Relay for Life

Andres Martinez

The Relay for Life is organization that helps in the fight for cancer.  The Relay for Life has many sponsors, or teams. The team I was in was called Amazing Grace, lead by a lady named Grace. I came with my aunt Nidya, and my brother Sebastion. Most of the adults at Amazing Grace are workers at Kaiser Perimanta. My aunt’s friend, Maria, and here children, Emmanuel and Antonio, also came.

The decoration at the spot of Amazing Grace was a Hawaiian theme. You would see boats, tikis, and lights. There was a banner that said the team’s name. Behind the team spot was my family’s tent. The tent was hard to set up because the grass wasn’t real. Since the grass wasn’t real, we couldn’t put stakes in the ground. So we had to do it another way. It was so hard that we had to ask   Emmanuel for help.  He helped us with the tent and then the tent was up. It was so hard and tiring.

At night was the most important part of the Relay for Life was the night. It is said to be the time a cancer patient begins surgery. Throughout the night, we think about the people who go through surgery to be cancer-free. At an hour after sunset, Nidya, Sebastion, and I went to the snack trailer to roast marshmallows. We talked to each other so much that we made too many smores. We couldn’t eat the all of the marshmallows, so we decided to give the away. They were all gone in about five minutes.  I was so happy that a lot of people are happy to receive free smores.  Then we went to our tent to talk to each other

After that my parents went to the tent to wish us good luck and good night. I missed them so much before they got to their car. I knew it was going to be a long night.  Then, we, the four kids, went to the tent. In our tent, we had a portable DVD to watch movies. The first movie we watched was a documentary about the legendary Swap tiger. It was about a man who tries to record the rarest tiger in the world. Not only did he film one tiger, but he also filmed an entire family of Swap tigers. Then we watch a DVD that showed a play, which I stared in. It was called Into the Woods.  After the movies, Maria, Nidya, and I went to Star Bucks to get some coffee.  Well, the kids got hot chocolates while the adults got coffee.

The morning one of times where a lot of things happen. There are raffles, yoga classes, and dance lessons. The hardest thing to do is take down the decoration. You cannot leave one thing or else you would be fined for it. The heaviest thing to carry was a tiki.  The thing   felt like thirty pounds so I had to take about three breaks. In the end, we learn to help people when in they are in pain.

