Personal Narrative: Growing Up In High School

Growing up I never had time for anything. A normal teenage boy would’ve gone out almost everyday or just partied , what I basically , mean is that they would’ve been very outgoing and social. I on the other side I was a boy who didn’t had time to hangout friends , had to handle with work , school and sports. Waking up at 6 in the morning take a shower , change and by 7 had to get out from my house or I would’ve been late to school. Always had to walk , in the rain or snow it didn’t matter I had to walk because my older sister needs the car for her to go to college. After I get to school I had to do my do now for physiology and always trying to understand the class because I really don’t like science , but I had to try my best to get a good

grade. After physiology I had math , my favorite subject. People always complain about math because they don’t understand it, for me math is really fun , the best part is where you have to solve. I always tried to get a 100 but sometimes I get a 90 or 98 and I get upset about it even though my friends tell me that that’s a good grade but I don’t think they will understand. Math is over now is English. English for me sometimes it was easy and sometimes wasn’t. When it comes to words that has definitions I would not understand it why ? Because I only learned spanish till I was 6. When I was 6 I had to go to Japan to visit my father. I went to Japan I did not understand what other people were saying because I did not knew how to speak Japanese. People might say japanese is the hardest language to learn but telling the truth it is really not that hard.

First day of school in Japan.

I go to my class I expected that I was the only kid that was not Japanese but I met a friend who was from Brazil his name was Andre. I know we don’t speak the same language but we could understand it a little bit because it kind of sounds the same.I had lunch and after lunch we had to clean the school , this is something different schools from here in United States and there in Japan, the students are the ones who clean the whole school. I had to clean the bathrooms and the stairs, after that I had my first class of reading , I couldn’t read anything at all , they took me out from the class and took me to a class where the people who did not know how to speak Japanese. I go to that class and there were 4 people , 2 of them knew how to speak Spanish , other one was Andre and the other one was a girl from Russia. My teacher knew how to speak 8 languages, Spanish , Japanese , Portuguese , Russian , English , French, Chinese and Tagalog fluently. It took me a year to learn how to speak Japanese. They took me out from the program and I got to take normal classes with others, after that I had to deal with bullying. All of the Japanese people calling me “gaijin” which it means foreigners and non Japanese. When I had one japanese friend they didn’t let my friend to hangout with me because I wasn’t japanese. Years went by and I was in 7th grade I walk through the hallway and hear people screaming and I feel that the school was moving. It was an

earthquake , glass from the windows were broken , after that it was the tsunami. I couldn’t sleep all night because I was scared. The schedules for the school changed , we only had classes till 12 because we couldn’t had food because the earthquake and the tsunami destroyed the road and the truck that always brings the food for us couldn’t come through. It was terrible. Months went by and my parents made a decision come to United States because there was no place to work.

After spending 7 years of my life in Japan and coming to United states to accustom to a new environment wasn’t easy. I had to work hard and learn how to speak and write English which I still struggle to do today as you can see. I had to go school I remember it was in the middle year of 8th grade I thought the students were going to bully me like the japanese people did to me. But I was wrong. They actually treated me right when I told them I came from Japan everyone were really friendly to me. They started inviting me to play soccer which it is my favorite sport , I was really good at it. I played 3 years for the high school team, and a month ago we won the sectional state championship. I always dreamed about being a professional soccer player since I was 5 years old. But just because I want to be a soccer player I did not stop studying or concentrating in school. I was always concentrating in school and soccer , I always keep myself away from trouble and stopped going out and be social. I always stayed home doing my homework and after doing my school work I always go outside and run at least 2 miles to keep myself healthy . I can’t hangout on weekends either because I have to work. But my friends keep telling me that I should go out sometime and take a break from work but they don’t understand that I’m working because I want to pay college with my own money instead of making my mom waste money for me because she already spent too much money on my little brother because he has Autism and she spent about more than $3000 on his therapist and with me she spent the same amount of money when I broke my wrist because we both don’t have insurance and I had to come back home watching my mom stressing and sometimes crying and it makes cry too because it hurts me watching my mom crying when she has to go through this when she didn’t do anything wrong. That is why I am working really hard and focusing on school to be successful to make my parents proud especially my mom by going to college.

Since both my parents only finished high school , it would mean a lot for me and my family. I want to make them proud. I want to show them that all these years that I was in Japan and here in United states learning Japanese , english and playing soccer was worth it and by my knowledge of Japanese , spanish , english and my skills of playing soccer I could get somewhere and be successful. Going to college would give me many opportunities that I wouldn’t have if I didn’t go to college. Not only do I want to be good at sports but I want a good education. By going to college would help me to get a good paying job and benefits , and by getting that good paying job I could help my mom to get what she deserves.