Kelvin Tsang
Mr. Gallagher
Period 1, English12
I was born in Hong Kong. I came to United States when I was around 13 years old. My parents told me that we had to move, because they wanted to provide a better education for me and my sister. Making new friends was my goal on my first day, however there was a serious obstacle blocking my way- language. Everyone in school seemed to speak in English, I understood nothing. People were talking with a strange language that I don’t know. I was alone. During lunch time, there every desk was already occupied by a group of people. Seems like there was nowhere could let me in. I was isolated. Finally I found myself a sit in the very end corner of the cafeteria. My first meal was a cheese burger and a bottle of chocolate milk. They look delicious. But the cheese was sour, the bread was dry and the milk was saline. While I was chewing them, my eyes turned watery- I missed my friends in Hong Kong. I can’t forget the time when we all sit together during lunch, walk together everywhere, anything that we been did together. My home-sick feeling being intense- I heard laughing from the rest of the people who were hanging around in the cafeteria.
As I speak in no English, I was assign to an ESL class. When I first entered the classroom, my teacher came to me and ask me bunch of questions. I guess she was questioning me about my name and where I came from, however, there were only three words I could understand, “Hi”, “name” and “you”. She speaks very fast. I was nervous; I don’t even know what I should suppose to respond. Suddenly, there was a boy who named Chris came to me and talked to me with my home language- Cantonese! He told me that what the teacher just asked me, he helped me as a translator. I was surprised and so appreciated that I could meet him in my first day. Luckily that, all of my teachers and my classmates were nice; they were patient and when they tried to talk with me, they try to slow down and add gestures, which helped me to understand more. In order to reach my goal of making new friends, I forced myself to response them in English, even just a single word or simple sentence. That was the moment when I begin to build up my English skills. To let myself can have more conversation and topics to share with my friends, I then began to spend time on cartoons, which was another one of the ways that helped me to learn more about English.
Now, I spend less time on the cartoons and I spend time on reading novels and newspaper, and of course, school activities.
When I became a freshman in Malden High School, I joined the track team. I am a sprinter. I am the fastest one on the track team. There was an unforgettable event in my track life: The night before that event, my coach told me that there was a person run really fast. According to his fastest record, he’s faster than me by 2.5 second. (For a sprinter, it is huge.) Almost no one in the team believes I can defeat him, but I told myself, I can do it. I dislike being the second one, I actually enjoy the moment when I be prized at the top place of the stage with people’s applause. Thus once the race begin, I put my entire effort to it. However, he still heading me, he is beast, I felt like I must lose. But miracle came, at the last 50 meters, I did pass him, and eventually, I go through the final spot with half of a body! I love track, not just because I am good at it, but I learn a lot from it. I think the most valuable thing I learned is time management. Being a sprinter, I am required to be extremely sensitive with time. It is always possible to be defeated by just 0.01 second. I will never forget how I disappointed from an experience. It was my first game in the track team; I lose because of that 0.01 second! The practice of track team did occupied lots of my time, especially the period that before an event. In my freshman year, I mess up my time table. I didn’t use my spare time wieldy. I put my homework after my track. I only do my work after if I am done with the practice or an event. However, I usually become really tired afterward, hence I used to just rush on my schoolwork then go to bed. Lacking of enough time for rest with long term does affect my health and I realize if I keeping this as a habit, my track and schoolwork would both mess up. Thus, I attempted to make a change- As I am still a student, I understand that no matter what sport you play or what you are asked to do, school work should always come first. Keeping this in my mind, I try to come up with a time-table for myself. I have to balance the time that I spend on track and so to my school work.
Beside the time management, I also gain a chance to learn how to control my psycho quality. Every time when I was about to race, I would become nervous naturally, even my coach told me I will be fine. My coach always tries to calm me down before any race, he told me that if I go on my race with my nervous or any kind of unrest feeling, my perform definitely would be affected. In order to keep myself in the best condition, I have to learn about how I could control my psycho quality. So what I would do to control my nervous, I would set up a clarified goal. For all of my events, I only have one goal- to win. Only set up a clear mind could make me be concentrated and pay my entire effort to it. And furthermore I thoroughly understand an old apologue- ‘You reap what you sow” Without practice, without paying effort, no matter how great you did before, or how wonderful you used to be, you failed. This apologue not just used in my running, but to my life. It does fetch out an idea which always inspirit me while I am depressing from difficulties, which is “attitude is always a small thing which could make a big different.”
Doing track did make me become more mature and confidence. Looking back, I still remember I was a little boy who speaks in no English, felt lonely and frustrated all the time. But how time flies, now I am a senior and I am sitting in my room with my computer and typing my college essay.