   The Unfortunate Life of Willis

Andrew Nguyen

Legend says that Pinocchio once lied so much to the queen that she demanded his nose to be chopped off. Therefore, her royal knights found Pinocchio and snapped his nose off and threw it into the ocean. Almost one century after, a young pencil maker found a mysterious object floating near his boat. Not knowing it was a nose, he picked it up and made it into a pencil. Thus, the birth of Willis. So much time has passed that Willis had forgotten what he really was. But one day, he saw a puppeteer showing an audience of what puppets can do. After that, he remembered what he truly was, a puppets nose. He tried to search for a way to get to Pinocchio but failed. When he asked a knight where Pinocchio was, the knight would not show him. That knight was under the power of the new queen. This happens to be the previous queen’s daughter. She was told by the knight that a pencil was looking for Pinocchio. Since she hated Pinocchio, she did not want Pinocchio's precious nose to be found. So she foolishly told the kingdom not to let the pencil get to Spain, which is where Pinocchio was held. Willis began his epic adventure to Europe. He got to a museum and was found by an artist. The artist was not the smartest person around so he thought Willis was a normal pencil. But that was quite dangerous, since the so called artist was inexperienced. He dulled down Willis almost until he was just the metal end and an eraser. Upset, young, or should I say old, Willis got up and rolled away. Meanwhile, in the past one hundred years, Pinocchio had gotten meaner. He was optimistic for a couple of years, but the evil witch of a queen told him that he had to give up hope, for she had burned his nose. After that instance, he gave up hope and became an angry little fellow. Willis on the other hand, was not aware of the situation, and continued his voyage for the nose less puppet. One wise elder helped him out. He told him where Pinocchio was and how to get there. Another kind civilian helped Willis by giving him a ride on his horse. He then stopped before a forest and declared that he could not go any further. Sensing the dark presence of the mysterious forest, he was reluctant to go but he had to get to Pinocchio. Determined, he jumped onto a rat in hopes that it will run towards Pinocchio. Indeed it ran in the direction toward the puppet, but n owl swooped down and snatched the rat. Luckily Willis jumped off the rat in time. He must have done something good in his previous life because the rat got snatched three feet away from Pinocchio's cabin. But that mere three feet was a challenge for Willis since the floor was uneven with rocks and such. A gust of wind lifted up Willis and flung him straight into the cabin door. It had made a knocking sound so Pinocchio answered the door. The eyes of fire quickly turned into peaceful tranquility when Pinocchio realized that Willis was his nose. But, the queen had predicted this so she was there in an instance. With a swift motion, she swooped her arm like an owl catching a rat and grabbed Pinocchio and Willis and threw them in a box. She then ran back to her castle and demanded that the box be burned. The burner was the old kind man that helped Willis on his voyage. He realized what the content of the box was and replaced Pinocchio with a puppet and Willis with an ordinary pencil. He did his job and reported it to the queen. The queen was clueless yet ecstatic because she thought Pinocchio along with Willis had died. The old man, on the other hand, told Pinocchio to meet with the fairy and wish to have Willis to become his nose again. Upon meeting the fairy, he was overcome with greed and wished to become a boy rather than having a nose. So they became known as Pinocchio, the nose less boy, and Willis, the puppets nose. Strangely they had not died when the medieval ages were over. The new millennium had high tech equipment and could do what the dark ages would drool over. One of those things included plastic surgery. When Pinocchio found out about that, he became enthralled and got surgery done to his nose. Unfortunately, when Pinocchio had a new nose, he forgot all about Willis, and abandoned him. He swore to seek revenge on him. Unfortunately, neither puppet nor human wanted a dulled down old pencil. He was so depressed and decided the only way to end it all was to die. Therefore he jumped into a forest and waited for a wildfire in summer. Months had passed and Willis had changed his mind about dying. But it was already summer with heat to the max. He tried to get out but one day there was a thunder storm. Willis was still in the forest when there was one spark of lightning that started the fire. The blazing inferno ignited the whole forest in less than five minutes. This marks the death, of an old, unfortunate pencil.

   Love and Hate

Anh Nguyen

People came from all over the world. Different languages, color, looks, family, country, and more, but we do have the same things like, family, friends, love, we needed to eat and drink, play, study, learn and many more. But I don’t understand why do people love each other and hate each other, sometime that could happen to each of us. Not because that how life works, is just because we don’t get to understand or each other, we are different, just because of their looks, the word, the handwriting or anything, doesn’t mean we have to hate them.

Some people you thing is weird or retarded and more, that just what you thinking, but if you try to know a little bit about them, you mind like them. The reason why people act different because, each of us have a different things in life, family, like pain, hate, love, romance, drama, hard, easy, poor, rich, divorces, marriage, generation, and more.

If the world learns, know, help, teach, and forgive each other, everything will be change and there are will be more love.

   Calvin Smith

Danquynh Bui

This is the story of an orphan named Calvin Smith. He had resided in the place known as "The Institute" for almost his whole life, not knowing who or where his family was. Like usual, another day passed on by and he got rejected by yet another distasteful family (note:this is his 4th time being dismissed.) So, after being turned down so many times, his despondent self finally came into agreement with his body, to leave that retched institute that was no more than a prisonhold to him. Just as the guards escorted him out of the house, he accurately pinpointed the rib center of the man on his right and jabbed fiercely at that exact area with his elbow until the man lost his grip and consciousness at the same time and had collapsed on to the hard-brick floor. The man on his left quickly back-stepped and prepared to defend himself. Not worried at all, Calvin stared into the man with resentful eyes, and in that moment the man broke down and instantly tipped over head-first into the ground. Calvin, now feeling quite predominant, popped up a plan to visit "The Institute" again and exact out his thought on what it is to him. But little did he know that "they" had anticipated for this kind of defiance to happen from him one day.

