Earlier this year, students in Mrs. Schorn-Hoffert’s ESL 3 class were asked to work on a personal narrative. Students were given the task to focus on setting, character description, imagery and other writing strategies. Here’s a sample of student submissions- Daniel Cardenas’ My First Mundialito and Yilun (Alan)  Zhang’s Left Behind On A Rainy Day.

My First Mundialito by Daniel Cardenas

When I was 12 years old, my favorite thing to do was to play soccer. I used to play almost every day. My father saw that I was enjoying the game, so he asked me, “Do you want to join the soccer team from your school?”, and I replied to him “Yes, Dad, I will be happy to join the soccer team”.

The team was coached by coach Suarez; he was a very kind and patient man. I remember that he used to wear a black hat for every practice. The next day I went to my first practice. It was a lot of fun, and also I made new friends.  A couple of months later the coach had a surprise for us. We were going to play a “mundialito,” a tournament that many schools from around Colombia play.

This tournament is very important because many professional players played this tournament when they were young, so we practiced very hard.  We thought that we could even win the tournament or at least do a great job. One day before the tournament I called my Dad and asked him, “Are you coming to see the games?”  And he answered “I am working, but I will try to get there”. I thought that he was not going to be there, because he had to drive at least six hours from his job to the mundialito.

Finally the day arrived, the day that I was going to play my first soccer tournament. I was very excited even with the news that we had to be on the bus by six a.m. because our first match was at eight in the morning. On the way there, everyone was excited. We started to make jokes about each other, and laughed until someone threw up, and the whole bus smelled like a dead animal.

When we got there the morning sun was shining, the wind was blowing in this big beautiful green soccer field, and there was my dad waiting for me with a big Gatorade. I went up to him and hugged him, because I knew how difficult it had been for him to get there.

We didn’t do very well in the tournament. We lost two games and won one. But I had a great experience and also learned that a father will do anything to make his son happy.

Left Behind On A Rainy Day by Alan Yilun Zhang

Time is like water flowing .  As the days have passed, my memory has also faded.  But I remember one thing clearly that deeply touched me – the depth of a mother’s love.

That morning my father was doing some exercises and my grandfather was reading the newspaper. I was just having my breakfast and watching TV. Mother handed me my black umbrella and said, “Alan, the weather forecast said it would rain.  Please take your umbrella with you.” I looked up at the sky, the clear blue sky. How could it rain? I quickly opened the door to run off so I would not be late for school, and I disappeared in a few minutes without an umbrella.

At noon it suddenly began to rain; there were thunder and lightning flashes happening all of a sudden. The raindrops fell just like needles. Students went home fast, others were picked up by their parents. My father is a manager. He always has a lot of work to do, so he could not come back at noon. At that time, my mom had a high fever and a bad cold. So I didn’t think someone would come to get me. I sat in the classroom alone, sad and hungry, and I was looking out of the window at the heavy rain with sadness…

All of a sudden I noticed a familiar figure in the heavy rain . Oh, mom! Heavy rain seemed to swallow up my mother. Mom hugged me with a smile. She gave me an apple. She knew me.  I was very hungry by that time. I was touched by mom’s warm heart. She had a high fever but she still came – just for me.

“Alan, come here and wear a raincoat,” Mother said and put the raincoat on my body. By then it was raining harder and harder. My mother’s whole body had been soaked thoroughly.  I looked at her pale face – she looked like a wet rat.  I couldn’t help but just cry.

My mom is not a famous woman, but she is very important to me.