into my room and deep into my nostrils. I rushed back to the stove with careful swiftness, only to find my mother standing over the pan with a question that looms over my head til this day. “Didn’t I tell you to always watch the stove?”. I could always tell when someone had failed to watch their stove, even when said stove was loud, could talk, walk, and earned a degree in teaching. They’d always ask questions when it was time to give answers, when all eyes were upfront, theirs were down low, and when reports were given, they had nothing to show. I on the other hand was happy to show my grades. Just as a carefully
watched stove delivered delicious food, a carefully tended to class will deliver the most tantalizing of grades. “All eyes on the stove”, that was my motto. Til this day, as an honor student in 9th grade, I model myself after that very important lesson. From checking for my metro card, to completing my assignments. All wouldn’t have ever been possible if I couldn’t watch my stove.
“Do your own homework” - By: Thomas Moy When I was in grade school, and the class was assigned homework, some kids would wait to the last minute, then ask a friend for it continuously until they found someone who did it. I was not raised to be like that. If I tried, my parents would tell me to do it myself. I didn’t realize this was to teach me responsibility, just like most of the rules parents make. If I didn’t know how to do my homework, it was simple, ask someone. Having older siblings at home made new work easier for me than some other people. Occasionally when I would be too sick to go to school, my father would repeat the same thing, “Get the classwork and homework from your classmates, and what you can’t get bring home as soon you go back.” Eventually I thought he was just repeating himself over and over. I understood what he meant, but for the moment, I’d forget and get absorbed in something else. Like many kids and some adults, I wouldn’t take something seriously till it happened. I recall, when I was younger, I missed a few days of class and I didn’t understand the topic when I went back to learn it. Asking other kids how to do the work didn’t help. Just sitting there staring at the paper thinking about what I could be doing instead of trying to learn the material doesn’t help either. After being sidetracked from the work and the day done, I went home with no clue what the work was or meant. Once my parents arrived, they would ask the normal parent questions, “How was your day?”, “What did you learn?”, and I gave the normal answer, “Boring… nothing new.” My father would ask me if I caught up with what I missed and I’d reply with a faded response. After managing to tell them I didn’t get all the work I missed I would get lectured about why I need to get the work that was missed, and how it’s gonna affect me later on.