The Book of Our Lives by RAHS EL

THE BOOK OF OUR LIVES Copyright ÂŠ 2018 by Roseville Area High School EL Level 4 Students. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

For more information, or if youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d like to purchase a copy of the book, contact James Housworth at james.housworth@isd623.org

Book and Cover design by Canva Design

The Book of Our Lives

THE BOOK OF OUR LIVES Written by Roseville Area High School EL Level 4 Students

Contents MY LIFE ............................................................................................................ 9 MY FIRST TRIP TO MEXICO ..................................................................11 THE STORY OF SURGERY ......................................................................13 WHEN I HAD MY FIRST QUINCEAÃ&#x2018;ERA ........................................16 TAUGHT A BULLY A LESSON..............................................................18 MIDDLE SCHOOL DEPRESSION .........................................................20 THE FALL.......................................................................................................23 MEXICO: GOOD OR BAD? ....................................................................25 THE FIRE .......................................................................................................27 THE TIME I LEARNED ENGLISH ......................................................29 BEST FRIEND ...............................................................................................31 HOW I LEARNED TO SPEAK ENGLISH ...........................................33 LEARNING ENGLISH ...............................................................................36 CHILDHOOD MEMORIES.......................................................................38 MOVIE THEATER.......................................................................................41 GOING TO AMERICA ...............................................................................43

Dedicated to our families

MY LIFE Written by Anonymous

can feel the struggle and hurt in me. I watched my years go by but never changed. I struggled to find happiness in my life. I seem to be miserable in my life. I often see myself in the darkness and as a failure. The main reason I thought like this was because of school, I was failing my freshman and sophomore year. Now that I’m doing better in school I slowly watch my dreams die. Ever since then, I started thinking of suicide because I felt like there was nothing to live for. I’ve been down so much that I didn’t really care for anything ever since the end of my sophomore year. Now I reflect on the past and it hurts me so much to see me fail now. I just wish it was a bad dream, I want to wake up to my past to change it before it does happen. I never thought depression would ever come into my life. I use to see myself doing good and being successful. I always saw myself going to the U of M studying for who I wanted to be in life. My options was being a surgeon, a doctor, a football player or being a mechanical engineer. As soon as I started posting depressing things on my Snapchat story, people started checking on me and tried to comfort me and cheer me up. They said I should start talking to people about my problems. When I started asking for help, people gave me tips so I don’t reflect on my past mistakes. They were helping me so I can look into the future and not reflect on my past. Every time I look into my past, I always think of bad things which is not healthy for myself. I had people who cared about me which was one of the reason I am still here to this day. They wanted to help me because they loved me and because there’s much more for me to live for In the future. Even though I failed, I can

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still fix it in the future. I always thought it was late to redeem myself and change my life. Now that I overcame depression I have gotten stronger and stronger every single day. I learned all these difficult things in my life. You only get one life in life so you must overcome all the bad things in life and make them positive. I learned to ask for help when I’m feeling down. People taught me to love myself when I couldn’t love myself. People told me things about themselves, about how they failed around my age and redeemed themselves later on. People told me it’s alright to fail because everyone is a failure. When they was telling me all these things that happened in there life, I didn’t believe all the things they said. So during my depression I almost tried cutting but I was scared to do it. But when I was thinking about it, the thoughts got stronger and stronger. I thought about giving up but people helped me(friends). They prevented me from hurting myself because they cared for me so much. I never thought friends would be there for me even through my hardest times. When I knew my friends were there for me I tried to snap out of my thoughts but it was too strong for me. My friends recommended me seeing teachers and a therapist and talk to them about it. I just hope I never go back to those thoughts ever again because when I think about it now it gives me chills because I can’t believe I was going to do that to myself. I made music to release my anger and sadness. I told myself it was my fault for getting in this position that was one reason why I hated myself. Every time I look in the mirror I only see my past self who got me in this position. I am a junior now and I see what happened in the past and wish I can change it. I couldn’t deal with the pain that I was through. I needed help. One time I had a knife in my hand but was scared to do it, so I threw it away. I got help and I am feeling much better now. I hope my future will keep shining.

MY FIRST TRIP TO MEXICO Written by I.M.

could feel my heart with excitement when my mom sent me the message I watched the sentence pop up on my phone “you can go!!” As I told my friend I could feel the excitement in both of us. When I first found out I was going to Mexico for the first time was when one of my friends were telling me that he was going to Mexico with his sister “In a couple of months me and my sister are going to Mexico!” My mom was good friends with my friends parents because they are all from the same part of Mexico. At that time I still didn’t have my passport. Right away the next day we found out they were going we went to go get my passport. When we were there my mom said “I think maybe it’s to late and the passport might not come in on time” and that maybe I might not be able to go. My dad had to pay extra so the passport would come a little earlier. That give me a little hope that I would be able to go. It was a week before my trip and my passport still hasn’t came in the mail. At this point I kinda knew I wasn’t going to go but I still had that little hope in me. my friends would always ask me “did it come in yet?” My answer was always no. Then it was the day before the trip. That morning I didn’t even care to go check the mail one last time. I just remember being sad and mad because I was really looking forward to this trip and I knew for sure I wasn’t going. Later that day I went to go hang out with my friend because he was leaving to Mexico. We were at a fast food restaurant eating our food talking about the trip that i wasn’t going to go then suddenly I get a text from my mom. I open

