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Clawson 2007: Diversity
Introduction
I am proud to share the following personal narratives. These stories confirm our universal desire to “tell a story”. They exist for entertainment, as a way to find meaning in our lives, and as a channel to connect us to each other and the world. By sharing our personal stories, we discover commonalities that bring us together and promote understanding and acceptance.
Deviled Eggs
Romig Middle School
Anchorage
I think my mom makes some of the best deviled eggs. First she starts out by boiling them and then she peels all the shells off of the egg. When the shells hit the sink they go, crunch!
After that she chops the eggs in half and takes out the yolk. Then she puts the yolk in a bowl with mayonnaise and mustard to mix it up.
Next she will put the mix into a bowl-shaped egg. After that, there is nothing left but to eat them.
When you eat them, you have to shove the whole thing in your mouth. NO. JUST KIDDING, but most people that come over do that for some strange reason.
One of the good things about them is they are fast and easy to cook. One of the bad things is they stink really bad while you’re cooking them.
Sometimes my mom likes to put them on a snack tray with pickles, olives, and cheese, but when my mom finds me getting into them, she always says, “Taylor! Get out of those right now!” I do after I grab one more just for fun. When all the people come, I have to fight my way through to get to the snack tray or else there won’t be any left.
One time my mom made so many that my brother and I had like six each. We were so full that we couldn’t eat dinner. My mom got so mad she was saying, “Why did you guys do that?”
Of course, my brother and I said, “We couldn’t help ourselves.”
So she said, “Okay. Whatever. Don’t do it again!”
My brother said, “Okay, Mommy!”
Nose Piercings
Romig Middle School
Anchorage
When my mom and I got our noses pierced, I got mine done first. When she got hers done, she was yelling. The thing that made it hilarious was that when I got mine done, she told me not to scream, but she did enough for the both of us. When it was over, I made fun of her. She thought it was funny to see a needle in my nose. It was funny to see a needle stuck in my mom’s nose.
While she was getting her nose done, I was looking at the ring. It was glossy but pointy on the edges. At the end, it had a miniature ball, and I knew all about that. This ring was better that those that are like earrings with a back. I saw somebody trying to do that, and I hurt soooo bad, I could see it in their eyes. It makes me happy that I chose the tip with the ball. When it got through her nose, it started bleeding. Her nose was as red as a cherry, and it looked really distressing and strained. All I could do was sit there and laugh.
Mine was really stiff, and I could barely touch it without a shock of pain going though my body. I knew hers was worse because it was harder to get in.
Now that swelling has gone down. We might lose the ring every once in a while, but it works out. Next, I’m getting my tongue done. My mom already said ok because she has hers done. I can hardly wait!
My name is Takeyah D. I like to read and play lots of sports. My personal narrative is about a special time my mom and I had getting our noses pierced.
Christmas Mess
Romig Middle School
Anchorage
It’s Christmas, and my mom and brother are making a mess out of the kitchen. I’m the one who cleans the mess that they make. I do things like take out the trash and put away the dishes.
“Skyler, the trash is full, “ my mom informed me. I walk over and remove the white lid. The trash smelled of leftover turkey, soggy coffee beans, and applesauce. I pull the trash out and tie it shut in a square knot. Through the living room I walk, not wanting to go out into the bitter cold. I get to the door and put on my boots. They were soft and comfortable against my bare feet. I open the door while a freezing cold breeze overcomes me. I walk through the snow as it makes a new home in my boot.
At last I made it to the bear box. I open the door, and a smell drifts out making me sick. It always smells like dead fish. I throw the trash into the bear box and close the door. I run back to the house, my job done.
Circle of Blessings
Romig Middle School
Anchorage
Each birthday is like a tradition. Before the beginning of my birthday party, we do something that involves our tradition, which is blessings.
At the gate, I stand by my parents, feeling a bit nervous, waiting for our guests to arrive. They come in, giving me a big, huge, breath-taking hug, along with a slobbery kiss. All the elderly come into our house while the others go into the other house or play outside. Now what we do involves a lot of prayers, hugs, singing, silence, and a lot of greetings.
I like to call this tradition of ours, a circle of blessings because I noticed that everyone sits in a circle while I sit in the middle, which makes me feel really special. Everyone sits in a seat, greets me, and waits until it starts. Once everyone is settled, they pray. All I hear for a whole ten minutes are prayers and blessings, and not to mention, the ticking of the grandfather clock. I watched the candle in my hand while it silently dripped the wax. I watched as I held the candle closer to my face, and then I took a whiff, smelling the smoke coming from the fire in the center.
I sat in my father’s lap listening to him, feeling him rocking me back and forth, luring me to sleep while I tiredly blinked my eyes. Then, finally, the whispering stops, and I watched as everyone sings me Happy Birthday. At the end of the song, I blow the candle. Everyone gives me another breath-taking hug, along with a kiss.
Everyone leaves the house to join the others, and now, the real party begins!
Musical Chairs
Romig Middle School
Anchorage
“It’s time for musical chairs!” My dad yelled. Everybody was grabbing a chair. I could see everyone hyped and ready to go. I could tell that this was the moment everybody had been waiting for. The tension was in the air as everyone awaited the music.
