It was the night of March 25th, and I couldn’t control my excitement as I settled down into my immense double bed and prepared to watch ‘Lars the Polar Bear’ which I had got as a stocking filler the previous Christmas.
As you may know, March 25th was a Saturday and that meant that a certain young boy had had a late night on Friday and had also spent the majority of the day terrorising ‘Captain Coconuts’. This meant that this certain young boy, namely me, was shattered to say the least! As soon as my head touched the pillow, I practically fell asleep straight away.
I was awoken in the early hours of the morning by a strange noise, possibly a ‘ghoulie’ lurking in the depth of my wardrobe. This was the least of my worries as I soon realised I had presents to open!
I ran into my parents’ bedroom, dragged them downstairs and noticed a huge ‘Happy Birthday’ banner strung across the living room wall. As my eyes were drawn away from the banner, I suddenly realised the presents lying on the sofa and began to tear open the presents. There were so many that I could barely see the blue embroidery of the sofa and so decided that I had better get a move on if I were to open all of the presents before nightfall.
Without trying to sound too full of myself, it has to be said that I was a rather bright child. This meant that I was able to interpret the hefty,
Paper- wrapped box lay at the side of the sofa as my ‘big boys’ present. As I didn’t want to spoil the surprise of the other presents, I decided to leave the big present until last.
After unwrapping about several pairs of socks, an uncountable amount of crayons and many other ‘useless’ presents, I was beginning to get a bit bored as you could imagine! To try and overcome this boredom and frustration, I tried to unwrap the more ‘interesting- looking’ presents. Failing this, I was unable to control my boredom anymore and so I wandered over to the large box. I tore open the box where it was because it looked to big and heavy to push into the middle of the floor, and as I tore off the bright wrapping paper, I was staring at a large brown box. “This isn’t very interesting,” I thought to my self and thought that big boys must like extraordinarily large boxes. It wasn’t until my mother told me to hurry up and open it that I realised that there was actually something in the box! I began to rip off the cellotape which help the box together and revealed a huge vehicle of some sort. A Go Kart! “Wow!” I thought to myself, I couldn’t control my enjoyment as I realised that I would treasure this for the rest of my life.
When I was about nine years old, I used to go and visit my Aunty Marge for the majority of the summer holidays, and she raised some ducks and chickens. One of the roosters was my favourite, he didn't have a name but I saw him as my friend. He had bright black feathers and a cockscomb and was about two feet tall. Usually, we played hide and seek with each other in my house and when he was a juvenile, he always crowed at dawn.
One day, my Aunty Marge told me if I could not stop him from crowing at dawn, she would slaughter him. Then, I told him not to do it any more. It was so unbelievable; he seemed to understand what I said. He never crowed again at dawn after that day, but he came to my window and kicked the glass to wake me up every morning instead. One day, I played in the farm and got dirt all over my clothes. My Aunty was so angry that she began to shout at me and as she did this, my rooster rushed to her and pecked her. Then my Aunty was hurt and her leg was bleeding. Possibly, it was one of the reasons that my Aunty Marge wanted to kill him. Even so, I tried to persuade my Aunty not to kill him or hoped she would relent. I even told her if she still wanted to kill him, I would leave her house and never come back. Unfortunately, she didn't take it seriously and so her response was, “Oh…ok…Go ahead! Bye-Bye!"
One night, I decided to do something to show my volition. That morning, I woke up early and after saying good morning to my Aunty I went out with my rooster furtively without my Aunty noticing. I left my house rashly and didn't take any food. I felt hungry all day long. My friend and I stayed in a small haystack that was made of straw. It was so hot there. I felt hungry, thirsty and tired; then I slept.
I don't know how long I slept until I was awoken by my Aunty. When I saw her face, it told me that I would be killed. Although, my Aunty didn't give me any punishment, I still wondered how she could have found me. That straw house was my secret spot. Theoretically, no one knew this place except my rooster and me. Certainly, I dared not to ask this question to my Aunty.
