2013년 3월 13일 수요일

How did you get caught?


How did you get caught?

    People know what they are doing is wrong. However, they do not change their mind because they are too confident with what they have in their heads. Even if they are not caught right away, they will later be caught due to the evidences they have left. I also had a similar state of mind.
     This is the story when I was twelve years old. I liked watching detective comics and I always thought about perfect plan without a single mistake. At twelve, it was the time when I could feel the gravity. I got fatter and fatter as I ate chicken at night. When I played basketball, I couldn’t run as fast as before, and when I climbed up the stairs with backpack, I had to sweat so much. I minimized my motion, so that I don’t have to move much. My habits started to change and my mother started to worry about my health. I arrived home at eleven o’clock from academy as usual and my mother told me to come to her room. At that moment, I thought about all the possibilities. Did mom know the test score from the academy? Did I do something wrong to her? With many thoughts in my mind, I set on mother’s bed and remained quiet. She opened her mouth with a word that started with “D.” It was a diet that she was planning for my improvement of health. It was a relief for me, since she didn’t know my test score, but a diet still wasn’t a pleasant idea. I said ok to my mother and came back to my room.
     My diet plan began with my mother giving me a vegetable salad for a breakfast. Vegetable was the food that I hated and never wanted to eat even a small piece of it. What I don’t like about vegetable is the crunching sound when I take a bite and the taste that has nothing delicious. I didn’t even want to see the color green on the table. However, my rigorous mother didn’t give up and forced me to eat what she had made for meals. Usually, a mealtime was the moment that I always wait for, but after the diet, it was the time that should never come. I had to starve because I didn’t want to eat meals that my mother prepared. A single day with diet was a hell for me. I didn’t have will to play with my friends, nor desire to study. The happiness that I had when I ate chicken with my friends was gone for a long time. My mother was a devil who took the happiness of eating chicken from twelve year old kid. The only joy that I could make was eating vegetables, which were impossible.
     One day, I made a perfect plan that I always dreamed for, as a six grader. I made a plan like a criminal in a detective story. It was a perfect sunny day to carry out my plan although there were some clouds in the sky. The plan was like this. I ask for money from my mother and I buy notebooks and files that I needed for academy and buy a cup of chicken with left over money. I felt like I was doing something wrong, but this was the only way that I can eat chicken that I love. So, my plan started. I successfully got money from my mother and I arrived at the stationery store. This part was the most important part in my plan. I carefully calculated the money that I need to buy a cup chicken that I eagerly wanted. I didn’t make any mistakes in my calculation, and I could eat the cup chicken. I felt proud because I used my skill that I learned from the academy in order to successfully buy a cup of chicken. When I saw that red sauce falling down on pieces of chicken, I couldn’t wait to put it into my mouth. The first piece came in, and I couldn’t forget how it felt to eat a chicken after eating only green garbage for several weeks. It was a heaven for me as if I was in the world of chicken.
     I had to eat the last piece of the chicken. I was sad due to the thought that I couldn’t eat a chicken for another week or so. With the notebooks and files that I bought, I arrived home with a big smile on my face. As usual, my mother greeted me, and she asked for the change that I had. So I gave her 300 won. But, she didn’t let me go in. She said, “You should have left more than this.” I was standing in front of the door and a single drop of sweat went through my back. I said, “The files and notebooks were expensive!” However, she didn’t believe me. Then, she asked for the receipt that I had in my pocket. I had to say the truth since she will find out that I spend money on other things. So, I said to my mother that I wanted to eat chicken on my way home. I expected an admonition from my mother, but she didn’t. Surprisingly, she was saying sorry to me. She said she was too harsh on making me to study and have a diet as a growing up child. At that moment, I had tears on my eyes.
     I felt the love that my mother had towards me and I was sorry to her that I didn’t realize that she was worried about my health. I was always being angry and mad at her. I thought that I was an undutiful child who doesn’t listens to his mother. But, I couldn’t say what I had in my mind because I never had told my sincere thoughts before. Although, my thought as perfect plan failed, I could learn something important from the phenomenon and love that parents have towards their children.

댓글 2개:

  1. First Draft Comments:

    This is a cute narrative about a childhood experience told in a simple and honest voice. You do a good job answering the prompt, and generally your writing is solid (though, at times, repetitive and plain). In a second draft, I encourage you to take more chances and write more descriptively and directly. What is it about his chicken that you can’t resist? What is it about the vegetables that makes them disgusting? What would the younger you say about these things from a younger you’s (and less serious you) point of view? Have fun and increase the comedic elements of this story. Add details and colors and images and scents and sounds, and your writing will be more engaging and more dynamic. Don’t be afraid to use some dialogue. Give us more “emotion” and internal thoughts that you had at that time. Truly, at times it must be a bit depressing to be a young, hard working Korean student that is studying all day. The only joys a boy might have are video games and junk food. Readers might empathize with the woes of being a young Korean student. Dig a bit deeper and make the reader “feel” what you felt. Make this an essay that isn’t JUST about dieting and telling your mom a fib. Make it about “life as a young Korean boy who has a loving Korean mom.” All in all, a good first draft.

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    Second Draft Comments:

    Much better. 1008 words, according to MS Word. So indeed you have added content, and I can definitely taste the chicken (and the green garbage you detest), and the narrative is more engaging and satisfying. You inject more fun and drama into the act of deception (though it doesn't last long with your detective mother).

    While the diction isn't always perfect, and at times there is a repetitive wordiness to your sentences (mentioning the subject of a sentence too often - for example "chicken"), the writing is solid. Concision and sentence economy is definitely your main weakness, and is something to focus on this year. Other than that, great work. Your blog is looking wonderful, and I appreciate the added image.

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  2. I am happy that you have some great comments on my essay, and I also realized that I have main problem in being concise. I will try to overcome my main weakness during this semester. Again thank you for your help!

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Thank you for your comments!