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the message and it was a picture of my passport! I remember being super excited I couldn’t believe it my friend also couldn’t believe it. My mom told me to come home right away so we could book my flight. That day I had to get everything I needed for my trip. The tickets were super expensive because they were for the next day. We also had to go to like a million of stores. I was super stressed out. When I got home I started to pack but a lot of my clothes were dirty. I had to go put all my clothes in the wash and hope it would dry in the morning. The flight was at 6 or 7 I just remember having to wake up at 4 almost 5 in the morning. I had to pack my last minute things and wait for my friend to pick me up. Finally they came and I had to say goodbye to my family I was super sad I almost cried. This was my first ever trip leaving my family and I was going to be without them for a whole month. We got to the airport this was also my first time flying. I was so scared but also excited because this was my first ever trip! Overall I think this was a great experience. I got to meet a lot of new family I have never met from my mom slide and my dads slide I also got to see uncles and aunties I haven’t seen in years. They would all say “omg your so big” or “last time I saw you you were a little baby” I would just laugh. I also made a lot of new friends and I got so much closer to my cousins,grandma and grandpa I hope I get to go again someday. I will never forget the times over there because that was the best summer ever!

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THE STORY OF SURGERY Written by B.G.

was 10 years old, I had water pop in my thumb. I used to pinched it with the needle because I wanted to get rid of it, but it used to hurt when I pinched it with the needle. I was kept trying to get rid of it and keep pinching it with the needle, it was still there when I came to United States of America. After I get in here, I was still pinching the water pop. It’s was after six months my thumb started to getting bigger and bigger, it was very painful. My thumb color changed into a dark green. I was curious of what’s going to happen next. When I looked at my thumb I felt gross. It used to hurt a lot when I wrote with my right hand. One day I was washing a dishes, my thumb hurts so much that I couldn’t stop my tears coming from my eyes. And my sister saw me wiping up my tears, she asked me what happened, why are you crying, but I didn’t say anything to her about my thumb. She were kept asking me about what happened, so I told her about my thumb and I told her to not tell mom and dad, but she didn’t listen to me. Then she ran to the mom and dad and told them about what was happening in my thumb. When my parents knew about it they literally yelled at me in loud voice. They asked me why I didn’t tell them about my thumb, I said because I was scared that they would go to the doctor and tell about my thumb and I was sure that they would cut my thumb off that why I didn’t tell anyone about my thumb.

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My parents were kind of scared when they saw my thumb because it was bigger than a normal thumb. They took me in the emergency hospital, but I don’t remember the name of the hospital that we went to first time. But when we get to the hospital, they said they couldn’t do anything there about my thumb, but it’s was so serious that they have to put oxygen on me at that hospital. So they informed to the Region Hospital and after an hour they took me in the ambulance to the Region Hospital. They put a lot of wires on me when I was in the ambulance, maybe they were checking my breath. When I get in to the Region Hospital they talked to me and my parents about my thumb, when we all were done with the decision, we were agreed with doing surgery. After the surgery when I woke up I saw a big putted long pipe in my arm. And it used to hurt so much when they used to changed my bandage. I stayed at the hospital for like two weeks and they sent me home. I didn’t go to school for like three months, they sent a teacher and nurse in my home to teach and to put injections and checked me how am I doing. Finally, I went to school after long time. I was sitting in my classroom and everybody were just staring at me, it’s maybe because it was been a long time that I went to the school. I had to wear a cast in my arm. Some students from my class asked me about my hand they said they asked “what’s wrong with your hands, are you okay?” I said I had a surgery in my thumb and I’m good. Later on people started to make fun of my thumb. They said my thumb looks bad and ugly those kind of harsh things and it was very hard for me to ignore what people talked about my thumb. Whenever I looked at my thumb and think about what people said about it, I started to cry and feel bad about myself. And I said I wish they could stop judging me and look their at own self and think that even a small things can hurt people feeling. If they were in my place how would they feel about it. I talked to my parents and said that I want to make my thumb normal like other people. But when I had surgery again it end up being same and now I don’t care what people says or think about my thumb. I’m happy being myself and about my thumb. Some people think my weakness is my thumb, but for me that is my strength because I have different thumb that makes me different and it also makes me feel unique. When I was in elementary, middle, and high school, I saw a lot of my classmates have bad handwriting even though they have a normal thumb, but for me, even with a ugly, thumb I’m able

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to write in good and clean handwriting. And I feel like no one should judge anyone from how they looks.