 After walking barefoot through all the pebbles and shards left from poorly skilled construction workers, he had figured he wouldn't be able to overthrow the foundation like this; without anything to defend with or attack with, or even some decent clothing. He planned to get in the base as quickly as possible and just improvise after. Then the time came, and he was ready to be put into action... Calvin ran hastily into the building without being spotted and leaped into the resplendent sky, right into the thick glass window. But, unfortunately even his body could not rupture the cleverly designed windows and he dropped down 70 feet right to his doom. While having 30 feet left until destination: catastrophe, he put tension beneath his feet and used the air as a sort of force to get velocity. Pretty soon, he bounced off of the air and dived into the building again; but not the windows this time, this time it was the wall that was his target. KBOOOOOOMKKKK. Without any more preoccupation, he dashed up the stairs and soon found out that he wasn't injured much, only a few little minor scratches. As Calvin ran up the stairs pacingly, he detected a door labeled "Records Room" in the corner of his eye, and stopped thinking about "what he should do"; "what was mission, now?" Meanwhile, the administrators of "The Institute" were seeing Calvin's every moves, and deciding only to restrain him if necessary. Then Calvin waddled unhesitantly to the Records Room and busted up the strangely un-armed door. In the process of doing so he tripped up an alarm, that was only detectable to the human ear. Of course Calvin didn't hear it, for he was not a human; or at least he wasn't a fully functional one. Suddenly, guards encircled around him and he ran to the cabinet with the hidden records. Just as he reached the cabinet, only a few inches away, he was shot; right into his cybernetic back with the bullet accelerating out of this chest, and through the cabinet. Calvin slid into the cabinet and lied there gasping for air. As each guard exited down the stairs, a man stood there, slowly waiting for them to departure so he have some last words with Calvin. Eventually they all left, and the man opened the cabinet with ease, eager to show Calvin all the records that the foundation had kept all these years. The man took out many documents and sat down mannerly next to the boy who was still clinging on to his dispensable life. As the man opened each document, he showed that they all had one thing in common. Calvin, when he noticed, enlarged his eyes and screamed out miserably:"WHY?!" The man chuckled arrogantly and walked away in sure victory, while Calvin had tears in his mournful eyes as he wasted away.

 It was shown later that the one thing all the documents had in common, was that they were all blank; no information about the kids' parents, birthdate, nor place of birth. And that "The Institute" was no more than a hideout, for the notorious mastermind. Calvin and the others were just pawns to his game, his game of which we do not know of.

  Dragonball

D. Tran

Goku, a young boy with superhuman abilities, goes on his journey to search for the seven magical dragonballs. He starts his adventure traveling through the forest where he meets Bulma. A spunky blue-haired genius girl who has a radar to help find the dragonballs. They start off on the wrong foot with Bulma thinking Goku was a wilderness tarzan boy with no knowledge of the outside world. She discovers Goku has the 4-star dragonball and decides to team up with him. They travel around the searching for the nearest dragonball, but have difficulty finding it. They eventually find a base and detect multiple dragonballs hidden in there.

Goku and Bulma sneak over the fence and enter the mysterious enemy base. Inside they look through many rooms until they find the room with the balls in them. Goku had to defeat the guards to get them and it was a long, painful fight with them exchanging blow for blow. But in the end Goku stands victorious blasting them with his secret technique, the Kamehameha wave attack. An attack which focuses the user’s ‘’chi’’ or energy into a beam of light blasting anything in its path. Goku approaches the dragonballs cautiously so as not to step on a booby trap only to, ironically steps on one and gets locked in a cage that fell on him from the roof.

A mysterious man sneaks through a window and he turns out to be the evil Emperor Pilaf, who’s goal is to gather up the seven dragonballs and use its power to become ruler of the world. He takes Goku’s 4-star dragonball and the other two balls in the room and leaves the room running away. Bulma opens the cages door and Goku grabs Bulma and they quickly chase after him. They follow him up until there’s a river blocking them. Pilaf leaps over and dashes as so does Goku. Bulma looks for a way around and finds a bridge, she quickly crosses it and runs after them.

