Things That I’m Proud Of

Posted on by
Reply

 

team

Last year was a tough year for all of us. We had to prepare for an exam that would determine where we were going to spend the following four or five years -at least- of our lives. Normally, five years doesn’t sound like a long period of time, but considering how much we will grow mature and the huge impact of our school will have on us, is not spend carefully, these five years can be the worst years of our lives.

I remember imagining high school. I remember thinking “wow, I’ve grown so much, look at me, I’m gonna start high school next year.” The whole year, going to another school became a part of my dreams; I wanted get to know different people and change my routine of nine years. I wanted my life to be different, and I dreamt of it the whole year, and to be honest, I feel like it was one of the things that kept me sane during the intense studying period.

Summer was amazing, I went to different countries with some of my friends and I had a lot of fun. Plus, we didn’t have any homework since we were changing schools anyway. But there still was a little problem, I wasn’t sure about the school I wanted to go to. I’ve always had ACI in my mind, on the other hand, all my teachers wanted me to go to a french school, which would be logical since I had been learning french for nine years. Pretending to be someone who is actually mature enough to make important decisions, I agreed with my parents about spending five years in ACI.

After making this crucial decision, I thought I’d feel relieved and I could enjoy my summer break more. That didn’t happen. I became anxious about my choice; “What if I forget French? What if I can’t make friends? What if my classmates turn out to be incredibly rude and definitely not supportive?” Those “what if”s didn’t leave me alone for a very long time. I couldn’t sleep at all the night before the first day of school.

The first day of school, I met Ekin. She was a shy, cute girl who sat in front of me, and we talked a lot. The following weeks, Duygu, another lovely girl became my desk mate, later on, us three became closer and closer every day. Not just them though, I love all of my classmates. None of the thoughts about my classmates being rude that haunted me turned out to be true; I’m really lucky to have people like them in my class.

I never thought I’d be a part of the advanced class, that was a huge shock to me. Right after the second I found out about that, I had one more thing to worry about. The “what if”s came back. However, they disappeared pretty quickly since I felt like I wasn’t that bad at english. Of course, there are things that I don’t understand, but at least a lot of my fears have faded away.

During the first half of this year, to me, attending to World Scholar’s Cup, was the best part. I loved every second of it, besides, one of my closest friends, Duygu was there with me too. It’s always better when you’re with your friends.

To sum up, this year seemed like a monster in the beginning. I felt like I wasn’t going to be happy or satisfied with myself. So far I’m happy, and I  hope I’ll be even happier.

Short Story Unit: Reflection

Posted on by
Reply

To be honest, this unit more challenging for me than our poetry unit. I’m not usually into reading short stories, so I wasn’t sure about how I was going to handle writing one; and my fears definitely did come true. I started a lot of stories, I spent hours writing a story but it took me only a few seconds to delete it. I was never satisfied with what I had written and frankly, I’m not that happy with the final copy either.

But I learned a lot of things from this unit: I learned that time management is really important. I learned that when given correctly, criticism is good because it really helped me improve my story. I learned that if I were to write another short story, I would definitely try to spend more time on it and maybe be more cruel and delete every single thing that I’m not satisfied with instead of leaving some parts that I don’t really like so that I can finish my story faster. And more importantly, I learned that I can’t force creativity/ inspiration, and when I start a story with a topic that is not unique or interesting, the rest of the story becomes sloppy too.

We also read a lot of stories during this unit; The Tell-Tale Heart, The Lottery, The Big Snit, The Fall of a City… All of them were great and specifically The Lottery had a shocking ending. One of my favourite aspects of this unit was reading and discussing these stories, because I realized that everybody interpreted the story in a different way and/or related to the story on a different level. I think this shows that’s one of the things that make a short story interesting and more enjoyable to read.

I don’t think I will write another short story in a long time, but if I ever write a short story again, I will be more careful about my sentences, my topic, and the words I use. In my opinion, as I continue reading books and writing, everything that I’m not content with will improve. I hope our next unit will be more fun!

The Fall of a City- First Response

Posted on by
Reply

The title of this story is so carefully chosen! Especially after reading it, it makes more sense to the reader. I really liked the story, it is short, it is easy to read, and it is not boring. Yet,it might not be as simple as we might think it is, I think the author symbolizes a lot of things with the characters’ points of views and their comments on certain things. All in all, I think the story gives a complex message in a simple manner and manages to keep the reader engaged throughout the story.