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WHEN I HAD MY FIRST QUINCEAÑERA Written by D.G.

t was one mid-sunny day I was in the house with my mom watching T.V and after a little my mom asked me “Daniela do you want a quinceanera” and I asked her “what is a quinceanera” so my mom explained to me what a quinceanera was and after she explained it to me I also asked her “do I have to dance in front of a lot of people” my mom said “yes you do have to” after she told me that I started to get nervous. After a while I was excited for my quince but I was scared to dance in front of a lot of people that I would embarrass myself and also of how I would be clumsy and trip on my dress but i calmed down a little and kept my cool so i don’t get to nervous so i wouldn’t mess up on the dance. So I started looking for dancers but it was kinda hard though because I asked my friend if he wanted to one of my dancers but he backed out on me so I just asked my friends if they wanted to be my dancers and they said yeah so I was happy. And it was easy to find my padrinos to dance with. And It was easy to practice the surprise dance because it wasn’t that hard and everything. The day when my quince came I wasn’t naturally good at dancing and when I started to do the surprise dance with my friends me and my friends were nervous to dance in front of everyone because of how we would probably mess up and i was scared that i would mess up more and be afraid of falling or ripping my dress so i told myself in my mind to calm down and don’t be nervous to much. So me and my friends got into

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a little circle and i told them that we got this so after that we started to dance and everything. But finally i got more excited and got comfortable dancing in front of everybody and it was fun dancing with my friends. So some of my other friends were there and my other family members were too and everyone was there to support me through everything and I was happy that everybody got to be there to watch me dance and everything. Also I got a lot of presents from my quince. And I felt like a princess when I was in my dress it was just a special moment for me when I had my quince I cried when I danced with brother and everyone else. So it was a very special day for me. The day Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll never forget is when I had my quince because it was a special moment for me spending time with my friends and family

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TAUGHT A BULLY A LESSON Written by D.Y.

t was a hot sunny day when I walked back home from school and I heard footsteps running behind me, I felt two hands pushing my lower back and I knew it was that bully Pa Da, because no one else would do that to me and I didn’t fell on the ground. I turned around and knocked him down on the ground than the wind pushes through my hair trying to tell me something like not to get into a fight. Pa Da was a kid from from my school that everyone hates, because he’s a bad kid, always getting into trouble. Pa da was the same size like me during that time. But he’s little bit skinny, his hair was short and black, brown eyes, yellow skin, four abs. He would always talk about someone look and style, it feels like everyone is afraid of him but not me, because when I get into a fight I can’t hold myself and I will hurt them really bad until they learned their lesson. I only wait until they start a fight with me, but when they do, they better get know how to fight because Pa Da does not know how to fight. After I beat up Pa Da I’ve become bad and always get into a fight but I don’t really want to be like that. One day I was playing shooting marbles with this boy and I won, but he didn’t give me his marbles. Instead he ran to his house and you know what I did?, I ran after him to his house. When we got to his house he ran behind his mom, but nothing stopped me from that. I jumped on him and started punching him, but his parents didn’t do anything because we a kid and I know that they want me to teach their son a lesson. When I looked down at the bully he was trying to apologize to me, but in my mind I don’t even care about the apology, so nothing could

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stop me from that. My foot was in the air flying straight to his face, blood running down from his nose. After that he stood up and ran home as fast as he could, I knew that I’m going to get in trouble but I don’t really care because I have been in trouble a lot and that don’t bother me anymore. Few hours later his parents came to my house and told my parents that I beat up their son, I wasn’t even scared, my face looked serious, but inside I wanted to beat him more, than their parents told me “not to get into fight again”. Inside my mind I was thinking of soccer and couldn’t hear anything from them. At school he never messed with me again and wouldn’t even look at my face. I hope I get to meet him a again in the future, so I can change his life. Like go out and eat with him and talk things out, I’m a good person and I don’t like hurting others.

The Book of Our Lives

MIDDLE SCHOOL DEPRESSION Written by Anonymous

iddle school ahh a time where you slowly transition to a teenager and are supposed to be happy and make new friends and all that Jazz right? Well Let’s break to reality we’ll at least my reality in my middle school years. 7th grade ahhh a wonderful time for me well at least I thought so I always as a little girl found being a teenager so cool because being a teenager would always have twice as fun then a girl. Me entering middle school was an amazing moment I had my best outfit I had my hair was out in a ponytail I was makeup free and I was happy most of all I just couldn’t believe I was finally in middle school. I didn’t know anyone there it was a Saint Paul school I lived in Roseville and I’ve been going to a Roseville elementary school half of my life anyways as I started to go more and more through the year and as the year went by so did rumors my school was very small so everyone knew everyone and little did I know that I was going to be the spotlight of drama that year I literally hung out with no one i felt so alone so sad that’s where my depression started to kick in I had multiple friends at first but my best friend or so i thought best friend switched up on me and talked about me behind my back and i started to get bullied. They did lots of things to hurt me i remember one time when the bell rung i was walking to my next class they came up to me and yelled out “You smell like a fishy onion” and i just remember everyone just staring and laughing i bursted into tears and ran to a hallway where no

