My Childhood home
201302944 Jang Sung Young
Final draft for CH. 4
When I was a kid, I liked the feeling of a late afternoon breeze. The slowly dimming lights, the smell of fresh grass and cool wind was all it took to make a perfect ending on a hard day. My brother and I went for a short ride on our bikes after dinner, just before the sky became too dark to see anything. We always waited for the moment to go out on our bikes at the end of the day. This was a past time of ours that we thought would last forever. On our bikes we would usually ride around in our neighborhood, but sometimes we would go all the way to our elementary school. To me this school is one of the most memorable places.
I went to an elementary school in a suburban area in the middle of Austin, Texas, so the school grounds were quite big and there were a lot of people. My mom would always drive me to school and we would get off at the main doors, where everybody got off. The school was sort of shaped like a big 'T' with a spacey corridor in the middle. There was a cafeteria on the right side, a gym on the left, and a library in the far end of the corridor. The school grounds did not have a sandy playground like they have in Korea, but instead had a lot of grass everywhere. When I attended school there, my friends and I would always run around like crazy at school. Recess time was especially an energetic time for us. We loved the vast plains of grass and the small playgrounds we had.
Elementary school is where I made my first friends and where all my best friends were. I don't keep in touch since I'm so far away, but I still remember the great times we had running around in school and also around the neighborhood. Some of my best memories I have of the school are the great times I had with my childhood friends. Even though I cannot keep in touch anymore, I always cherish the memories, as they have become a large part of me and my childhood, and of the US.
I remember this place more than anything because I was not able to say goodbye to anyone before I left. My family had to move to another part of the state before moving back to Korea and I wasn't able to tell anyone because it was during summer break and we were in a hurry. I regret that I wasn't able to say a proper goodbye, I was too young at the moment to understand the consequences of moving and transferring to another school. If I had been able to see them one last time, I might have been able to keep in touch with all my friends there, but when I think of my school once in a while, all I can do is remember the good times.
After moving to a new school, our family would sometimes drive by our old neighborhood to just look around. Most of the time we just swept by in our car, looking at the view through the windows. One afternoon, we took our bikes to the old neighborhood for a final ride before going back to Korea. I rode hard and fast, just as I always had during my many days there. I rode until it became dark and it was impossible to ride anymore. I headed back to the car tired, but happy, happy I had been able to ride once again. With that, I wasn't able to see my old neighborhood, ever again. All I have are the memories of this place, those that I will keep forever.
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