Goku finally catches Emperor Pilaf and tells him to give him the dragonballs, but Pilaf says only if Goku defeats him in a fight. Pilaf pulls out a capsule, a small pill that can hold items in it, and pulls out a robotic combat suit. He enters it, turns it on, and prepares to fight Goku. Goku attacks the suit relentlessly, but has no effect. Pilaf punches Goku in the stomach and Goku is down. Bulma watches the fight and tries to find a weak spot.

She tells Goku the top back of the robot is its weak spot and he quickly spins around it hoping to confuse it. He hops onto the back and fires a close range kamehameha destroying the suit. In the explosion Pilaf is sent flying far away. Goku takes the 3 dragonballs back and finds out Pilaf had the other 4 and takes them also. He finally gathers the seven balls up and uses its power to grant his one wish…however the wish came out wrong and a pair of panties was made from the wish.

Goku sighs and continues his journey with Bulma…all over again.

   Dragons

John Tran

Dragons, a mythical creature that everyone thinks it’s either a myth or existed. I believe that dragon did roam the earth. Like dogs, dragons have many different kind of species like the wyvern. Wyverns are a type of dragons that have a pairs of wings and two feet. Wyverns are the largest of all the dragon species. The most common dragon we know is the European dragon. It has two feet two arms and a pair of wings. This dragon can be red green gold or black. A dragon we might know is the Lung dragon. This dragon is a Chinese dragon that watches over the town of Chinese people. A gargouille is either green or grey and watches on buildings and trees. Marsupial, a Australasian dragon uses its large back legs to jump after its prey. An Amphithere is a feathered serpent, makes its home at ruined temples of South America. My favorite dragon is the Frost dragon. It’s pure white or white with blue or pink, this dragon attacks with a frosty blast.

Not all dragons are able to fly some dragon like the Lind worm have no wings but can run really fast with its two feet. The Knucker has small wings so they are unable to fly. This is a very odd dragon that has two little small feet and arms and a small wings. A story about this Lambton worm all started when John Lambton skipped out on church one Sunday and decided to go fishing instead at the river. In those days fishing was forbidden on a Sunday. When he threw his line into the water something grabbed it and yanked it hard. He manage to bring whatever the thing was from the end of his line to the shore and he was amazed it was the most disgusting, ugliest creature he as ever seen. It was about 3 feet long with slimy skin and the head of a dragon. Lambton was grossed out by the sight he just wanted to get rid of the beast. Nearby him was an unused well so he dragged the creature by the tail and tossed it into the deep, dark well. That very same day changed John’s world. When he looked into the evil creature’s eyes he saw himself, a person that did many wrong things and he wanted to correct them. In the well, the creature grew and grew large until it became a large extremely dangerous dragon and crawled out of the well. It ate sheep and cattle. John went to a wise woman for advice and she suggested that he make a suit of armor covered in long spikes. The heir of Lambton must make a solemn to kill the first living creature he saw after killing the dragon. If he didn’t do this deed then the town of Lambton would be cursed for none generations.

There are many more fantastic stories about dragons that interest me to believe that dragons really existed. All these facts and stories came from somewhere nobody knows but they seem to convince a lot of people to believe in such things. Some people say that all these mythical creatures come from magic. Dragons can still be on this earth right now. No one knows for sure about anything yet or found any. So the real question is do you believe in dragons?

   My Hero

Kristine Vo

Who is your hero?  Is it your Mom, Dad, Chuck Norris, a Pokémon, or is it one of the Ninja Turtles? Well my hero is, my older brother, Steve.  Now you might be wondering, “Why is this girl’s hero her brother and not a Ninja Turtle? “ Steve taught me about respect, kindness, and how to be a good person. Although I do admire all the Ninja Turtles, I admire my brother so much more than a few anthropomorphic turtles.

Throughout my life Steve was always there for me, cheering me up, picking me up from school, buying me anything I needed, helping me with homework, protecting me, making me food, shooing all the scary monsters away from my room, and understanding me.  Steve always told me about my mistakes.  Whenever pointing my mistakes out, he would always ask, why.  “Why were you there?”, “Why didn’t you do that?”, “Why would you do that?” He always made my see what I did wrong and own up to it. With every mistake came a solution. And with every solution, the better the person I became. I truly believe that part of the respect I give people is due to my brother’s guidance.