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one could see me honestly i just wanted to die this kept going on for a while and not only did they say it to me in person but also in text “Fishy onion” that was my name “ Fishy onion why don’t you just kill yourself no one likes you” When i read that text i cried i wanted to die that was the final straw i couldn’t do it anymore that day i ran from my house and went to a calmer space it was dark at night and a little chilly i still remember my tears running down my cheeks my tears felt like a whole river my tears also felt very warm i remember listened to the saddest music ever that day and i kept asking myself “What is the meaning of life?” “Why am i still here” I didn’t want to live anymore i felt so numb. I cried my way back home i could not stop crying as i got home i grabbed a knife and medications and i went to my bedroom and i told myself “ If i died right here right now no one would care” I remember i wrote a suicide goodbye note saying “ Mom dad and dear loved ones i am not meant to be here i was a huge mistake i’m sorry i’m such a disappointment no one loves me no one truly cares i hate myself i’m drowning in my sorrows life just wasn’t for me please mom dad don’t ever tell my baby brother he had a stupid sister who did something as dumb as to take her own life away i love you all i hope you guys keep me in your prayers.” As i got done writing this i took a look at all my pictures with my friends/family i got done looking at the photos and turned on the shower water and took the medications and knife with me and i got in the shower on with my clothes and took the knife and put it right by my wrist as i was doing this i took a quick photo and posted it on snapchat and i could not stop crying i couldn’t with myself I asked myself “ Why are you doing this? Think about your mother and father” and I did think about my mother and how she would be in drowning in her own sorrows if she saw her own daughter dead and so I put the knife down and I smashed it to the grown it made a big thump noise I still remember everything as if it was yesterday. I’m so glad I didn’t commit suicide because life is totally worth living no one should ever feel like this. When my parents came home I gave them a big huge hug I was so happy to hug them and talk to them about my problems my parents said “We love you you shouldn’t please other people you are your own person you’re switching schools next year” when I heard that my heart brighten up so much I walked up to my room and started jumping of joy and singing to my positive songs I’m so glad I’m still alive life is totally worth living depression is still a big part

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of my life but not as much as it was before and Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m glad I got the help I needed to help me recover from my depression. Depression has been a tough struggle to go thru especially alone I now know that I should never let anyone treat me like that and instead of keeping quiet Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll tell someone I trust never again in my life will I try suicide.

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THE FALL Written by K.L.

remember when my cousin got on the bike, me and Carlos, willito and my brother karsten just standing there, with our eyes wide open, heart racing, feeling nervous and anxious about her riding the bike. She was about 8-9 years old. I was about 8 years old my cousins were about the same as me, and my brother was younger. We were in the patio of my uncles house. The backyard was like half dirt and half concrete. We were worried about her because her mom would get mad at us, and not let her play with us anymore, or just her in general getting hurt. We kinda calm down when she did one round and came back to us. She actually did pretty good. Her balance wasn’t that bad, But the way she was riding the bike, it was so weird she would start and pedaling for like 4 seconds and stop it with her feet then do the same thing all over again. The second time she didn’t do well, she wasn’t stopping that much. She didn’t have any patience she wanted to learn so quick that she wouldn’t listen to us. We told her many times to stop when she feel like she was going to the ground and to work on her balance, also one thing we told her to watch out for big rocks, pipes buried in the ground and things were the wheels could get stuck in. The third time she got on the bike we didn't worry as much plus she was being so rude, so we decided not say anything. We were kinda mad at her at this point because she won’t let us use it. Carlos, willito, karsten we were just sitting waiting for her to give the bike to us, About like 2 minutes after that she felt, it looked like she was flying. All her hair was in the air she screamed so loud and she ended up in a box of tomatoes. We went and look Carlo said maybe next time you should let us play too. Willito said yeah that happen to you for being selfish and not

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let us use it. And karsten and we were just there laughing like crazy, and the box where she ended up, the day before my uncle was using it to move tomatoes to the truck and sale them. The box had some weird liquid that smell so bad which it was all over her, she stink so bad that day she had to go home and shower. The same day in the afternoon she went back to play with us. She was still kinda mad because we laughed at her but it was all cool between us. We were impressed that she was talking to us because when she got mad at us she wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t talk to us for the longest, but this time is was different, I guess she learn the hard way. We were glad she didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t told her mom or else they would go and take the bikes for at least two days. We got lucky, It was really late and we were still playing in the bikes. This time we all took turns. We also played others games like tag, hidden seek, color tag. We all went home so tired and dirty from playing to much. I will never forget this day because it was such a great day with my cousins and brother, all of us learned different things from each other, also because my cousin fell out from the bike and she learned how to listen to others. After we would carefully ride the bike and took care of each other. All of us fell at least one time from the bike at our life.

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MEXICO: GOOD OR BAD? Written by E.T.

always thought that my culture was trash that it’s dangerous that it poor and dirty that I’d never like it and never thought of Mexico being a good place but my visit to Mexico change my Mind. This is my story, It was September 27 2016 at 3 am I was leaving to the airport its was dark maybe because i was still sleepy but I eventually drifted off to sleep. It took us like 30-40 minutes to get to the airport, when we got to the airport it took a really long process with the x-rays the papers, and the passport, I was honestly scared for my life because I have gone to a plane before but when I was a little kid like 1 years old because I went to Mexico but I don’t really remember. But we got through security and all the process we eventually got to the gate I was really nervous I was shaking of fear! When it was time for me to go I said bye to both of my parent and a man took me through a long tube it looked more like a hallway it where people walk through to get on to the plane, so I got inside the plane and sat down. I waited a good 40 minutes than people started coming I was really nervous I don’t know why but I wanted to cry I already missed my parent! The plane was about to set off and that’s all I remember when I woke up I could barely hear anything, My ears were clogged and they started hurting I ignored it and went to sleep, I woke up to the pilot saying something at the monitor but my ears were still clogged but all I could hear is the pilot we were in Mexico already I started getting excited!