“Is everyone ready?” my mom asked. The music starts. The first song is, Happy Birthday. Everyone’s waiting for the music to stop, but right as we get to the second seat, the music stopped! Everyone’s rushing to get in the chair! My friend and my sister are more focused on one chair… but my friend gives it up without hesitating.
After the Happy Birthday, it was Old McDonald. Everyone’s still looking at the chairs like the chairs are prey and they are the hawks. Now the music has been going for a long time. No one’s eve hovering over the chairs anymore, and they are starting to have conversations, too. Now that they’re off-guard, my mom stops the music. It seems that now they got their memories back and are playing the game, but the person who’s out is my dad. He was nice about it, too.
We’re down to the bottom three: my aunt, my uncle, and my grandma. The song is, If You’re Happy and You Know It. The music starts up with my aunt acting like she has this in the bag. Then the music cuts off. I know that my grandma has a chair, but I’m not sure who has the other one. My aunt starts screaming that she got the chair, but she’s really sitting on my uncle’s. Now she’s out, too, and we’re down to my grandma and my uncle.
The music starts back up. My uncle looks so tired and out of it, but not my grandma! She’s determined to win this game. The music stops. My grandma speeds up right away and takes the chair right from up under my uncle’s nose! She’s the champion! We cheer for her and my uncle. Now we’re going to play again, this time adults against kids. I wonder who’s going to win?
The Big Wave
Romig Middle School
Anchorage
We were going fishing on my dad’s boat. We’re almost to the fishing hole when, out of nowhere, up we went with the boat out of the water! My sister and I screamed the whole time. I could hear the shriek in her voice. My hand clutched the seat, and it got tighter and tighter. All I smelled was a big gust of fishy air as it crossed my face. I saw the sky and thought I was flying ungracefully through it.
I heard my dad yelling, “Yee, Haw!” like he was riding a horse.
His friend yelled, “Wow!”
Then, out of nowhere, I remembered our dog, Oreo. I looked down and heard him whimpering as he was spread out on the floor of the boat. Then, Bam! We went down. My dad asked, “Well, wasn’t that fun?”
I only had one answer. “No. Let’s never do that again!”
My name is Kristina L. I enjoy camping, fishing, the outdoors, animals, and writing stories. My personal narrative shares an exciting and scary fishing trip I went on with my dad, my sister, and my dad’s friend.
Gone Hunting
Romig Middle School
Anchorage
I woke up to the smell of bacon and eggs… and dog breath. My grandpa’s dog was on the bed, and she made an extremely loud air-vibrating bark in my face. Then down comes the other dog. Both of them were running around all hyper, barking at each other and fighting over the dog toy. While they were distracted, I got dressed and snuck upstairs and locked the dog gate. I had breakfast. Then my grandpa and I got to ATVs out and drove them down the road.
We arrived at the forest that we were going to go hunting at. We were going to have to drive about 20 miles through the trails, so we set off. There were a lot of bumps, mud, rocks, tree roots, and loose dirt. When we got halfway, we ran into a roadblock. It was made of knocked-over trees and large boulders. I thought that there was no way to get past it on the ATVs, but I was wrong. There was a small little path that goes off the trail and through the trees. It was very bumpy because of all the tree roots. We made it through and came out right on the other side of the roadblock.
We kept following the trail when we came across a bird. I forgot what it was called, like spruce bird. We got a shot, but it missed, and the bird flew up into the tree. Grandpa shot at it again, but his time he hit it. It fell down out of the tree, and we put it in the back of my ATV.
We kept going along when we came across a bridge, but it was broken! There was definitely no way around the obstacle. The bridge went over a deep crevasse with a river at the bottom. But we had an idea. We could get a bunch of wood to make a new bridge!
After an hour, we finally had enough wood to make a new bridge. We made the bridge and went across and followed the trail until we came upon a moose! We got out the binoculars to see if the moose was legal, but it wasn’t… so we kept going until we got to the spot that we were going to hunt at.
We were there for hours and didn’t find anything but a pack of wolves. At least we didn’t come back empty-handed. We still had the spruce bird!
The Sunset of a Lifetime
Romig Middle School
Anchorage
I was so excited! Today my mom and I were going to see the sunset for the first time.
I ran at the speed of light in the warm sand that had been baking under the sun. Finally, I sat down next to her.
“Are you ready? My mom asked.
“Of course I am! I have been waiting a long time!” I replied excitedly.
We waited a long time just sitting there on the sand. It was comfortable. The sand rubbed against us like a message, with the sound of the waves crashing on the beach as if they were dancing, and the smell of the wind pulling the salty smell of the blue sea towards us.
Finally, after what seemed a lifetime waiting for it, the sun started to set. The colorful sun illuminated the sky as it disappeared into the night.
I was thinking on that day that I would never forget from now on each sunset I see. I will never forget the very first sunset that would last a lifetime.