My whole family knows that Steve is the most kind and caring person. I admit as a little kid, I wasn’t really the ‘friendly one’.  I use to bite, kick, and pull people’s hair, even my brother’s.  But Steve wouldn’t do anything when I hit him. He would just let me hit him, for the most idiotic things, like a can of soda or the remote control. But no matter how hard I bit of kicked him he would always forgive me.  I would always look up to Steve, how kind he was to everyone and how everyone thought he was a kind and respectful.  Whatever he did, I would always try to recreate.  He was my role model.

The most important thing my brother taught me was to try your best in life. I still remember coming home from school, and doing my homework on the coffee table with Steve sitting next to me helping me out when I stumbled on a math problem, or when I didn’t use the correct grammar. Steve would always make me understand the problem until I solved the problem perfectly. My brother was a full time student and at the same time worked part time. I still remember walking by his room and watching him do his work. Steve was dedicated to his education.  With his dedication and hard work he earned a full scholarship, and set a standard for my academics. I learned from my brother’s achievements that if you try your best you can achieve almost anything.

Part the person I am today is because of my brother’s influence on my life. Without my brother I would have probably become a mean, grumpy, and lazy kid. But instead I’ve become a polite and respectful young lady. My brother is my favorite person in the whole entire world. I can always count on my brother to be there for me when I break down and then help me pick all the pieces back up. I love my brother.  Steve taught me so much in life. Steve showed me if I tried my best I can achieve any of my goals. Steve is means everything to me. Steve is my role model.  Steve is my hero.

  Nancy Bui

            A new school, again. Why am I not surprised? Ever since my mom got fired from her job, we’ve been moving around a lot. Now we’re in Los Angeles, California. My mom has always been concerned about me going to new schools and meeting new friends, but I’ve always been sort of an outsider. I didn’t have many friends at my old school, so it doesn’t bother me that I don’t have any now. As I took my first steps into Mary Hill High School, I saw girls in short shorts and tank tops. Great, now I know I’m not going to fit in here, I’m still wearing the clothes that my mom bought me.

            Almost a whole school day went by and not one person even bothered to talk to me, until in my chemistry class, a girl named Mirah spoke to me.

            “Hey there! My name is Mirah. I hear you just moved here from Washington. How do you like it here?”

            I responded, “Hello, I’m Olivia. Los Angeles is really different from what I’m use to.”

We didn’t have the most interesting conversation that day, but as weeks passed it seemed as though we were becoming best friends. We hung out with each other every day and it almost seemed like she was a sister to me. She wasn’t like most people in high school. She was talented in piano, singing, and had a passion for dancing. She was also a straight-A student, and was liked by everyone. Her life seemed almost perfect.

Then one day, I thought I would surprise her by visiting her house without her knowing. From the outside I heard screaming and objects being broken. I peeped through the window to see what was going on. There was Mirah on the ground, with bruises all over her face, and then I saw her mother, holding a plate over her head. And just when she was about to hit Mirah, I quickly ran to the door and started knocking rapidly, hoping that her mother  would stop. I heard someone yelp, followed by a thud. Mirah’s mom opened the door.

            “Hi Olivia, I’m sorry, but Mirah isn’t here right now. When she comes home I’ll be sure to tell her.”

            I stared at her, appalled at what just happened.

            “That’s fine, I’m sorry to have bothered you. Maybe I’ll come back later.”

As I walked away I felt disappointed in myself that I couldn’t help Mirah even just a little. For days, I didn’t see Mirah at school, and every time I stopped by her house, her mom would answer the door and said she was busy.  Every time I walked up to her door, I almost had enough courage to confront her mom, but it faded quickly when the door was open. I wanted to tell someone, anyone, about what I saw, but it was as though no one wanted to listen. A week passed by and I finally saw Mirah walking around in a park.

            I yelled out as I ran to her, “Mirah!”

She looked and hastily ran away. I stood on the sidewalk wondering what just happened and why it happened. When I got home, I got a call from her telling me to meet her at the beach. That night, I felt uneasy about what might happen to Mirah. As I thought more about it, I became drowsy until finally, I fell asleep.