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We finally landed it took them 10 minutes so we could finally get out and once they were done people got up and started leaving I was last person and someone took me so I can go finally meet my grandparents and we also took a really long process, and finally I saw him my grandpa when I saw him my heart was racing I was so nervous but I walked up to him and gave him a big hug I wanted to cry but no tear came out! But then went into a big room full of people and then I saw my Grandma I went and hugged her she was really short I thought she would be a little taller. We went to a parking ramp and we took off home we were in Mexico City I was scared because I heard a lot of bad thing about that place! It’s took at least 2-3 hours to get to there house but my ears were still clogged and they kept hurting but we got to there house it was really different it was in a small village and the 2 days I stayed there Wow! I learned a lot of stuff about my culture everything was amazing I wanted to fit in so I took my shoes and my socks put on some shorts and a nice shirt and walked outside it was amazing I felt so alive every night we went to the place called “La Plaza” it was so fun over there we went on games it was awesome I loved it we went everywhere and the best part was the fireworks my goodness and can’t express this enough!! It’s was AMAZING they were very different then the ones here in America. The fireworks would pop so loud louder than a gunshot for real! I loved it i got to meet everyone of my family I want to go again it been 2 years about to be 3 and I can’t wait I absolutely loved it! I can’t express it enough!! So this was my story I will never forget the day I went to Mexico best month of my life I can’t wait to go again. Now I understand how beautiful my culture is how fun it is how my grandparents lived where my ancestors use to live to how cool it is to live there how much thing are different from over here it was fun, Can’t wait to go again next year.

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THE FIRE Written by H.R.

hen I was 6 years old there was a big fire in Nepal, like one of the biggest fire ever to happen in Nepal, my house was the first one to catch the fire cz the fire started from a house that was like 1 house away from my house, my friend Mom was cooking with the coals and gas then suddenly something happened to that and the fire started small but soon like after few minutes the fire became huge,I could see the fire and I could smell it because the fair started from the house next door, I was really young so I couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t help my dad throw anything away from my house to the outside But what I could do was ran away from my house, and I ran naked without any clothes on, I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t really care cause I was really young and I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t knew what to do, all it matter to me was that I was scared so I ran to my dads brother house cz there house was little bit farther I was running in the night where it was a big ass fire and hella dangerous animals like snake, my friend told me there village burnt out too right after my village did so just imagine how big the fire was if it burnt out 2 big village, the village were divided by sectors. Nepal usually have all kinds of dangerous animals, our family members had a business of goats in Nepal because everyone eats goat and goats were popular in Nepal and we made a lot of money outta that, but few people died because of the fire, it was one of the biggest fire in Nepal and almost half of the people were burned out when I went back to my house all I could find was my burnt out coins and were a coins of $20, $10 and more cause in Nepal we usually used coins and shit and I found all that money from my piggy bank I had almost like thousands of dollars in there, I was really sad so I went up to my house and picked up

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the coins, I did a hard work to make my money that much, and we also lived in a village so after the fire ended we had to go and live in the jungle and it was not safe there, and the government didn’t make houses for us we had to make a house for ourselves and that was a hard work too but my dad worked like that in his regular job so it was kinda easy for us and we made our house in like a day, and everyone wouldn’t be happy because they wouldn’t be allowed to get a home and the biggest fire was the worst fire for everyone in Nepal cause half of the people lost their family members and some lost their lives and half of the people couldn’t get there home back.

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THE TIME I LEARNED ENGLISH Written by T.H.

remember it was 8 years ago when I started to learn English. Learning a new language was very difficult, I felt frustrated, and desperate to learn English because I wanted to understand what the people were talking about, I knew only a little bit. I had to practice a lot every single day during school. It was so much pressure, because I would always be made fun of since I didn’t know much English and I had a little bit of an accent. I don’t remember the girls name so let’s just call her Emma, she said that I shouldn’t be in school anymore If I didn’t even learn anything. People in that school never really cared about others feelings, plus we were little kids we didn’t know much, but either way they shouldn’t have done that to me, just because I didn’t know much of their language. It took me long to learn how to read. So like i said i was a little girl and I wasn’t able to speak English. People made fun of me and bullied me, but there was this one specific person Emma that always picked on me for not speaking English fluently. I felt so sad and I would always go home and cry. My mom would always ask me what was wrong, I would tell her nothing was ever wrong that i was happy in that school and made lots of friends, but that day i was really hurt, the girl made it worse that day. I told my mom that I don’t want to be in school anymore, that I don’t want to be in any school, I said “ why can’t I learn and be like the other kids they are so smart”. I would’ve never thought that i would tell my mom that, but I did.

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At the next day of school I had to go because I remember my mom saying “ don’t pay attention to what others say about you they don’t know you to just be making fun of you like that”. So when I got to school I see that Emma girl just standing there as if she was waiting for me. I would always go to this EL teacher let’s call her Ms.H who would help me with my English, Ms.H was behind Emma, but she didn’t know that she was behind her. So she just started saying the same things she always says to me “ why are you here you’re only making a fool out of yourself, you’re not learning”. That hurt me a lot because I kind of agreed with her because i wasn’t learning anything. Honestly I just got tired and totally forgot that the Ms.H was there so I hit the girl and we started to fight. Normally I’m like the quiet shy girl but she just got on my nerves. I actually thought that I was the one who would get in trouble but no she did, the Ms.H told me she heard the things that Emma said to me and asked me if I was ok. I do remember that Ms. H pulling her back. When she was asking me if I was ok I burst into tears. Anyways I heard Emma got suspended. Later on, after all that happened I went to Ms.H class she was helping me with a lot of my English. Although today is still a little hard for me. It took me some years to understand English. I prefer Spanish still, it’s sometimes easier for me to understand Spanish because it my first language. Sometimes it takes me time to process what some people are talking to me about, in English. I hope no other kid goes through bullying because their not good at something or just get discriminate for what they are.

