coming of age draft 6

Everyone falls in love sometime in his or her lives, usually more than once. Some of those memories doesn’t last that long or maybe you want yourself to forget because some people just came into your life in order to give you a lesson then leave. However, there are some of them stuck in your head forever. Like first love, the first moment that you can feel your heartbeat, the first moment that you blush so bad that you couldn’t stop it.

  In China, it is almost a “taboo” if you start a relationship before college. People will judge you and try their best to stop those kinds of “unforgivable love” especially like parents and teachers. Unfortunately, I was the one who breaking the law at age of 12.

  Everything started like the stories in a typical soap drama. He was my desk mate. So one day, he called me and asked me to guess whom does he like. After a round of guessing nearly all the girls that I can remember, I was confusing. Then he said “you.” That word just made me feel ridiculous. 

  “Me? Are you crazy?” I guess that was the dumbest response I can ever give in my lifetime.

  Everything became awkward after that. I knew that there is no way we can develop our relationship because it is socially and morally wrong that time. If we were being caught, then I would lose everything, including “ I am a good student “ title and the trust from family and parents.

  But I said “ I like you” back 5 months later without consideration since I did like him.

  Life became amazing after that because love became mutual instead of one-sided. People will not be happy if they only giving but not receiving during a relationship. We both gained happiness each other and enjoyed the every single moments with each other.

  I still remember the first time we held hand. It was a English class, he sat next to him. It was August, there was only fan in the classroom so we can feel the hot air came in and out. Birds were singing freely outside. The teacher was standing in front of us talking about grammar. I was writing notes with my write hand and the other hand was on my leg. After a while, I could feel some hot air came towards my left hand. I was so nervous that I stop breathing. Then a subtle touch on my hand, very softly that I could ignore it if I didn’t pay attention. After observing me (which I pretended nothing happened). He gently grabbed my hand with his hands. All the sudden, all those thoughts were blowing away. My brain turned completely blank. I had no clue what teacher was talking about in front me.  I only could feel two hands in this university. I guess that’s the power of the love. The moment you couldn’t breath because you were so nervous about those two holding hands.

  Both of us stuck in that embarrassing situation because we don’t know what to do with those hands. I could feel that my hand was sweating, seriously, my hand was totally wet. I didn’t know what to do until the class was about to finish. So I tried to loose the fingers and let it go. Finally, my hand broke free. It was good to save my hand out of this embarrassing situation too.

  I never expected this would be my first holding hand moment, together with sweat and embarrassment.  And of course, with nervous and excitement.

  That’s the most brave things we have never done till the relationship finish later. I was even wondering if this can be called as a “ relationship” since there was nothing happened except that.

  What is a relationship, maybe it can be simply defined as mutual love and we are mature enough to realize this love. If that makes sense.

  We were braver after that, but that brave limited to looking at each other more, talking to each other more. Love does grows, and I could truly feel the glooming.

   All the stories have this “ but”. Same as this one. Teacher finally found out about this, as well as parents. We got into serious trouble. Our parents and teacher sat together and asked us to confess everything. We both got serious punishment from parents too.

  So we gave up. At the age of 12, we gave up liking each other because we couldn’t continue doing it anymore. The pain this love brought to us surplus the happiness we could get.

  It sounds like a lame story since there was no fighting back or happy ending of this story. But it did teach me what is love and it was one of those coming of age moment that makes me grow up.

  Love sometimes doesn’t last but memory does. 

Coming of age draft 5

  It was the summer of 1999 and I was 7 years old. My parents decided to send me to learn how to swim. I was terrified by this news. I was afraid for girl, and a typical 7-year-old girl doesn’t go to a intense swimming class. My dad is a very stubborn person in some ways, like this time. He thought having this skill would be very beneficial to me later in my life (which turns out to be right), so I became the smallest in that swimming class.

  It has been more than 10 years since that day, but I still remember the swimming room. It was really big and loud. When I entered it with my parents, no one noticed us. I was like a tiny dot in this giant world. Then I met my trainer. He is tall, muscular man with tan skin. He smiled to me and asked my name. I whispered my name because I was so nervous. He smiled to me again and said, “ welcome to the swimming class.”

  Then my parents left after encouraging me to try my best in this class and telling me that they have faith in me. I almost cried when I saw their back when they were leaving. It felt like I need to fight by myself in this world from now on.

