For The Love of My Family - My Very First Essay

The semester has ended about two weeks ago, and I still hasn't updated anything. I missed writing here though especially about Frankie. I am trying to enjoy the little time I have left before school starts again in less than two weeks. It will be a busy semester for sure but with good time management ( I hope) I will manage.

Anyways, I am updating to share my experiences with my English 101 class. I thought it was very interesting. It might be a piece of cake for someone, but it surely wasn't for me. You see, I am not a writer or a native English speaker. Well I could write, but I am not like those who could clearly point out the grammatical errors in a written essay. I don't even know the rules, and the proper use of punctuations. I know, you might think it is as simple as exclamation point, comma and period, but I was surprised when even a comma has its own place in a sentence, or it would make the sentence a comma splice if not placed correctly. A single comma could also transform a simple sentence into compound and complex sentences. It was varieties of sentences that our English teachers expected from us which I did not have any clue. I don't remember my English teacher discussing about this when I was in high school and college. I am also certain that I wasn't absent when she discussed it because I rarely skip class (one or twice every school year). Those who took deeper English classes might have gone through them in college, but I didn't.

When I walked in my English 101 class, I politely informed my teacher not expect too much from me because I am not a native speaker. Of course, I know that I would still keep up with the rest of the students even if I was not a native English speaker. She smiled at me and said I will be fine. Unfortunately, I wasn't fine. The second meeting we had, she already assigned our first writting assignment which was the narrative essay. While sitting in class listening to her, I already thought of a beautiful topic. Because I thougth I had it under control, I didn't panic. When I turned my first essay in, she didn't even grade yet. Yes it was that horrible. There was no structure, no variety of sentences, some sentences were grammartically incorrect, there was no use of transitional words or phrases and in short it was really bad. I even asked our teacher if thesis and essays are the same because it confused me there for a bit. She made it clear that thesis or thesis statements are found in the essay. Ouch! All these time I thought thesis are essays while the essays are only found during exams. See, what I am talking about? I have put my English teachers to shame.

I got A's all the time every time we have quizzes because I could point out my errors but for some strange reasons I couldn't in my own writings. It doesn't even matter how many times I have read it. It felt perfect to me, but when I get it back it was full of red marks.

You See, before I was admitted to my English 101 class, I took the compass test to determine my readiness and which English class I should be placed. I was hoping that I will skip Eng 98 and Eng 99 and take Eng 101 instead. I would save $600.00 by doing so, but I also knew that if I was not ready based from the essay that I wrote (under time pressure of course) then the lower level English would help me a lot. I was amazed with the result. I did really well and was placed in English 101. I walked in that class not knowing anything that most people would have, so in short, the teacher expected that I already knew the basics about writing.

On my second draft, I saw an improvement but it was not the grade that I wanted to have. She only gave me 58 points ( what a shame!) out of 100. She explained what was wrong with my essay, and she gave me another chance to improve it in a week. I didn't know what to do. I have asked people for help me before, but I don't like to depend on anybody. So, I researched and researched. I bought a book online for the guides in writing essays on top of the English book I already had. I submitted my essay and when I got it back, I had the biggest smile on my face. She gave me a 94 with a few corrections and made my final grade 95. She also noted the big improvements in my writings. My researched helped, and I think I got it now. Here is my first narrative essay. Sorry, I am sure there are some mistakes, but I am proud of my work. The paragraphs are supposed to be indented but blogger won't let me.

Merydith N.
Ms. S.
English 101
September 22, 2009

For The Love of My Family

It was June of 2005 when my husband and I found out that I was pregnant. We were very excited but scared at the same time. Being scared is a feeling that is normal to first time parents. A few months later, I was put to bed rest to avoid losing the baby. I had to stop working to relieve undue stress that could harm my pregnancy. The sudden decision to stop working affected my household financially. Since I could not leave the house, it also impaired me socially. Worst of all, it put my sister’s education in jeopardy.

My husband and I had been helping each other since we moved out from my father-in-law’s and got our own house. While I took care of the utilities and bills, he paid for the mortgage. It had been like that for three years until I got pregnant. I was so worried if his income would be enough to supplement all the expenses we had. Because we had to pay the mortgage, car loans, electricity, water and gas, the first couple of months were very challenging. Besides that, we needed to prepare for the baby’s arrival also. We were on a tight budget; however, we found a way to cut back on things that were unnecessary around the house.