The next day, I woke up and went to the beach to meet Mirah. We talked  and walked and we stopped on top of a cliff. Mirah told me that her mom started to abuse her because her mom started taking drugs and drinking alcohol and became more violent. Mirah showed me that there were not only bruises on her face, but also on her back and arms. She told me about how she wished everything would just stop. She wanted the relief in knowing that her mom won’t ever hurt her again. Then she told me she found away to get away from everything.

            I asked her, “How? Where would you go?”

            She replied, “Somewhere where no one can ever bother me.”

She then told me to look out in to the ocean and look at the horizon. I turned my head to see that the sun was setting. When I turned back around, Mirah was on the edge of the cliff, she looked at me, smiled and jumped.

A few years passed, and I still think of Mirah every time a sun sets. Her mom is now in rehab and ever since Mirah’s death, things got worse for her, she started taking more drugs and consumed more alcohol. Because of Mirah, I’m inspired to tell people about her story and to ask for help when they need it and not stay silent. Every day there are people who need help, but don’t have the courage to ask.  Now I’m hoping that with her story, more people will be encouraged to speak up.

   Technology

Timothy

Around the world many people use many things to get through life. Cell phones, laptops, and many other things you can think of. Many people take these things for granted and some people think of them as their life. Some people don’t know that technology wasn’t just flashy electric thingies that did stuff but that even the simple things could also be technology as well.

The wheel, one of the first inventions is actually considered as technology. You know I wouldn’t have figured this simple invention made by cavemen would be technology. But as animals evolved so did technology as the wheel turned into carts which got to chariots which later on turned to cars. So if you think of it, you might want to thank your cavemen ancestors for making the wheel are else you wouldn’t have skateboards, or your sport bikes or any other thing like that.

Electricity is a very important part of technology. It was made by Thomas Edison or yet probably not made by him at all. Thomas Edison only made things that used electricity but the one that really probably made electricity was probably god for all I know. You should know Thomas Edison’s start on the light bulb ended up making the television later. Electricity is used for a lot of things like powering my laptop that I’m using to type this five-hundred word essay. But even though electricity seems to be here forever it can really run out. Electricity is made out of energy which is made from all different kinds of ways. Some ways are very dangerous like nuclear power plants. Other ways are slightly safe but also have some consequences like being powered by water which can do something to the fish. I sometimes wonder why we can’t really power electricity ourselves using our own energy like putting a bike in front of the television and use the bike energy to power the television ourselves but I only usually see that in the movies. So, Electricity is an important part of technology so thank god and Thomas Edison together.

Rocks are an important part of making technology but they aren’t an actual invention. They were made into different things before like into knifes and weapons and hammers and other things like that. Rocks were also used for making energy like coal was burned to make electricity or if you rub two certain rocks together to can get fire. If you think of it rocks aren’t always just things you can throw around.

As I said before, many people take these things for granted not think of how people made machines are how they really work. Before us, other people did not have these things. For example, if people are fortunate enough to make a time machine, you would want to give these things to the people long ago so they could have it. The thing is, the people in the olden times would probably try to kill you as if you bring a car they would think “horseless carriage!” and would think you were some evil witch. So, things so simple can be overlooked so be more cautious about these things and thank who ever invented them.