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BEST FRIEND Written by E.T.

“W

hy you talking crap about me behind my back”. Went up to her started yelling “ No I didn’t ” she said my friend faith. So let me tell you guys how I met her so I remember when I moved here and came to this new school called Edgerton I remember I was new to the school and I met her in my classroom because we have class together and that was when I was in fifth grade. The teacher introduce me to the classmate and she was looking at me then I know that she was surprised so first we was so shy to talk to each other but somehow we just started talking to each other and that’s how we became friends. So after we became friend she told me about how she was surprised when the teacher introduce me to the classmate at the same time in her mind she said “ I feel like I know her”. I then was also surprised. Then days past by we started talking to each other and then we got closer and closer and we became bestfriend. Then years past in eighth grade things went down between me and faith. There was a day where this girl came up to me and said “ Did you know that faith was talking crap about you?. I said “NO” I then ask the girl “ What did she say?”. Also I don’t even know that girl so it was strange. Anyway after I said “NO” She told me that Faith told her that “ I was crazy, lame, and all that stuff. So I got really angry and then the next day I went up to Faith but I was feeling determined, unshakable , and unhesitating so I went up to her and talked to her face to face I was so mad I went up to her and I said “ Why are u talking crap about me?” Then she said “ No I didn’t”. I told her that there was this random girl she came straight up to me and told

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me that you said I was lame,crazy and so many other hurtful things. Then faith said “ she’s making things up and you trust her?” I said “ maybe I don’t know well tomorrow you and her have to talk to me straight up and tell me the truth” I then went back to my class. The next day I both texted Faith and the other girl but how did I got the other girl I ask her to give me her snap so anyways so I texted them and I told them to meet up at the bathroom so they did I started talking to both of them but the Faith talked to the other girl and she confronted her (the other girl). “ I also said to the other girl just admit it it’s not like something bad is going to happen, I just want to know the truth”. Then the girl admit that she was saying all this stuff because she don’t like my bestfriend Faith so I said to the other girl “ Oky that’s all I need to know” she also apologize and then left but faith didn’t care at all. After that I said “ Sorry to Faith like I didn’t know anything I should’ve trusted you. She then said “ It’s Ok I understand.” After all those bad things that happen we became best friends again and we are still friends now.

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HOW I LEARNED TO SPEAK ENGLISH Written by P.M.

hen I started school in United States, I was about 7 or 8 years old. I was very excited to start school here, I woke up so early in the morning because I was so excited. I was excited to meet new people in my class because back in Thailand the only race I knew was Karen and Thai, but there were no Thai people in my classroom though. I was excited to know more about other race. I didn’t know how to speak English and I didn’t understand it either because my first language was Karen. Karen and English are very different from each other. When I got to school a lot of people were staring at me I got so nervous, but they’re all so kind. I don’t remember my teacher name, but let’s call her Ms.R. Ms.R greeted me when I got to my home room. She was very nice to me, but she would only speak English so I didn’t understood her. For the whole week I didn’t talked to anyone, because it was hard for me to make friends and I was shy back then. I wanted to talk to them, but I couldn’t communicate with them because we speak two different language from each other. But a week later I knew that some of my classmates are Karen and they knew how to speak the language too. I asked them “how do you say, I need to go to the bathroom in English”? After I asked them that, they told me how to say it in English. When I was about to go ask Ms.R I told them to come with me because I didn’t really knew how to say it yet. They helped me out to ask my teacher that question. It took me long time

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to memorize the whole sentence. Sometime I would only say half of it because it too long for me and I didn’t really know how to say it either. There was a teacher that would come in my classroom and take out the new students that doesn’t know how to speak English. I didn’t remember his name, but let call him Mr.S. When Mr.S first came to get me, I thought I was in trouble, but I wasn’t. When I went inside his classroom he introduced himself. He said “my name is Mr.S”, he ask me “what’s your name?” I said “ my name is Paw Khee”. He would teach me simple vocab. He would teach me one thing and make me repeat after him. He would say “repeat after me say, an” I said “an”. I learned a lot of vocab from Mr.S. He also teach me the name of an object. He gave me simple vocab to take home so then I could also practice my vocab at home, so than I can get better at my vocab. The more I practice the more it will stick in my head, and the more I would get better at it. Even though I practice my vocab a lot it wasn’t easy for me to memorize them. It took me long time to memorize them, but I kept on trying even though it was hard. If I know a lot of vocab than I can put them into a sentence. One morning Ms.R came up to me, I got so nervous when she start talking. But I said “good morning teacher”, she was very impressed when I said that. She started talking after I said “good morning”, but I didn’t understand her. The words that she was using was very hard for me to understand, because I only practiced very short and simple vocab words. When I knew a few of vocab words, Mr.S started giving me a very easy simple book for me to read. I was happy and excited to get my own book to read. Even though it was very easy and simple to read, I didn’t even knew some of the words. It took me weeks to read that book. Ms.R and Mr.S helped me read it, but I would forget it. But I kept on trying until I knew how to pronounce every words. I kept on trying until I could read the whole book fluently. After I know how to read that book, I started trying to talk in English. When I needed stuff or needed help with stuff I would ask Ms.R in English, but my question wouldn’t make sense, but she still understood me. Sometime some of my classmates would make fun of me because my English wasn’t good and they didn’t understand it either. That made me have low self esteem, than I wouldn’t try to speak in English at all because I don’t want people to laugh at me for my bad English. Mr.S would come get me, but this time he also took some of my classmates along, the people that he took along they were also Karen. I would practice my English there. He would use hand suggestions so than

