RLA

Owen Fitz

Block C/D

Jan. 16, 2014

Personal Essay:

Summer Time for People living Overseas

Summer holiday is uniquely key for in everyone’s life, especially for people who live overseas. A year without returning home could become a disaster in their life.

Imagine this. A child becomes unfamiliar with his family and doesn’t know where to call home after he moves during the summer. He didn’t have time to go back to his homeland. Most people living overseas only go back to their home country once a year, during the summer. It’s the when we reunite with our family; grandparents, cousins, uncles and aunts. It’s the time where we get to re-visit the culture that we were born with, for Asian cultures and Western can really differ. And finally its the time where we can feel like we at home.

To start off, I only see my family once a year, and I see one group of cousins once every four years! So every summer when I do see my family, I need to make each moment count. Family is important to everyone no matter how close you live with them. In addition I have never heard anyone say something like “oh my gosh my I hate my uncle,” or “it’s so boring going to my cousins house.” If you do live near your family however,  you spend Christmases, Thanksgivings, Halloweens, and all those  great holidays together. I can barely remember my last christmas with my family. The only holiday that I do get to spend with my family is the 4th of July, but that holiday doesn’t matter to me less since I have been living overseas for the majority of my life.

Summer time is the only time I get to see the big open spaces that I miss. Here in Singapore, the only big open spaces that I see are soccer fields. I even miss the basements and huge backyards of American houses. The last time I was in a basement was probably in America at my grandma’s house during summer, and the last time I saw a huge backyard... was also in America during the summer. Even though my culture’s food is known to be unhealthy, I get to eat the food I was born and pretty much grew up with. Its the time I finally get to only see my own nationality’s people. I love other cultured people, but sometimes its good to just be with my own race for a while.

But don’t get me wrong, I know I am so very fortunate to be living this amazing experience that many people would die for. Most Americans, never leave the country, or have even been on a plane. On the other hand, I have been to about more 15 countries and have been on about 35 plane rides.

Last summer I treated everything like I had just moved there. Furthermore, I felt like I would see my aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents forever. Then when the day came that I did have to leave, it was a disaster in my mind. It stuck in my head for a long time and made me hate Singapore.

Lastly, even though we have a house, a school and basically everything we need to feel like home, we all know that on the other side of the world there is all our family and the true place where we grew up. For most of us it’s the place we call home, and we only get to visit it once a year.

In conclusion, summer time is uniquely important to everyone, especially for children living overseas. If children living overseas would not go home one summer, they could be a bit unfamiliar with their own family, start to get a too used to  the culture of the overseas country, and finally be more unsure about where to call home. Maybe in the future, when I move back, it might be too late. My oldest cousins would already be off to college and work or one of my grandparents could have passed away and there would not have been enough time to get back and say goodbye.

Personal Narrative:
Facing Fears

By: Owen Fitz    

I remember my first rollercoaster ride too well. It's why I’ve been too scared to ride any roller coaster, no matter how easy. The reason I’m scared of entering an amusement park, or talking about who is the biggest daredevil is because I broke my nose on my very first roller coaster ride. Just breaking your nose on a roller coaster isn’t that bad right? Well, it was more than that. I tensed up and squeezed the bar as hard as I could with both hands, with my nose almost touching the bar. Then suddenly the roller coaster lurched forward down the hill and the force smashed my nose severely hard on the bar. In no time, blood was streaming down my face, onto my clothing. I was in a complete state of terror as my dad yelled for me to hold my nose. All I could do was hold the bar and cry. I was in agony, my nose cartilage swollen on my terror struck face. But now those young ‘feel sorry for you’ days are over. I am now one of the oldest of the cousins, and one the younger cousins look up to. I knew this was the day, I would finally have to face my fears.

“Dad, can Bryce, Owen and me go roam around by ourselves, and meet here at twelve?”, questioned my brother after all the Gables and our family met up at the entrance of Hershey Park. The words crept up my spine.

“Well I guess you can, sure why not?”, he replied. He looked at me with a confused expression because he knew I was terrified of roller coasters.

“I’m not going to,” I interjected, “Maybe later in the day.”

Bryce shrugged and looked at Avery, then the two of them bolted off. Uncle Kent’s family headed in their own direction too, for his children were too afraid to go on the merry-go-round.

The rest of us just stood there in a bunch until a second later Jack broke the silence.

“So where do we go first?”, asked my little cousin.

“Umm... How about we start out with the Sooper-Dooper-Looper,” suggested Uncle Corey scratching his head. Everybody looked around

nodding their heads. I acted as if I was fine with that choice too, and I had conquered my fear of roller coasters already.

“Alright then lets go!”, directed Jack.

After we had walked to the entrance, I gathered my courage and hopped in line. It was hard to keep the ideas out of my head about breaking my nose on the ‘Comet’ (which is also in Hershey Park), and remembering all those times I had to sit out and wait for people to finish their ride. About a minute later it was time to embark on the ride. By the time I got in a row near the middle with my dad, the machine started. “Dispatch”, ordered the roller coaster director.

Suddenly the ‘Sooper-Dooper-Looper’ lurched forward and started cruising up the first hill. I saw a couple eight year olds in the line, so I was mad at myself for being nervous. Then it happened. It all happened so fast I wished the vertical loop were bigger. The rollercoaster zoomed straight up and was upside down for a split second, then rolled down the other side. It wasn’t that scary at all, in fact I kind of enjoyed it. As we were zooming through the rest of the track, energy raced through body as I put my hands up and endured the rest of the ride.

At the end of the day I even found the courage to ride a roller coaster called the ‘Sky Rush’. It is a famous roller coaster that has a 65m lift and reaches 122 kph. It also appeared on a well known instagram page called ‘most_extreme_rollercoasters’. My brother tried to scare me in the Sky Rush line by pointing at the top of the Comet and saying, “Owen that’s the top of the Comet,” I looked up and replied, “Yeah I know,” then he pointed at the top of the Sky Rush and exclaimed, “and that’s the top of the Sky Rush, can you see it or is it too far away?” I swallowed hard and looked straight up. I could barely see the top of the hill.

When I think back to this moment, I realize I never knew I would ever be a rollercoaster daredevil before, for it was always my biggest fear. But now I am happy, because I know I will never have to sit on a bench and wait for people to ride a ride, and feel the embarrassment of people walking by and staring at me thinking of what a wimp I am.