The Happiest Moments In Our Lives
My mom has always been one of my favorite people to chat and hang out with; we both have some similarities from our childhood, although we may look different. I used to live in Dubai, and my mom used to live in Kuwait when she was young. She said that the time she lived in Kuwait with her family was the happiest memory of her life, and basically her whole life changed since then.
"I was in second grade in elementary school," she started off. Since my parents live abroad, I talk to my mom on Skype almost every day, and the interview started off just like any other nights I would usually talk to her. She then counted back years to figure out which year it was back then when she first went to Kuwait.
"My gosh, it was 1978. Can you believe it? 1978?!" She was almost astounded to realize how many years had passed since then.
"No way. I would never be able to imagine what it was like back then." I replied.
Her whole family, including my grandpa and grandma, my uncle and two aunts, flew over to Kuwait, and it was my mom's first ever flight, not to be so surprised. I asked her what it felt like when she first knew that the whole family is moving to Kuwait, but all she answered was that she could not remember much, other than the country was somewhere she had never heard of before, but she definitely was quite young to have any complicated feelings in her memory.
"I remember the English teacher so clearly whom our whole family had lessons with altogether in one room. The teacher's name was Noel, and he was the first white person to meet ever in my life and he was British. But his image that I remember of him is not so good because he always had messy hair and beard on his face. It was such a shock. Well, you might put it as 'culture shock' as you would call it these days." She recalled her memory that I had never heard of all this time.
She also added that a whole family in one classroom to learn English was an extraordinary now she came to think of it. Her oldest sister was a middle school student back then, so she knew the alphabets at least, and grandpa was quite fluent in English too, but no other family members knew the alphabets at first. My mom got excited again to tell me how she was proud of herself to be the first one to actually read out loud some sentences from books.
"Grandpa used to have me sit down at desk and taught me phonetic symbols of alphabet, things like how vowels may sound different in different words. So, I memorized them and started to read off some sentences from random books and the English teacher was so surprised to see me read."
I then asked how it was like in school and she told me that she entered an international school after a few months of private English lessons. She apparently picked up the language really quickly as she was still young and did not have any problems in terms of communication in school. In fact, I was only able to imagine what her school would had been like as the school I used to go to in Dubai, as it was the only experience and memory that I can apply to. She told me that there were lots of kids from different parts of the world, and her best friend was a Swedish girl Anna. As I heard another name that my mom clearly remembered, I was able to infer how she has her experiences in Kuwait as such a good memory of her life. My mom used to be called as sea lion because she loved swimming and she literally lived in the swimming pool with her friend, Anna. Moreover, I know for sure that swimming is her favorite hobby as she still enjoys swimming even these days.
"I used to borrow books from the school's library and read every day. If I hand in a short writing about the book after I read it, my teacher would give me a bookworm shaped piece of paper as a certificate. I had my room's wall full of that and I felt so proud of myself. That time is probably the time I read most books in such short period in my entire life. I used to be praised from teachers all the time, and you'll never imagine how I was such a good girl."
I was then able to realize why she said that the time in Kuwait was her happiest moment in her life. Surprisingly, I did not have to ask her follow up questions to get her answer of what she did every day in school, but rather she naturally started to chat about it. Furthermore, her facial expressions showed that she sincerely has her best memories in life back then in Kuwait, where barely other Koreans in the 1980s knew that the country even existed in the world. On top of that, she mentioned that if she had not lived in Kuwait for a few years when she was young, she wouldn't had been able to enter the university and meet my dad, neither get a job as a freelance translator in broadcasting companies.
"You might not be here now if I didn't get all the chances that I was able to acquire as I lived my life so far. I might not even be here either. You see how moments in life seem like random pieces of a big jigsaw puzzle, but they all come together eventually in the end. It really is amazing how our God has prepared our lives in such meticulous way and He has all the plans laid in front of us. It's just us that we cannot see the plans given in life, and I think that is a little present for us too, so that we can look forward to every day to come in our precious life."
