Advanced Essay #1 : Growing Up?

Introduction :

This past summer really took a toll on my writing skills and one of the goals of this paper was to get back into the groove of writing. At the beginning of the year, Mr. Block asked us to write a journal entry on how we view ourselves as a writer, and I wrote that I felt like I was a really bland writer. To combat this, another one of my goals was to try my best to be creative throughout this essay. Some parts that I am proud of are my scenes and my larger idea. I put a lot of effort into my scenes and I think I did a really good job creating a larger idea. However, I do feel like need to work on keeping a consistent idea throughout my essay.

Growing Up?

My mom, brother and I were in the car, the sun beating down on our faces, only to be relieved by the clouds that drifted past. I took a quick glance to the left, then to my phone, then to the side of my mom’s head. We had just gotten in a huge argument and her face was as red as the chilis growing in our backyard.

“Hey Mom” I whispered

“I don’t want to hear it.” My mom had made her point clear.

In the midst of silence, our car started to slightly angle right. As our car rumbled down the street, everything seemed well. Well enough to not see what was coming. At the speed of a jolt of electricity, our car suddenly veered hard right towards the side of a truck.

I shouted “ WATCH OUT!”

In a split second, all I could do was brace for impact. I shut my eyes closed, hugging my bag so hard that my knuckles turned white. All I could hear was the horrible sound of metal crunching, the terrible screeching sound of the cars sliding against each other, and the crack of my window. Opening my eyes, I turned to the left, my mother struggling to get control of the wheel, then to my right and to my feet, the window like a balloon popping, a million pieces of glass covering my body like a blanket on a cold night.

Miraculously, my mom got ahold of the wheel and managed to get our car to the nearest curb. Escaping what would’ve been the tragedy of having our car stuck in the middle of the road, the emotions finally got to us. Like a choir joining in unison, we all broke down. The morning was already tense and the car crash did nothing to help.

In that moment, I figured my mom was just going to continue crying and hopefully everything would work itself out. Boy was that not the case. She was on the phone for what it seemed like hours, phone to ear, the hot summer sun dripping down all of our faces. Adulthood wasn’t waiting for her. My mom couldn’t just sit in the car and wait for life to figure itself out. She had to take control of the chaotic situation and take responsibility.

My mom has been a great role model in my understanding of responsibility. 16 is a weird age to be. You feel you’re old, but not that old. You’re two years into high school, and only have two years left. You feel like you can make smart decisions, but then you go off and do something really dumb.

I have messed up one too many times when dealing with responsibility. Every year my friends and I run our church summer day camp. Once campers, we became counselors, directors, financiers, and whatever else was needed to run a camp. On the second to last day, we were all feeling like cars with only a half of a gallon left in the tank.

I remember one moment distinctively. Amidst the loud booming bass coming from the speakers that rattled the floors, there was one little kid who was crying in the corner of the room. Body swallowed by the superman cape he was wearing, I hesitantly peeked through the cracks of his cape and tried my best to assess the situation.

“Hey Jaden, what’s wrong”

“Me and Marlene were playing tag and she pushed me.”

“Jaden I’m sure it was an accident.” I was trying my best to calm this kid down.

“No it wasn’t! She laughed afterwards and went to play with some other kids.”

After 5 minutes of he said she said banter, I decided that the best way to handle the situation was to let the kids handle it themselves. It didn’t seem like a big deal and I had more important matters to attend to.

What I thought was a small matter, quickly escalated. Jaden’s parents got involved and my friends and I tried to resolve the situation, but nothing was working. It was only until my father got involved that he was able to apologize for our mistakes and convince the parents to let the kid still come to the camp.

Growing up, I always thought I was ready to be on my own. I could handle the big things in life. All I had to do was hit the check marks : go to college, get a job, start a family, go through a midlife crisis, and retire. It seems as if that’s not the way life works. It's not linear, not exponential, but it's chaotic. A chaos you can't really prepare for, but a chaos that requires a great deal of responsibility, in both good times and bad.