Personal Narrative: Reserved

I come across a rear projection TV on the side of the road one day, load it up, and take it home. I eagerly spend a good four hours stripping it down and saving as much as I can. I end up with a 48” fresnel lens, two hefty speakers, a couple large capacitors, three glass lenses, and a glass mirror. Left over is a box of electronic waste and the particle board skeleton of a TV. I take the electronics to my local electronics recycling center, and set the wooden frame on the curb. I took 70 lbs. of trash and turned it into 10 lbs. of treasure ripe for projects, 30 lbs. of recyclables that would have gone to a landfill, and 30 lbs. of refuse that I had fun

Threads to Which I belong is a book that captivated my soul. As I read through the pages of history, I found myself traveling back in time. Invisible I stood in Mississippi watching a family’s history unfold. As I turned the pages, my emotions changed constantly. I experienced emotions of anger, disgust, sorrow, and happiness. The author has written an outstanding piece of work that forces you to consider researching your own family history.

It started as typical Tuesday with a couple of court hearings, maybe an arrest, but nothing to exciting. That all changed at dawn.

This past year, I have been apart of Naperville Central’s brand new Special Spaces club. When my friend approached me and asked me to join, I agreed even though I had no clue what I was involving myself in. In retrospective, I can honestly say that becoming a part of Special Spaces has been one of the most meaningful, fun, and fulfilling experiences I have had in high school.

In 2025, I will be twenty-nine years old and hopefully married. I will be married to my significant other of ten years Earnest Palmer III, who is a dentist. I would have been recently graduating with a bachelor’s in Culinary Arts and trying to plan to open my own restaurant, BubbaD’s Eateries. Knowing my big headed husband of mine, I probably had a baby then and trying to have another baby. Hopefully, by then Earnest will get rid of the idea naming our son, King. We will be living in the suburbs near New York City but working in the city. Being a woman with great memory, I probably wrote a memoir about my crazy life and trying to sell it to a publisher. If none of the publishers wants to publish my memoir, I will probably sell it the Lifetime

Hi iam Edgardo Flores i was born in casa grande, az not that far away from our state capital,Phoenix, Az.theres nothing better to do in a hot summer than going out with the friends to a lake and have a blast riding jet skis boats and my favorite, swimming!My activites of the day are shooting,riding horses,and my favorite one is quad riding.Thats right! ive been doing these fun exciting hobbies since i was 9 years old.pretty young huh?

There I was on the block next to the High Bar. It was about 5:00 at night when my coach told me to do a Kip. As I got up on the bar my nose filled with the smell of chalk. I started to swing, and as I came out of my half turn I looked good. Everything seemed fine but as I came to the part of the Kip where I have to pull my legs up to the bar, I slammed my shins into the bar. My momentum was stopped and I dropped on to the mat, missing the Kip. I felt like I had let down my coach and I had let down myself too. That day I experienced failure. That failure made me want my Kip even more so I worked harder and had support from my teammates.

At a young age, I moved from the country I was born in (Dominican Republic) to Miami Florida. Moving is not an easy thing to do, I had to leave all of my friends and family behind and become familiarized with uncertain place. I was surrounded by the unknown, everything was strange and so different to what I was usually use to. At the time I could not speak any English at all but that eventually did not matter to me, I slowly started adapting to my new environment and I became more positive. Although I could not communicate well and had a few obstacles I was very organized with my studies and kept very decent grades.

At a very young age, I began making my own decisions and putting myself first. After my parents got divorced, my mom decided to move. The move wasn't small. In fact, it was a very large one. We were moving halfway across the world. I did not understand why we had to move but I knew my mom would always make the best decisions for our family. First, it seemed cool when I was telling everybody. But then it hit me hard, knowing that I wasn't going to see my friends and family for a very long time. At the age of eight, I did not understand what was going on. I felt like I was out of the loop. I was going to have to make new friends and meet new people even though I did not know the language. Even when it came to finding something to eat, we did not know how to order food. It was a great struggle that was hard to overcome.

On Nov. 30th, as our family was eating dinner, Kaelynn told us that Mrs. Doolin had told her at lunch to "sit her ass down" when she told her she needed to use the restroom. Approx 2 months ago, Kaelynn needed to use the restroom and Mrs. Doolin told her "no this is lunch time and you need to eat your lunch" Kaelynn told her again that she needed to use the restroom and that she needed to poop badly, Mrs. Doolin told Kaelynn that she needed to eat her lunch first then she could go to the bathroom. I took this issue to Mrs. Flynn to which she asked Mrs. Doolin about the issue and she stated she did not remember. This is the 2nd incident we've encountered with Mrs. Doolin.

It's been a very busy summer so far. At the end of July, we returned from 23 days in Germany and Scotland.

My name is Ben Gourley, and I am in your fourth period honors language arts class. I really enjoy Language Arts, because I love to write, and share all of my exciting stories. Outside of school I do not spend much time indoors. I would much rather be outside hanging out with friends and having a great time. I have two older siblings, my brother Max, and my sister Maria. Both Max and Maria are freshman this year, as they are twins. One other very important thing to me is my dog, Maisy. She is a very playful dog that my family adores. This year I cant wait to get to spend time in your classroom, and get to know more about you.

When I was in high school, I distinctly remember the foreign exchange program the languages department ran throughout the year. Students from Russia, Germany, France, and Spain came over to the United States to live with a host family and have a taste of what everyday American life is like. By the time I graduated from high school, I had never hosted any students, and never intended to be a foreign exchange student in another country. However, upon exploring and researching extracurriculars for studying medicine, I came across Projects Abroad. After applying, it was only a few weeks until I was receiving emails about what Córdoba, Argentina would be like, who I would be staying with, and the types of activities we would be participating in throughout the week. Before I knew it, I was flying alone on an international flight to an unfamiliar city almost 5,000 miles away from home. I was nervous, jet-lagged, and my Spanish was more than a little bit rusty. However, after spending just one week with my host family and Projects Abroad leaders in such a lively and welcoming city, I fell in love with Córdoba. My Spanish skills improved, my passion for medicine was stronger than ever, and I was a confident in navigating a completely foreign city.

My friends would probably describe me as someone who is outspoken and does not fear the pain of criticism.

I would describe myself as casual and quiet. I chose casual because I like to go with the flow. Problems do not affect me that much or stress me out. I do what i’m told and a little indecisive. I am a very quiet person and tend to stay quiet in class. Public speaking has been one of my fears but I am slowly starting to get used to