Tina Sang
Language Arts 8L
Ms. Rowley
2nd Draft
Home Is Where The Heart Is
“Home is where the heart lies,” said Pliny the Elder long ago. But back when I was in elementary school, I didn’t grasp this notion that home didn’t necessarily have to be where you had lived all your life so far. The idea of moving had never crossed my mind. Sure, I knew people who’d moved, and heard stories about it in the media, but the idea of packing up all your belongings and moving to a whole different place just seemed so…huge; bigger than I could comprehend; too big to even worry if it would happen to me. So I guess that’s why I was completely speechless when my dad told me we would be moving to China.
School in America wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t the high life, either. I had a decent amount of friends and fit into many different friend groups, but I guess I still came off as somewhat nerdy. Nowhere near popular girl material. In a room full of people, I was definitely not the one known to be outgoing. I’d always thought of myself as a true American at heart, but the year before we moved, I started to feel like I didn’t really belong in my school. People couldn’t help but label me off as an Asian nerd, and all the popular girls at my old school were blond and pretty. So when it was announced that we were moving, a tiny part of me was relieved. Relieved that I would get a second chance, a fresh start, somewhere else. A future that was open to a ton of different possibilities. But, did it have to be in China? Sure, it was the country I had visited every summer since I was three, the country I looked like I was from, and the country I could speak the native language of. But, it seemed like after I moved, it was even harder for me to fit in. At my new school, almost everyone could speak Chinese, and that’s when it struck me: I wasn’t half as good as Chinese as I had thought I was. All the kids in my class, except for a few, knew Chinese lingo that I couldn’t make the heads or tails of. The language I thought I knew so well suddenly sounded like alien buzzing in my ears. They also watched anime and had interests that I hadn’t even heard of before. I didn’t want to change just to fit in, but what if the price for it …show more content…
I made many friends, including some native Chinese speakers. I hadn’t fully transformed into a whole different person, but I began to understand the Chinese culture more. Instead of seeing the horrid, polluted country that I had been forced to move to, I saw the true wonder of it that had persuaded my parents to move. China offered me many opportunities that I wouldn’t even have had the chance to be a part of in America. It was my shining gateway to a new and improved life. At school, I learned how to become a confident speaker, a strong leader, and the organizer of events and fund-raisers. I was given the chance to step up and take charge more than once, and by the end of 7th grade, I had written two complete novels and won several awards. It was almost too good to be true. If I had stayed in America, I never would’ve had all these
Language Arts 8L
Ms. Rowley
2nd Draft
Home Is Where The Heart Is
“Home is where the heart lies,” said Pliny the Elder long ago. But back when I was in elementary school, I didn’t grasp this notion that home didn’t necessarily have to be where you had lived all your life so far. The idea of moving had never crossed my mind. Sure, I knew people who’d moved, and heard stories about it in the media, but the idea of packing up all your belongings and moving to a whole different place just seemed so…huge; bigger than I could comprehend; too big to even worry if it would happen to me. So I guess that’s why I was completely speechless when my dad told me we would be moving to China.
School in America wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t the high life, either. I had a decent amount of friends and fit into many different friend groups, but I guess I still came off as somewhat nerdy. Nowhere near popular girl material. In a room full of people, I was definitely not the one known to be outgoing. I’d always thought of myself as a true American at heart, but the year before we moved, I started to feel like I didn’t really belong in my school. People couldn’t help but label me off as an Asian nerd, and all the popular girls at my old school were blond and pretty. So when it was announced that we were moving, a tiny part of me was relieved. Relieved that I would get a second chance, a fresh start, somewhere else. A future that was open to a ton of different possibilities. But, did it have to be in China? Sure, it was the country I had visited every summer since I was three, the country I looked like I was from, and the country I could speak the native language of. But, it seemed like after I moved, it was even harder for me to fit in. At my new school, almost everyone could speak Chinese, and that’s when it struck me: I wasn’t half as good as Chinese as I had thought I was. All the kids in my class, except for a few, knew Chinese lingo that I couldn’t make the heads or tails of. The language I thought I knew so well suddenly sounded like alien buzzing in my ears. They also watched anime and had interests that I hadn’t even heard of before. I didn’t want to change just to fit in, but what if the price for it …show more content…
I made many friends, including some native Chinese speakers. I hadn’t fully transformed into a whole different person, but I began to understand the Chinese culture more. Instead of seeing the horrid, polluted country that I had been forced to move to, I saw the true wonder of it that had persuaded my parents to move. China offered me many opportunities that I wouldn’t even have had the chance to be a part of in America. It was my shining gateway to a new and improved life. At school, I learned how to become a confident speaker, a strong leader, and the organizer of events and fund-raisers. I was given the chance to step up and take charge more than once, and by the end of 7th grade, I had written two complete novels and won several awards. It was almost too good to be true. If I had stayed in America, I never would’ve had all these