As part of their first English LL unit on 'Memoirs,' Grade 7 students learned about memoirs, read and analyzed a variety of them, reviewed the elements of a story, and finally wrote a memoir based on an important learning moment in their life. In the 2 remaining memoirs here in the second part of this collection, the students narrate a memorable moment from their life where they faced a conflict and turned it into a story!
“Senri Osaka International School vs Nagoya International School”
Issa S.
“Ball, walk,” the umpire called.
“Time!” Coach K yelled at the umpire.
Coach and Masato-san ran up onto the mound, greeting Jiho who was holding his shoulder in pain. The coaches and Jiho were having a conversation for a few minutes, and Jiho was nodding his head most of the time.
I was waiting standing with my glove on my waist and thinking of the pitcher changing. Everyone was thinking about Kaleb being the pitcher since he made a good record on the first day. Everyone waited patiently for the coach to let Jiho pitch the inning or switch with Kaleb.
The coach walked up to the umpire and signaled that he would change pitchers. The coach put out his hand and pointed at the order for the match. He was in the process of changing positions.
Even Kaleb himself thought he was pitching so he tried to go get his pitching glove. The coach stopped Kaleb and pointed at me. I was shocked. Not only I but everyone was dropping their jaws. I was confused, I even had to point to myself to confirm with my coach.
“Come up, Issa,” the coach said.
I slowly started to walk to the mound. On my way, Jiho patted me on the back. I walked onto the mound and received the ball from the umpire.
“5 pitches!” the umpire yelled.
I took this warm-up seriously. Though my feet shook like a baby who stood up for the first time, I tried to throw as best as possible. The 5 pitches zoomed through and ended in a flash. There was no going back. The batter already stood in the batter box.
I checked the grip of the ball. I got into the motion. My feet came up slowly as my left hand also followed up. As I took the ball out of the glove, I knew for a fact that there was no going back. My right hand came out as a catapult that launched stones, this time with a ball. When my hand got to the highest point, with all the momentum gained from moving the body in a certain way, I brought down my hand, releasing the ball right above my head. The ball made a small arch, landing just a bit from where the catcher wanted the ball to go. It ended with a small spanking sound.
“Ball,” the umpire shouted.
The ball was returned to me. Striking out the batter was pie in the sky. Two more balls and it would will be over. A point would will be added to Senri Osaka International School, and it would be implausible to win. This would have cost us a first-place trophy. I took another deep breath to overcome the pressure and stress due to the coach and my teammates relying on me to get out of this deadly situation. I checked the grip of the ball, and I got into the motion. My feet came up slowly as my left hand also followed up. My hand came out in the best way imaginable. But my chin came up resulting in overthrowing it.
“Ball,” the umpire cried.
My breath became intense. With only two pitches left, I started to look back at the things my dad had taught me. The most important thing is to make sure the chin does not come up when throwing because the trajectory of the ball will go up due to how where the player looks the ball goes. I relaxed and made sure that I locked my head. I threw the ball as hard as possible and landed exactly where the catcher wanted it.
“Strike,” the umpire made a hand gesture signaling three balls and two strikes.
I gripped the ball as hard as possible. I had practiced every weekend for this moment, starving and even about to die. I took my hand out as a whip and released the ball with all my might.
It hit the glove, making a sound like a rifle shot.
“Strike three, batter out!” the umpire shouted.
My heart started pounding even faster due to all of what I had gone through. I walked back to the bench with the happiest feeling in my life.
“Spring in Canada”
Nobumaro O.
The altitude changed rapidly as the plane was about to touch down at the airport while the nightlights of Toronto illuminated the dark vessel. Suddenly, after a series of rotations and tilts, the ground began to shake violently and rapidly; the airplane was finally touching down! Excitement waltzed through the aisles as everyone in the plane slowly got up and reached for their baggages. However, I, sitting right next to the left wing of the plane, was not so eager. My mother had saved up a bit of money in order to afford a ticket to Canada to meet my relatives (who I had not met for four years). However, as they lived in a countryside town, there was no possibility of taking a direct flight to meet them. As such, we had to land in Toronto.
I sat up and got my bag from the overhead compartment. It felt like it weighed a hundred pounds because I was so tired from the flight. I had only slept for about three hours of the twelve hour flight, so I was quite weary. I braced myself and headed into the aisle. Although the aisles were wide, it was still a cramped airplane. I realized how lucky I was to get the window seat. However, a sweeping wave of nervousness swerved through my body as the other passengers and I slowly shuffled across the seats: what was this country like? Would it be different from what I’m used to? As soon as I got to the exit of the airplane, a brisk cold went down my spine; I had no idea how cold Canada was! I could only wonder how cold it could have been if we had to exit into the outside rather than the airport terminal. But nonetheless, I walked through.
The airport walkways were illuminated by bright lights that made the whole building seem as bright as day. It was oddly quiet, only the passengers from my plane were there. But as soon as I headed left and went down an escalator, the downstairs was bustling with people of all kinds; the airport speedily changed from a serene and odd building to an overwhelming loudness. But after my mother took a short while to sort out some papers and documents, we were ready to go to the hotel.
After a speedy train ride, we were already at the reception of the hotel. The reception room was very cozy and had a slight rich orange hue to the lights. After my mother checked in, I was ready to go to my room. There was a large TV and a comfy bed in it. As soon as I lay down to get some rest on the bed; an extremely harrowing thought surrounds my head: what if I couldn't relate to my extended family? What if I was accidentally rude to them? These thoughts surrounded me like an electric fence. I managed to pull myself away from these thoughts as I dragged myself into sleep.
The next morning was cold; freezing even! Even though I had slept for over ten hours; the thoughts of intimidation still wrangled up inside my head. It got even worse once my mom announced that we were to be picked up by her friend and her friend's son, Domingo. I had actually met Domingo a few years back, but we never really got along well; we would play sometimes with each other; but I wouldn’t consider myself friends with him, especially since he is two years older than me.
That morning I ate a bacon and egg sandwich which I got from a coffee shop. It wasn’t too bad! After that, my Mom and I went to the lobby to watch out for my Mom’s friend’s car. I waited outside so I could watch the car as my mom filed the hotel room payments. After around 30 minutes; a black SUV showed up! I called my mother as my mom’s friend (Tony) gave my Mom a welcoming hug as we got into her car. Inside the SUV’s backseat was Domingo; his height was towering over me despite being only 2 years older than me. I hopped into the car as the engine started.
The views of the outside were completely different from what I was used to. The cold springtime left half of the trees orange and half of them green, but the grass was colorful all around. The wide roads were particularly wider than those in Hong Kong and there were hardly any roads. Next to me, I saw Domingo playing offline games on his phone.
After a short while, we were at a local pancake restaurant. It was very busy despite there being little to no people outside. My mom and I got 2 bacon poutines, however, when they arrived, they were way too big for 2 people to eat, and so we brought it to Tony’s house.
Once I arrived at her house and met her dog, Moe, (Who is very nervous around strangers), I explored around. It was a spacious house; with a humongous basement and a cozy living room. The second floor also had around 4 rooms, 2 of which were bedrooms. Moe loved to hang out on the couch as I fed him some dog snacks, I went outside to the backyard, and suddenly Domingo came out and threw a snowball at me. I threw one back and we both had a fun snowball fight. Afterwards we both went downstairs and played video games and ate potato chips. Moe eventually came down to see us, and Domingo fed him a plain potato chip.
That night I began to realize that maybe Canada won’t be so bad after all; and just like Moe; I would open up to new people and friends.
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