Firstly, instead of using the long distance service on our home phone, we replaced it with local calls. The switch helped us saved almost $40.00 a month. Since our relatives lived nearby anyway, it wasn’t necessary to keep the long distance line. Secondly, instead of buying calling cards to call my family each month, I suggested the time and day that we all could meet and use Yahoo messenger to chat. The service was free and I could see them on the computer at the same time. Thirdly, I encouraged my husband to disconnect our cell phones and use pre-paid phones. Since I was home bound, I didn’t need a cell phone. I could use the prepaid phone to call my husband when I was out and also use it for emergencies; and finally, we disconnected our Netflix subscription. Unfortunately, after all the cut backs we did, we soon found out it wasn’t enough, so my husband decided to look for a second job. I was unhappy about it, but what other choice did we have?

I felt sorry for my husband having to work all those long hours at his first job and then do a second job afterwards. We seldom saw each other. By the time he would leave for work in the morning, I was still asleep and the same went for the night. Despite that, he occasionally did another job on the weekends. While it made me sad and lonely at times, I knew he was doing it for us. My husband’s main priority was to keep the house and he did a good job in doing so.

Another challenge I had was staying home. I had been working since I graduated college, I think that was why staying home was such a change for me. I tried to do most of the household chores, but I could only do so much because of the doctor’s restrictions. I remember sitting all the time watching TV. I must have watched all my husband’s DVD collection. It was so boring at home that I started cross-stitching and sometimes reading magazines about parenting. Unfortunately, I was starting to become anti-social; furthermore, I didn’t want to go on family gatherings because I was afraid that people would talk about how I looked. Additionally, I was hesitant to go out because I felt like I was the ugliest person in the crowd. I even felt like I was losing my English speaking skills because I didn’t speak it enough with anyone except my husband. Because of this, I was beginning to believe that there was something wrong with me mentally.

Thankfully, after reading magazines about pregnancy, I started to realize that it was just the hormones kicking in that made me emotionally unstable at times. I started to control my emotions, and I learned how to share it with my husband and mother. I learned to appreciate the changes that I had and even to appreciate my growing belly.

On the other hand, when I stopped working, my sister Grace’s education was greatly affected. Because I made sure that our bills were paid here first, I started sending money late for her school and allowance. As a result, she was getting behind with her exams and project submissions. There were times when her classmates were already enjoying their break while she was still in school trying to take her exams and finishing her requirements.

You see, my husband and I sent my sister Resty to college to finish her bachelor’s degree in civil engineering. When she graduated college, my other sister also graduated high school. My parents didn’t ask for my help, but I knew my youngest sister Grace needed my help to go to school. My mother had once told me, “Your father and I would not know what to do if you haven’t been helping your sister out in school.”

That was why when it was Grace’s time to go to school, I knew I had to help out. It wouldn’t have been so hard if I had kept my job, but it was not my choice to stay home. Because I didn’t know how to get the money to send Grace to start and complete her bachelor’s degree in nursing, I was so worried while staying home. I didn’t want to ask my husband for any help because he was paying all the bills and asking him to help out for my youngest sister would have been too much.

My prayers were answered when I came across a fellow blogger promoting an advertiser’s website on her blog. This was a little after I gave birth to my son. I read in one of her posts that she was doing paid blogging where she made at least five dollars every post and as much as twenty dollars per entry. Reading this made me very excited. I thought that if I could save all the money that I made from doing paid posts and send it to my sister, it would help her greatly. After a few months of waiting, I started doing paid blogging. I felt so happy because I finally found something that I could do while staying home and helping my sister out at the same time.

I have realized that there is nothing greater than sacrificing for my family. I am so proud of my sisters for what they have accomplished; furthermore, I am more proud of us for continuing to help them even during tough times. My staying home might have affected all of us socially, emotionally and financially, but it made the fruit of the labor sweeter. I sacrificed so much and in the same way, my husband sacrificed a lot for our family. Because in the end, my family is all I have.

After all the hard work, only a few of us passed. Twelve to be exact and to make the long story short, I got an A in this class. Up next, my description essay.