   The first class officially began. We began to learn how to hold breath under the water. The trainer said what we need to do is just close your eyes and hold your breath. The moment my head went down into the water, the whole world was silent. I couldn’t even hear my heartbeat. It was amazing.  I did it, my first challenge.

  The next day is real swimming class. We started with how to float on the water. It wasn’t hard so I got it very quickly. Then we learned our first way of swimming, free style, which becomes my favorite style of swimming later.  I still remember the trainer told us to relax our body, the most important point of free style is the coordination of the body and the arms. It was really hard for me in the beginnings since I was too small to swim and know what is coordination.  But then I learned that nothing is impossible if you really tried. After I finish a loop, I heard the clap from the trainer and some other students. I couldn’t believe I did that. 

  Everything became easier after this class. We learned different other types of swimming later including breaststroke and backstroke. I pick both of them up fairly quickly.  I realized that I really enjoy those classes and the proud is built up everyday. Life is like this, when you are good at something, then you have confidence at this thing, then you will work harder to succeed in this area because you want to keep that proud. That was exactly how I felt that time. I learnt how to swim.

  The final challenge finally came. It was the final exam of this swimming class, indicating you pass this class and you learned how to swim.  My parents had no idea how much progress I made since the class started, so they were really excited to see my final exam. The test was really simple, you invited your family to come, and your trainer will tell you which two styles you are going to show, then you do each of them for one loop.  I was really nervous on my way because I wanted to show my parents the best I can do. I was even worried about what happened if I forgot how to hold breath. All those scattered thoughts came together, which made me really nervous.

  “ Free style and backstroke!” my trainer said.

  I was really happy to hear that because those two were my favorite styles.

  “ Start!!!!”

  I held a deep breath and jumped into the water. The world became silent again just like the first time I jumped into the water. Don’t be nervous, I can do it.  I told myself.

   I began to recall everything the trainer told me before. It went really hard since I was really tired when it went half way. I knew I shouldn’t give up but my body told me to stop. I was really small that time and all I think is what I should do and should not do. Giving up at that time is a “ should not do”. So I did it. I finish two loops without rest at the age of 7.

  When my head got out of the water, I can see my parents and the trainer showed their thumb to me and smiled at me. At that time, it was the first time I knew what it is meant by success.

  Life is full of successes. Everything becomes simple when you reach that point and every single effort you put in becomes meaningful. In my memory, this was the first success I had that I can clearly remember. Don’t worry about how hard the climb is if you see those encouraging eyes from the people you love. 

To kill a mockingbird

“ To kill a mocking bird” let us see a story in Maycomb about racism and unfair treatment to black in 1932 through a 6-year-old-girl Scout’s eye.

   The story starts with her lighthearted childhood. There is a house in their neighborhood, the man inside tie his son up and stop him from going outside. Everyone felt scary and gloomy when they come close to the house. Like other people, Scout and Jim decided to figure out what’s going on inside.

  Atticus is the lawyer in this town, as well as Jim and Scout’s father. He is righteous, honest and tolerable. He tolerate the naughtiness of his children but at the same time, in a certain ethical limit. He is a great father. He is also a great lawyer and loved by the people in the town.

  Then the case of Tom came. They said he raped a white woman. But actually they only took advantage of Tom’s kindness, as well as the discrimination from white to black to cover up the fact, or the sin of that girl. Atticus understand that blacks are just slaves in white people’s eyes, they are animal, they are dirty, and they don’t even have the right to fight for their freedom. If he decided to take this case, people will not allow him to do so and they are going to talk behind his back. But he is a lawyer. You only can see justice and truth in a lawyer’s eye. It’s their responsibility to stop the unfair things happening. So he decided to defense for Tom without hesitation. As expected, his life became much harder after that, his life was threatened as well.

  Atticus once said, “it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird,” it was the only time that Scout every heard Atticus say it was a sin to do something. “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy but sing their hearts out for us. “

  The part on the court is the center of the story. Most of the book is around the stories of the children, describing their childhood, as well as their fearless. Until here, we realized that what happened. Atticus showed his intelligence perfectly in this debate. He fully showed the evidence that it’s Meyalla seduced Tom and set up him in order to cover up the scandal. But in that time and society which whites are the supreme, they still lost the case and the court.  Instead of being setting free by the court, he got death penalty.  “ I am sorry for her.” This sentence shocked everyone, we all know that who is telling the truth. Then where is the justice? Where is the humanity?

  Atticus lost the case, but we clap for his debate.

