A Memorable Place

The one place I will never forget is my elementary school, P.S 19. It was my home for so long.  P.S 19 could be seen miles away since it was the tallest red building in the neighborhood. The outside was decorated with windows and signs that gave the building life. The noise that came from the school echoed throughout the whole neighborhood, it was noise made up of the children’s laughter.  It was a place where you could smell dozens of different lunchboxes full of food made by caring mothers. It was a place where the excitement of the children could be felt every single morning. Once the school day began, the day began for the whole neighborhood, for everyone shared the enthusiasm of living the new day. Many people considered it to be a good school, but half of those people were just parents who had barely been inside the school themselves. Inside the school is where the true magic began.

                As a child I spent most of my time at school, since my mom was always working. School was my home, so at first there was no choice but to get used to it. I do remember being one of those many little kids crying on the first day of school, fearing the unknown. However, as time passed, I began to feel comfortable in the school; I memorized the way all five floors, the bathrooms and the staircases looked. I began to become familiar with the people around me, especially with my teachers.  I had the nicest teachers ever, people who truly cared about me so much.  They taught me to love learning and the love of learning gave me a reason to wake up every morning full of excitement for the day ahead.  I learned to understand that everyone looked and sounded different as well, my school was so diverse, it’s how I realized the world wasn’t made up of only Hispanics. As time continued to pass, I began to love my school. There I learned the most basic concepts but they're concepts I have never forgotten. P.S 19 is where I laughed and cried many times. It’s where I began to understand myself. Anyone could argue that I have changed throughout the years, and of course that is true, but a piece of the girl that was created in P.S 19 will always be a part of me. 

                                                                                                                                        

Homework: The Clinic

A narrative is the way in which we tell our own story. The way we choose to tell our story depends on what we want to convey through our words. Plus we must consider who will be the audience of the story. The plot must be well organized and the details must be sufficient so that the reader can completely grasp the meaning of the story. Other methods such as dialogues and personification can be included as well to make the story more interesting. In this chapter of Back to the Lake, I read the narrative of Jeff Gremmels, The Clinic. In this narrative, this (soon to be) doctor learns a valuable lesson through a little boy who suffers from abuse. I did feel sad to realize the boy suffers from abuse, however, I was satisfied to know the doctor learned a valuable lesson.

I believe The Clinic was a well written narrative. It included very descriptive language that allowed the reader to visual the characters, the bruises and even the hospital room clearly. The dialogue made the story more alive and the chronological order of the story made it easier to follow. This narrative did include the basic requirements of a narrative and within the narrative itself we learned how important a background story really is (a requirement that had been mentioned earlier in this chapter).  I wouldn’t add much more to the narrative since I believe it’s good the way it is written.

I believe this is the doctor’s and the boy’s story.  First of all, it is told in the doctor’s point of view so that makes it his narrative.  Plus the doctor is the one who learns something valuable with this experience and chooses to share it with an audience. Though I would like to say it is the boy’s story as well since an actual story is told inside this narrative and that is the boy’s experience with abuse. In the narrative, the doctor explains how important a background story is and how he learned much more in this experience than in most of his years in med school. Plus, writing the narrative as a “medical detective” story made it more personal since the narrator is going to be doctor. So overall, I believe The Clinic is a great narrative.