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I would understand what he was trying to say or talk about. When I got to his classroom along with other Karen students, I didn’t have low self esteem. The Karen students was very nice to me. I could practice my English there and I wouldn’t have to worry about peoples making fun of me because the Karen students they were trying to practice their English too. Mr.S was very nice to me, he was also very helpful for me. I really appreciate him for helping me and teaching me without getting stress out because I was a very slow learner. When I got back to my home room, I didn’t really talked or tried to practice my English by talking to in my classmates. But a week later I was brave enough to talk in English in my classroom. This time I didn’t care if some of my classmate laugh at me, I just wanted to practice my English. This time when they laugh at me, Ms.R catches them making fun of me they got into trouble. A year goes by and I started to speak English a lot. Third grade years was when my English got a little better, better than my second grade years. Sometime I talked to my friend in Karen because I didn’t wanted to forget my own language. Now I know how to speak English, that doesn’t mean that I’m really good at speaking it. I still need to work on my English and get more better at it. I hope in the future I can become a teacher and teach a lot of peoples. I want to become a high school teacher. And help out a lot of students just like the Mr.S help me out everyday in my second grade years.

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LEARNING ENGLISH Written by B.R.

remember when I was young I couldn’t speak English. Spanish was my first language because my family wanted Spanish to be my first language. Not a lot of kids paid attention to me since I spoke Spanish so I was glad because I did not want any problems. I remember teachers wouldn’t pick on me to answer any questions, but they wanted me to pay attention so I could learn. I remember when I learned English I made friends also the friends I made were a lot of people that I had so much stuff in common. I’m really glad I did not have any problems with anybody because if I did I probably wouldn’t have the friends that I had in Elementary school. When I was a bit older my parents told me it was important to learn English because I needed to speak English at school and outside of school so people can understand what I’m trying to say otherwise they won’t know what I’m saying. So it was very good that I got to learn English so I probably wouldn’t have able to make friends if I didn’t learn how to speak English. When I met new people that didn’t know English I helped them out by translating what the teacher said to Spanish so they understand and so they can learn. I wonder if I was new to middle school and I didn’t know English would people help me out.

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A lot of people out in the world don’t know how to speak English and it is very hard for them to learn English. Some people in the world can’t speak English and they don’t have an education. For kids that are young but their first language is not English they could watch YouTube and watch friendly videos in English so they can learn. My brother speaks Spanish but he learned a lot of words in English because he watched videos in English so that helped him out a lot so when he goes to school he already knows English but he might have to learn more. For the kids that have education it will be easy for them to learn English because they will go to school. For the kids that don’t have education it will be hard to learn stuff. There will probably be someone that will help kids with their education. I hope people get their education to learn English and to succeed in life like how they got help. I will never forget the time I learned English because if I didn't learn English I don’t know where I would be in life right now. Would I be homeschooled would, I even be able to go to college well now I know I have to try hard and do your best if you want to succeed in life. Just have to do very best to learn so in the future you can graduate with joy.

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CHILDHOOD MEMORIES Written by K.B.

y body temperature was warm and I was sweating from my head, it was all dark walking 12 of us in road in middle of forest at night. There wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t car,light or anything there was forest in both side of road. As far as I remembered back in Nepal 2013. I was 11 years old. I had lot of friends who are same age as me. Every weekend we used to make a plan. And one day we made a plan to go river. In the morning of the day have planned, I woke up at 8am, and I went to all of my friends house and called them. We meet next to my home. We were 12 us. We went to forest first and we eat forest fruit, the fruits was smooth, sweet and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s dark red. It was fun finding fruit and ate because the fruit was sweet and all of us were age 10-14. After we eat food we went to river, and we played soccer there 6 vs 6. We were bring water from river and putting on grass to make it wet. It was fun we were sliding and falling down when we try to run, it was fun to watch. After we played soccer we were dirty and all the soil were on body, so we went to swim, the water was cold and the weather was sunny. We played tag in water. At 11 we decided to go home and we went to forest and we eat same type of fruit again and I hear my friends calling my name and telling we get to the truck, we started running to truck. My we just decided to go other river 15 miles away from our camp.