After a couple of days of disputing, I had no choice but to face the truth that my friend was sentenced to death. On a Friday morning, my Aunty held my friend and used the knife to cut his neck. Suddenly, his blood flowed like a fountain, and then he died. I was not sure whether he hated me or not. Even though I had witnessed the process, when he became the main course of our dinner, I ate his leg and cried at the same time.
I was about ten years old when I saw ‘Superman’ on T.V for the first time. It seemed he could do everything, so he became my idol. I really wanted to be a Superman. Finally I made up my mind to become Superman and so I called up all of my friends and said in front of my house, "Is there any body that can jump from that second floor?" A silence flew through my friends. I said, "All right, all of you are like chickens, but I can do it!" They said "Are you sure?" I said "Sure! And if I do it, I'll get all the marbles that you have, but if I fail, you will get all of my marbles. Good deal?" They said, "O.K" So I went up to the second floor with the Superman costume, stood at the edge of the floor for a few seconds, and took a deep breath. I felt cold because I was almost naked but what a brave boy! I jumped with my arms extended like Superman. During the flight, though it was just a second, I could see every eye of my friends get wider. "CRASH!" I fell down on the ground. And I was knocked out for just a moment. When I opened my eyes slowly I could see my mum's nose. I had to go to the hospital with my mum because a part of my tongue was cut in the crash. But I got the marbles later and I became the leader in my group of friends.
Another memory of mine was when I was still a primary school student; I liked to take trips with my parents. One day, when I was about eleven years old, I took a trip with my father. Through this great trip I gained my self- confidence and I could see beautiful landscapes and feel various emotions such as joy, sorrow, and appreciation.
My father liked to climb mountains very much. Whenever he took a trip, he would always take me. At that time he was a good climber and I also wanted to become a good climber. One hot summer day my father and I took a trip to Snowdon located in the North of Wales
In the morning we got up very early. I did not remember when I went to bed because I was excited about my trip. I could hardly go to bed after my mother sat down by me. My father and I got on the train and I was ever so sleepy. As soon as I sat down in my seat, I fell asleep and I slept in the train until we arrived at Snowdon
After a few hours we arrived at an entrance to the mountain and so we started climbing on the mountain. We prepared some cucumbers, water, and drinks before climbing the mountain. There were many people who wanted to feel and see the beautiful and gorgeous landscapes of Snowdon. They smiled at each other and looked very joyful. The weather was hot and sunny, but I could feel a little cool breeze which felt very nice on the back of my neck. It was not hard to climb on the first part of the mountain for an hour.
While I was climbing on the mountain, I continued to sweat like rain. I wanted to take a rest for only a minute, but I could not stop climbing on the mountain because father had said to me on the last trip, "You need to put up with some difficulties. If you can tolerate this pain now, you will be a better climber than me." He continued to encourage me.
The closer I climbed to the top of the mountain, the more my breathing became laboured. While I was climbing on a tough and narrow way, I could not think about anything except my goal - that I would become a better climber than my father. I could smell and feel my sweat. It was a little warm and slippery. Frankly it smelled not bad. We took a short break before we climbed on the top of the mountain. At that time the fresh and sweet wind made me feel so cool.
Suddenly I started weeping. I did not know why I wept for a while. I did not want to show my tears to my father. After I wiped my tears, I said to my father, "Father! Hurry up! I want to see the top." After two hours passed, I was able to get to the top of the mountain finally. My clothes were totally wet but this did not matter to me.
I felt so proud of myself and I thanked my father for helping and encouraging me. On the top of the mountain I could see the huge sun going down in the west. It looked like a prize given from God. The colour of the sun looked like a big fireball. At that time I did not know what he said to me exactly, but now I realized why he said something meaningful. He taught me the way to get over my problems in the future and helped me develop my self-confidence.