My name is Heather D. and I was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina. I have family mostly in Alabama, Virginia, Texas, and California, along with some in Arizona and Mexico. I love to write, and when I’m in the mood, I love to read.
Rusty’s
Christmas Present
Romig Middle School
Anchorage
It was almost Christmas, with signs of sales passing by the foggy windows. As we pulled into the grocery store parking lot, I got out of the car onto the glistening, white snow. My mom and I went into the store with a whiff of a warm breeze in our cold faces.
We went to the pet section to get dog food. Right next to it were the dog toys. I looked at all of them: the small ones, the big ones, the squeaky ones, and the colorful ones. I had convinced my mom to get a toy for Rusty’s Christmas present. I couldn’t pick one. Then my mom said, “Hurry up.” We checked out and went home.
My mom couldn’t wrap the present because it had to be frozen, so I put it in the freezer. The next morning was Christmas! I rushed downstairs and tripped over my dog. Then I remembered that I had a present to give to him, so I checked under the tree and remembered that it was in the freezer. I got it out and gave it to my dog. He went straight over to his comfortable spot and licked and licked until all the meat was gone. Then he chewed on it for the rest of the day. I could tell he liked his present! He still has his bone and chews on it to this day.
The Greatest Ride Ever!
Romig Middle School
Anchorage
“How are you feeling?” my cousin asked as we were both buckled up in the newest ride in Disneyland.
“Just feeling a little sweaty, “ I said. I’m always feeling like this on rides, but then after a three-minute ride, I’ll be ok. I am just wondering how fun or scary this will be.
“Hey, Angela! I’m going to push you off of this rollercoaster if you close your eyes!”
“I’m not going to be closing my yes, and no your noooo…aahhhh!” I shouted. The ride started moving and I could hear people shouting and laughing with excitement.
I closed my eyes and counted to ten. “One, two, three, four…,” I counted. When I was at five, the inside of my stomach started flying around, and air was gushing through my face as if I were on top of a moving airplane! The people were shouting as if they were going to crash while I was screaming as if I were being attacked by a fire ant!
The ride was even getting better and more surprising. It wasn’t even scary! You couldn’t see a thing in the built-in roller coaster except darkness with glittering stars!
We went up, down, and all around. Even though we can’t see, we can still feel our bodies being shaken everywhere. My favorite part of the ride was when we would go all the way up, and then just fall down.
“Blah, blah, blah, and blah!” my cousin shouted. I couldn’t hear a thing she was saying to me! It was so hectic! Everyone was just shouting and laughing.
I closed my eyes again, put my arms up, and said, “This was the greatest ride ever!”” As soon as I opened my eyes, the ride stopped, and we were back to the starting line.
Wasn’t that great?” my cousin asked.
“It wasn’t great,” I said. “It was the greatest ride ever.”
My name is Angela M. I like to hang-out with friends and draw in my spare time.
Christmas Eve
Romig Middle School
Anchorage
Every Christmas Eve, all of my family and friends that live in Alaska, along with my grandparents that come from Mexico, celebrate together.
It takes at least three days for our family to buy each other presents. My mom usually gets the little kids toys and dolls while she gets all the teenagers gift cards. My grandparents get us all gifts from Mexico, like this type of natural fruit candy that to me, don’t really taste good.
I love the sight of seeing so many presents under the tree. Blue presents, pink ones, dotted ones, big ones, small ones, fat ones, skinny ones—all types of presents. The sound of ripping paper, the shreds and tearing always have me anxious to see them rip apart the wrapping and wanting to see what is inside.
I love to feel the touch of paper beneath my palms. Sometimes I even have paper cuts from trying to tear them up too fast to see what’s inside. The smell of plastic, rubber, and store-bought presents being ripped away from children who are anxious to see what they have received from someone who was friendly enough to give them a present. To me, Christmas Eve is all about receiving and giving presents to the people you love.
Visiting My Grandparents and the Food We Make
Romig Middle School
Anchorage
When my mom and I go visit my grandma in Palaco, Mexicali, Mexico. We stay there for Christmas and New Year’s. We celebrate by making a whole bunch of food, we hangout, shoot off a ton of fireworks, eat, play video games, watch TV, or talk.
Usually it takes days to make the food. A lot of the time we make pasole. It is in Spanish. I don’t know how to say it in English, but it has hominy with beef and water with sweet chili peppers. The meat looks like a brown iceberg sticking out of the water, and the hominy sinks to the bottom of the plate. It smells like meat and corn, and it tastes good like steak with a lot of lemon juice on it.
Sometimes we also make menudo. It’s the same as pasole. It just has pork meat instead of beef, and there is no hominy. You can put lemon juice on it along with cabbage, radish, salt, pepper, nothing, or crushed oregano leaf.
When you chew menudo, it feels crunchy without the crunch. It has no sound. It smells like grease from a pig and looks like a yellowish flat, smooth thing in the red water and tastes great! It is like pork or kind of like beef jerky but not so salty. We make a lot of other food, too, but we usually have menudo or pasole.
I have a lot of fun at my grandma’s house. It doesn’t snow there, so the weather is awesome. It’s fun!