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On our way to other river we were having fun, we were singing dancing in back on truck when we get to truck station. We all get off and tell the truck driver to all us before you leave from this river. We went to river, the water was deep in that river and water was cold. People work in that river, there break stone apart and selling the stone they braked. They get paid 1500 per one truck. That place we fun we were walking around in river and playing soccer, people from that place were watching us playing soccer. There was forest in both side and the river was in middle of forest. We went to under the pool to swim because water was deep. We play tag, play tag in water was fun because we have to go under water and tag people and we were all good swimmer. At evening at 6 we went back to truck station and ask them about the truck, they said the truck already left, and we have to get home. We decided to walked home because they said the truck will come tomorrow and we don’t have any truck way to our camp. And we decided to walked home. We were all tired because and swimming and playing soccer. We was walked on road from river to our camp. The way that get to our camp were scary because there wasn’t light, House, or car it was all dark, lot of robbery happen in that road, and there was lot of dangerous animals including red tiger, elephant, and snake. We were walking in middle of forest on road. I start feeling scared,I was walking slow and I asked my friends are you sure this is the way back to home. My friends answered me so quietly. I realized I wasn’t the only one who is scared,my friends were scared too because they were walking slow and no one was talking. I told all of them we about to got there just 10 more minutes and we will get there, but it’s was 25 minutes more walking and we didn’t see any car. We were hoping if cars came we will beg car driver to give us ride. My friends started walk little faster after I said 10 more minutes and they keep asking me when will we get there after 10 minutes, I said 7 more minutes and we will get there, they asked me after 7 minutes, when will we got there, I said 5 more minutes. When we got close to camp there was a graveyard. Soon as I got to graveyard I was getting warm and I saw sweating from my head, and I feel the cold air passing by me. My body was shaking, I started to look around me and started imagine about horror movie seen. After I pass the graveyard I didn’t look back until I get home.

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I will never forget this memory because when I think of it now it freak me out, and it was one of the scary adventures with my friends.

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MOVIE THEATER Written by M.A.

t was one month into the summer and my friends asked if they wanted to see a movie and I said “yeah”. So I took a fast shower and threw on some clothes and told my mom to drop me off at the rosedale mall because I couldn’t wait to see my friends. I was bored one afternoon because I haven’t seen my friends for one whole month. So I texted one of my friends and asked him if he wanted to hang out he said he was at a different state. So a few days passed and I got a text from one of my best friends he asked if I wanted to hang out and finally I get to leave my house so I said “yeah” and we asked more people to come and we had 8 people coming. It was Thursday and we were gonna see the movie on a Friday. The next when I got to the movie theaters I was looking for my friends for about 10 min but I couldn’t find them so I called and they were all the was on the other side of the mall, from me. So I walk to them and I found them so we went to eat food I ate potato corner while some of them went to dairy queen I bought some fries and chicken. After we ate we just walked around the mall for about 30 min till some of my friends bought some caribou coffee and i decided to get some also. So we went to go buy tickets so we get a seat in the movie but we still had 30 min. In that 30 min this kid bought this toy that sticks on stuff if you throw it and he stuck it on the ceiling of the mall and it got stuck their so we decided to leave it. Finally it was time to see the movie. Once we got to the movie theater we sat in the back of the theater and we had 20 min till the movie started and we were just talking and when the movie started one of my friends already seen the movie so he was talking a lot but I was on the opposite of him so I couldn’t really

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hear him that well. But there was a scene in the movie where he just yelled out loud “how ironic is that” to a scene where the bad guy makes the guys laser gun shoot bubbles. There was this other scene where this irrelevant character get thrown of a bridge and he was just laughing out loud and the whole theater could hear him so the movie finished and it was really good in my opinion but they didn’t stop the bad guy but it was still good. I will never forget that day it was a lot of fun and hope we do that again with more people next time.

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GOING TO AMERICA Written by L.M.

“D

o you want to come to America” my dad asked. “No, I want to live here with my mom” I said. Then my dad tell me that “in US they have the better school than Thailand” then I said “I don’t know” and he was like “okay”. Then I think about it should I go or not because I want to live with my mom too and I wanna go to better school too. I asked my mom about it and my mom told me that I should come to US because I will have better education and l will get more money when I work. After that a few months my dad told me that I have to come and I told him that I don’t want to go, then he said “too late we already pay for a lot of things for you to come to US and it’s lot of money” and I feel like I don’t want to go to school any more in Thailand cause anyway I have to come to school here and I don’t need to use Thai language so I don’t go to school anymore. Then I waited for two years and I have to go to hospital in Bangkok to do my medical check because the hospital that near where I live couldn’t do it. After my medical check I waited for another five or six months. My dad arrived in Thailand and I didn’t know because he told me that he going to be there like another week before that. So I didn’t get ready, and I have to go buy a lot of stuff for myself cause I got nothing. After that I spent time with my family from my father side two days. Then me and my dad go to Bangkok, our flight was like at 2am in the morning so I didn’t get to sleep. I slept on plane until I get to Japan. I didn’t get to eat anything because I don’t like the food on the plane. On the plane my ears are dead and I couldn’t hear anything. After we got some rest in Japan like thirty minutes and we have to go to the plane and I was very tired. When I got into plane they coming to me and I asked do

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you wanna order something to eat and I was like no and I just have some water cause I don’t like the food. When I get to US my brother is picked us up from the airport, and when I saw my brother I can’t stop laughing because he got fatter than he was in Thailand. When I got home I met my two little step siblings. After 1 week school about to start so they have soccer tryouts so my dad want me to go try so I did and when I went to tryouts idk any English and when the player comes talk to me I don’t say anything. When the first day of school I know nth about the school and I couldn’t speak English. So the first day was boring. After one or two week I made a lot friends that are speak the same language as me. After that I started liking the school in US.

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