   My Adventure

Travis Le

During this time of the year I was having a boring time at summer school. People were having fun and the teacher yelled at them for not doing work.  All of a sudden a car went through the building and made a giant hole in the wall. A few minutes later police cars went through the wall too. Everyone in the class got yelled at because they weren’t doing their work while the cars went through the wall. So some students wanted to check what happened, but the teacher yelled at them for going out of their seats.  So I started to check what happened after. When I got to the place the police caught the same person who drove through our class room wall.  When I asked the policeman, he said that the person had a valuable thing from an island. I decided to ask someone who has a helicopter so I can go to the island.  After hours of asking for a ride I find one. When I went to the island it exploded so I went to the island next to it. It took me about ten hours to find it.  When I went home I gave it to the police. The next day the sky was falling and I was not happy about this because people were not screaming “The sky is falling.”  Instead people were thinking that the sky was not falling.  The military accidently blew up the sky.  They had to do community service for blowing up the sky and they had to pay a fine too.  So I went to that same island, but it was harder because the sky was falling and many pieces of hexagonal pieces of the sky fell on the helicopter. When I went there something changed about the island. The island was covered with snow this time.  This time it took me twelve. When I went back home with the valuable thing I found my teacher and the policeman yelling at each other and the policeman was even louder than my teacher. I asked what is going on and the policeman did not answer because he changes the subject and they argued about if they should go to a movie or go somewhere to have fun with some people.  So the next day it was the end of the world and people were screaming and yelling “It’s the end of the world!” But it turns out that people found out that it was the end of the world. Then I went to the mall so I can get some food at the food.  But it turns out that every store was closed because they thought that rumor was true and I don’t have any food at home to eat. Now the helicopter exploded when I got there. Then I woke up in my boring class. I was so bored in class that I fell asleep and dreamed of all of that stuff.  When I went home my parent was cooking yummy food and I was so happy to be at my nice and happy home.

   Thai Phuong Nguyen’s Essay

            "No..... Daddy...... Please don't take him away!!!!!! He's can't be dead, don't take him away please!!!!!" I was screaming as much as I could as the doctors carrying him away. I yelled and tried to shake myself out of my mom's arms, but I couldn't, I was still too small, too childish to accept the fact that my father has gone to heaven.

            Even though I was just 3 when my dad had gone, but I can never forget that day, the darkest day of my life. He was gone when I was too little, I hardly have any memories about him, all I have left are some few family pictures at the beach some previous months; yet I value them as the biggest treasure of my life my dad's only pictures that left in this world. I knew I'd miss him badly since that time, and I also knew that my life would turn out to be harder than the other kids, whose has their father to guide them throughout the problems in their life. But I didn't using that as an excuse to give up in life, because I knew he loves me with all his heart and in every breath.

            6 years after that, I resided in San Jose, USA, another big step of my life that I was trying to get through. It was rough for me to be an "American," getting used to a whole new world without someone to help me through. When I first came here I enrolled in a mostly Mexican me, but they were very nice to me as they helped me in classes. Conversely, with different logic, of an outside look to the situation, my mom thought that it'd be better for me to separate me from the Mexican society, and try to get me to blend in with the Vietnamese as she moved to Evergreen area of San Jose. I was transferred to an elementary school near my house, and contradictively, the problem worsened. Those kids at the new school, they hated me to their guts. I can barely find a good friend, not talking about best friends at that time. Started from that historically point of life, the story was going downward.

            Fortunately, I only have to stay there for 2 years, and unfortunate side is who I was going to be meeting in Chaboya Middle school. As most of normal kids, I had my own group, eating lunch together, chatting all day-long and night-long... you name it, everything that you do with your best friends. But I was blind and accidently followed the wrong path. I crassly cursed, cut classes, I even popped.  My grades gradually falling, but somehow I still passed, ironically. Day after days, I'm stepping deeper and deeper in the wrong path. Until the second year in high school, I had been bad and didn't care about anything or anyone. I guessed there is no one cares about me as much as my dad to pull me back from the black hole of doom.

            High school changes you in every angle, and that is true. In my English 2 class, I wasn't pay that much of an attention or care to assignments in class, but my teacher, Ms. Frank, knew that my dad died back when I was a kid and easily conclude that my mom has to work double the work for me to go to school and have a normal life. O day she persuaded me to write an essay about my dad, so I did it. And suddenly, without notice, God had stepped in my life and changed me, brought me the old memories about my dad. I was missing him badly, and I realized my dad would've been suffered seeing me like this. I was hurt realizing that.

            From the moment God had stepped in my heart, I've changed. I eventually leave my so-called friends who turned me to the wrong side of the road. Meeting new friends started to study hard and all those encouragements and loves from others, my friends, and people at church, pastors, and top of all: God. I now determined myself back to study and having a successful career, be able to stand independently in this cruel world and last: To make my own father proud from heaven.

                                                                                                                        I love you, dad.