Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Parents from A Long Way Gone

"In particular, I remember a final match that my team, which consisted of Junior and some friends, won. Both my parents were at the game, and at the end, my mother applauded and smiled widely, her face glowing with pride. My father walked up to me and rubbed my head before he held my right hand and raised it up, as he declared me his champion. He did the same to Junior. My mother brought us a cup of water, and as we drank she fanned us with her head cloth. The excitement caused my heart to pound faster and I was sweating profusely. I could taste the salty sweat that ran from my forehead to my lips. Standing there with my family, I felt light, as if I were getting ready to fly. I wanted to hold the moment longer, not only to celebrate our victory, but because the smile on my parents’ faces that evening made me so happy that I felt every nerve in my body had awoken and swayed to the gentlest wind that sailed within me.” Page 210

I choose this because it reminds me of all kids. At a young age we live to impress our moms and dad with the things we do. But even now I, at age 17, try to do that with my parents. Our parents find pride in all we do too. Ishmael is just like any other kid in that manner. He feels so much pride and excitement that he brought joy to his parents. We all know the feeling of happiness that can overwhelm us as a child when our parents tell us “good job!” or “that was amazing!”

I also choose this because he used great descriptions in this paragraph. “I felt light, as if I were getting ready to fly.” and “…swayed to the gentlest wind that sailed within me.” are my favorite lines in the paragraph. They really capture how he is feeling in unique ways.

One particular occasion when I felt this was when I was 12. I had to give my first speech at church. My page long speech took me all night Saturday to write, trying to get it all right. My dad helped me out and gave my pointers, and words of encouragement. When you’re twelve you haven’t had much public speaking training yet so the next day when I was a kid with a mission and simply read my speech, not looking up once and reading straight through my writing. I was so nervous, I felt sick but at least it was over. Afterwards I remember my Mom having the biggest smile on her face “so proud of her baby girl.” I looked for my dad who I found with arms stretched out. He gave me a big hug and said I did an amazing job. I was so happy that day and they kept bragging about me. I felt like a million bucks.

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