  Some people think that Tom is the mockingbird in this book, but in fact, in the end we see that not only Atticus wants to protect the mockingbird, the mysterious Boo also wants to protect his mockingbird.  He even saved the lives of Scout and Jim on Easter.

  There aren’t very intense conflicts throughout the book, or other big words. It is a fantastic idea to see the world through children’s eyes.  There is no doubt that children are innocent and pure, they are always the one who see the true side of the society. They see the unfairness in the court. They thought their father can do anything, but they learned that facing the sins in the society, even the greatest people can be helpless.

  I thought the book will have a good and happy ending like other stories, but it didn’t. it was surprising, shocking and lead us into deep thoughts.

   The most depressing sentence in this whole book is when Atticus left the court, Reverend Syke said: “ Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your father’s passing. “ They don’t want to bother him, they want to give him some space. Atticus was helpless and he felt sorry for Tom.  But what can he do if he is the only one that fight for the right for blacks? 

Coming-of-age draft 4

  “ We are going on a cruise this summer!!!"  My aunt told me one day.

 “ What’s cruise?” I have never heard about that word.

  “ It means a trip on a ship. “

   A trip on a ship for me that time means Titanic. That made me so excited because I love Titanic. A trip on a ship means romantic for me, you will meet someone like Jack. And of course, you will have fun.

    Boys always know more about everything than girls except homework when they are small. Same thing applied to my cousin. We were both excited about the cruise, but he is more curious about everything. After his research about this journey, he began to show off how much he knows about the ship and this whole trip. He told me he know what route we are going to take and what they have on the ship. I wasn’t fascinated by his introduction because I like surprise. I am not a very organized person, I love going on a trip without knowing anything about it. I think that’s the fun about a trip.

  Journey is always unknown, that’s what made it exciting.

  That day finally came. We were going to start our trip from Spain.  Since I got on the plane to Spain, my heartbeat began to accelerate.  I was so excited for the adventure.

  I fell in love with that ship the moment I saw it. It has a beautiful name “ The voyager of the sea”. There were so many people waiting outside the ship. We were standing in the line waiting for delivery of our packages to the ship.

  It has been three years since that day, but I still clearly remember what I saw on my way to the ship, the connection corridor from the outside to the inside of the ship. It was amazing. It was like a street, with all kinds of goods.

   We stepped into the ship. If the connection corridor was a street, then the inside was a city, a huge, fantastic city in front of me.

  My cousins and I were so excited at that moment. We began to running around. It was more awesome than Titanic, all the fancy decoration were just stunning.

  “ Let’s start our adventure!!” My cousin shouted.

   We started from the basement. It was living place for the crew.

   It was rooms for travellers from the first floor to the second floor. We all lived on the second floor. I love our room.  We can see both sea and sky from our window.  The sea was so blue as well as the sky. They were just connected together like a painting.

  Later that night, we got the schedule of the first day including all the performances that would be on the next day. We pulled out our pens and circled the ones we were going to go tomorrow.

  It was the first supper we had on the ship that night. It was the dinner that we need to dress up. I have never been to a formal dinner before (We don’t have dinner in China that requires us to dress up).  It was so much fun getting ready for the dinner with my cousins. The dinning room was amazing. It was the biggest dinning place I have never seen. It was the first time that I saw so many people dress up at the same time.  My English wasn’t good that time so I couldn’t understand the menu. The waitress came helping me. He was the most hilarious and helpful waitress I have never seen. He kept making us laugh and tried to involve everyone on that table in the conversation. It was a great dinner and I really enjoyed the dinner.

  We went to watch the show after the dinner. It was a talk show. The two actors were really intelligent. We laughed till our stomach hurts that night.

  Then we realized that listening to a old man singing and playing piano is a really romantic thing. We watched the performance with my parents. It was really good to spend time with family.

  We were used to that ship after 2 days, we run through different performances everyday from circus, to ice skating, to movies. We were so busy every single day.

  I may forget the detail of that cruise later. However, the pictures indicate all those memories. It’s definitely one of the best memories in my life because some trips are just so special to you for some unknown reasons.  I knew the importance of family as well as getting to know a whole new world by broaden my horizon.

  I think it’s one of my coming-of-age memories since I felt I am more close to my future after that trip. My future is just like this cruise, starting with so many uncertainties and there is no way you can figure out what exactly is going to happen no matter how much research you did. That’s the fun of this journey. Just remember, always bring your curiosity, you hope and smile. Then you are ready for the journey of your life. 