The interview ended happily, with a big lesson learned yet again. I thought that my mom's and my happiest moment in life overlap in such similar but different way, which gave me goosebumps. No wonder I had always enjoyed chatting and hanging out with my mom! We never know what is going to happen tomorrow, even in the next hour, but I now know for sure that every minute and second in life is a present given to us and we should be thankful for everything given.
201502643 Lee Ji Won
ReplyDeleteI liked your essay since it included many details and also well organized. After reading all of your essay, I could feel that the time in Kuwait was your mother’s happiest moment in her life. Especially I loved paragraph 11. The sentence “Surprisingly, I did not have to ask her follow up questions to get her answer of what she did…” and “Furthermore, her facial expressions showed that she sincerely has her best memories in life…” really showed how your mother had enjoyed the life in Kuwait and loved to tell the story to you. I think that’s the most important idea of your essay as you wrote as a title and as the thesis statement “She said that the time she lived in Kuwait with her family was the happiest memory of her life, and basically her whole life changed since then.”
However, the part that if your mother had not lived in Kuwait, she wouldn’t had been able to enter the university, meet your dad and get a job as a freelance translator was a little bit unclear. Did she major Arabic? Although it’s a minor part of your essay, adding some explanation on that would make your essay better. Plus, I couldn’t actually catch why you thought your mother’s happiest moment and yours overlap. Is it because you don’t know what would happen next in your life just as your mother’s life…? I’m confused..
To tell you about the quotations, I think there aren’t too many nor too few quotations, but the length of each quotation is a little bit long. However, it was still effective to describe the story of your mother and how she thought of her childhood memory. Especially the quotations in the 12 paragraph was very effective to show the way your mother values the life. To improve your writing, I would suggest to revise the part that was unclear (if your mother had not lived in Kuwait, she wouldn’t had been able to enter the university, meet your dad and get a job as a freelance translator was a little bit unclear.) and tell more about why you thought your mother’s happiest moment and yours overlap. Enjoyed your writing!
201502384 LeeSooKyung
ReplyDeleteI really liked your essay to read because you described about your mom’s life very well. I thought it was well organized and the quotations you used in this essay was specific enough to imagine the happiest moments of your mom’s life. However, I couldn’t understand exactly about the parts that you referred to how your mom entered the university and got married with your dad. Did you mean that your dad also live in Kuwait? It would be better to explain more about it. In my opinion, the thesis statement of this essay is ‘She said that the time she lived in Kuwait with her family was the happiest memory of her life, and basically her whole life changed since then.’ I thought this sentence could tell readers your whole story briefly and it might be the most important ideas in your essay. The reason is that it included the topic of this essay. The quotations described in the paragraph 6 was really effective to attract my attention to read your essay. I thought the number of quotations you used in this essay was proper but the length of them were slightly long to read. When you revise your essay, to explain exactly about the parts that I mentioned I couldn’t understand will make it better! Overall, it was really interesting:)
Writer's Plan for Revising
ReplyDelete201503676 Hong Chae-ryoung
1. It was not hard to organize an interview since I interviewed my mom, but I would try interviewing her in person if I had a chance to do it over next time. Talking over skype seemed slightly not enough to catch the exact details and feelings during the interview.
2. I liked reading out loud the second last paragraph, where my mom talked about how life is hard to expect but thankful at the same time because it really comes to my heart and make me feel like I am repeating it to myself. This basically is the most important value I consider in my life and it seems that my mom was a very influential figure in my life as I read out loud this quotation.
3. I actually excluded some details as I was worried that overly explained details might blur my thesis, but I guess such details were supposed to be included for the readers. I am planning to include how my mom mentioned that she might not had been able to get into the university, meet my dad and give birth to me if she did not have the experience in Kuwait. Moreover, I will try to include some more details in terms of five senses and lessen the lengths of the quotations.