Coming-of-age draft 3

  I have never had a pet till I was 15 years old.  Before that, my parents had the opinion that I was not able to take care of myself and a pet takes a lot more time and energy than I thought it would be.  I begged for a pet for so many years, but it didn’t happen. At the same time, my mom is always really afraid of animals especially dogs and cats.

  Only God knows how much I want to have a pet. I always saw the touching relationship between animals and human on TV and movies. Since I am the only child and my parents are always busy at work, it made me want to have a friend at home so badly so I can have someone to talk to when I am at home by myself. 

  It was the summer of 2008.  I was still in junior high school. My grandparents got a bird. Once I visited their house, I saw they trained the bird so well that they just left the cage open all the time. The bird flew in and out the cage all the time. He stood on my grandparents’ shoulders and get food from their hands. He is so tiny and cute, with green feather and a little white and green head. He turned his head to different directions all the time. I could see he was observing people in the house. At first, he was really afraid of me. He was terrified when I tried to come close to him.  With the time past by, I stayed in my grandparents’ house for a week, he began to open his heart to me.

  This experience made me have the thought of having a pet grew even stronger. I told my dad I would be at home for more than 3 months to be with my pet. I promise I will take care of him. I told him that I don’t need a pet like dog or cat anymore because I knew it won’t happen. I just want a bird. That’s enough for me.

   He finally agreed after a week. I think he couldn’t stand my “torture” anymore.

   I got a bird, same type as my grandparents have. 

   I knew we would be friend from the first time I saw him. He was jumping up and down in the cage because he was nervous. This made me feel disappointed because I want to be close to him as soon as possible but my dad told me this would just made him more afraid of me. I was told that I needed to be patient.

   “ I have a pet now!!! “ I shouted in my room. It was one of the best days in my life. I have never imagined that my dad would agree to buy a pet for me.

    I called my grandparents for advice about how to get close to him. They suggested that I should bring a book and just read beside him. He would be more comfortable around me after a while. So I did. I didn’t do anything other than just sitting beside him and reading. He was still jumping around for the first 3 days, then from the fourth day on, he became more quite, or more calm and comfortable with me. I was really thrilled by this improvement.

   The next day I tried to put food on my hand and let him to get food from my hand. When I put my hand close to the cage, he was nervous again. It didn’t make me give up. I stayed there for more than 20 minutes without moving my hand. He finally stopped jumping and slowly walking towards my hand. My heartbeat was so fast that I could almost feel it would bounce out of chest. He came, slowly and quietly. Then I felt his tiny sharp mouth pecking my palm.

   “He trust me now!!!” That’s all I thought at that moment.

   Everything became easier after that. Just several days after he can eat from my hand, I opened the cage. That’s the final step.

  I love to look at him flying around the house like a real bird. Bird supposed to fly freely like that.  But he never flies to me.

  One day, I was doing homework. He landed on my desk. At first he was pretty far away from me, observing me from there. He realized that I wasn’t going to harm him. He began to move step by step towards me. Then he jumped on the top of my mug, bowing down and drank my water, turning his green head and looking at me again. I smiled to him and continue doing my homework. Then he seemed released, he flied to me and stopped on my shoulder. I stopped writing because I didn’t want to scare him away. After a while, I turned my head carefully, he fell asleep on my shoulder! I can see his grey eyelid cover his eyes, his red feet ware covered by his green feather. I moved my shoulder a little and he was still sleeping. I guess he was dreaming.

  This is not just a process or a story of describing my first pet. The most important is this is the process of building trust between us. It also applies to human:

  This is also one of my coming-of-age memory because I realized that trust is not built in one day. We need to be patient and wait for a day that trust will find us. 

Coming of age-draft 2

“ Hey, can you help me with my Chinese homework sometime tonight?” ( My roommate)

 “ Sure. Just let me know.”

  November 11^th, 2011,7:30pm, 13 days before my birthday. I went into a study lounge to help my roommate with her Chinese homework.

  The study lounge was dark when I got there, the windows are pasted with newspapers. There is one leaflet on the door said “ Chinese study session”. So I opened the door.

" Happy birthday!!!!!! " They shouted. 

The room was beautiful, the most beautiful room I have never seen before.  I can see the blue sky from the window. The TCU football stadium stood out in front of me. The balloons are all over the floor. My name are made of balloons hang up on the window. There were piles of presents on the other side of the room. My favorite food, chick-fill-a was on the table. As well as two birthday cake. The decoration is so cute that I couldn't open my eye. 

The most important part is, all my favorite people are there. 

They are friends of my life. 

My memory went back to a month ago. 

It was a random conversation between my friends and I during a study break. It was about birthday party.

" WHAT??? You have never had a birthday party?" My friends were shocked.

" Nope, I have no clue what's birthday party!!"

They began to explain the concept of a birthday party. I guess they have never explain what is a birthday party before, so they were so excited to do this for the first time. 

  I listened very carefully, smiled and nodded. 

Right now, every single detail they mentioned that appeared in front of me. 

In addition of my favorite balloons, chick-fill-A and Michael Jackson's song. 

My tears finally burst out of my eyes, with joy and the feeling of blessing. 

No one knows how important this is for me. As a International student, I came here without knowing anyone. Everything is uncertain and unknown. I didn't expect to being accepted by here, including the environment and the people. I left home and my parents for the first time, I was ready for this challenge, at the same time, I am not ready. 

I walked to Target because I couldn't find people to drive me for the first several days of school. I cried because I saw all the students here have family to help with the move-in. I have to wait shuttle in the airport, dragging 4 suitcases all the way from the station to my dorm by myself. I lifted the bed by myself. I didn't eat for several days because the market square was closed. 

They are all past now. I met my friends after all of that. I found my friends who across the cultural and language barrier. I have never, never imagine this will happen one day. 

 It did happen. I suddenly realized that I am loved. I kept thinking back about how miserable I was instead of noticing all those important love around me. All the laughter, happiness and memories I created here. 

The first birthday party in my life began. It was also my first American birthday. 

I saw two birthday cakes, they are both hand made, the only difference is one had my Chinese name on it, the other one had my English name. 

I blew out the candle and made a wish. Thirteen people around me and sang " Happy birthday". I knew it would be one of the best memories in my life. 

Time to open the presents. One by one. They are all full of love and caring. 

And I got a scooter!!!! 

We played games for several hours, we jumped, we sang together. 

Time seemed stop moving that night, me too. I stop thinking about how hard for me to stay here. I began to look ahead, I know I need to appreciate what I have. No whining, no jealousy. 

You have to fight through some bad days to earn the best days of your life. 

Conversation parter-part 2

Yesterday was the second time I met with my communication partner. Since he has never been to market square, I suggest that we can meet up and have lunch in market square together. He gets off class at 1 everyday, I got out of class at 2 yesterday. 
 When I got there, he was already outside the market square. I introduced my friends to him. He looked nervous about meeting new people. So my friends introduced themselves first in order to let the conversation start. 
  I started with simple questions like how are you, how is your class. He told me is is fine and he had one test last week so he was super busy last week. Then I asked how was the test, he said it was pretty good, the professor told him that he is improving. I showed my thumb to him to encourage him. Then we began to talk about church, I asked him how was church this weekends.
  " Good. It's on the Hulen Street."
  " What kind of church is that?"
  "American Church", he said. 
  I smiled. I tried to ask him more about the church, but he couldn't understand it. So we changed the topic to Food. 
  My friend asked what's his favorite food. 
  "Pizza!"
  They have pizza in market square, you can go there and grab one, I suggest. He smiled and punch his belly to show that he already ate and he is very full. We all laughed. 
  "My favorite Korean food is stone Bibimbap! " My friend said. 
  " I like that too!!" He looks excited about this topic, I guess it's because it related to his hometown. 
  " What is stone Bibimbap?" Rest of us are curious about this food we have never heard about. 
  "It's when you put rice, vegetable and eggs together, you mix them! It's really good!"
  " Sounds really good!!" I said. 
  " I also like beef with BBQ sauce which is from Korea!"
   We nod to him and smiled to him.
   "So what are you going to do after this?" I asked after we finish the topic about food. 
  " I am going to pick up my cousins from school. "
   Then he told me he picks up his cousins everyday in the afternoon since his uncle is sick. I am touched by this fact. He doesn't talk much, but I can see he is a good person inside his heart. 
  "What about you?" He asked.
   I told him I am going to a experiment soon right after this. He was confused about the word " experiment". So we tried to use our ways to explain this word for about 5 minutes. 
  It's time to go. 
  " It's really nice to meet you, have a great day. I guess see you on Friday!", he said. 
  I like the way he talks, simple but you can feel the sincere on his face and inside his heart. 
  It was a great day.