Struggles

Priscilla Pineda

English 6A

Professor Lennon

April 9, 2010
Struggles

One of my biggest struggles in my life has been leaving my childhood home. During my

childhood years I lived in the city of South Gate, California. I lived on the street called Chestnut;

our home there was a two story house and it had a big back yard. I use to call my home Chestnut

because in front of my home there was a Chestnut tree and it was the only tree on the block. In

my childhood years my Chestnut home gave me good childhood memories while I was growing

up. I remember every summer all my friends on the block would come to my house to play in

my back yard, I use to play for hours in that yard.

After playing every summer in my Chestnut home in the back yard, I never got tired of

playing in that house. Every day the children of Chestnut Street would come in front of my

house where the Chestnut tree was and all of us would choose the best Chestnut and we would

always try to break one. Once I arrived into my adolescent years, I carried on the games and

taught the games to my little sister because I wanted her to have the same tradition of playing

games and having fun in Chestnut Street. I knew that our Chestnut home was going to be the

home we were going to live in forever, because I had so many memories in that home.

During the summer of 2007, my father decided to buy a new house without my family’s

consent. When my father approached us with the devastating news I could not believe that we

were moving. I did not want to live in another house because all my memories were here in my

Chestnut home. I tried to argue with my father trying to convince him to let us stay in our home

but his face said it all we were going to move whether I liked it or not. I knew at that moment

that it was going to be the hardest struggle I would go through in my life.

There I was standing all alone in my bedroom, looking back at all the memories I had

throughout those seventeen years, I wondered at that time if this change was good. I stood

there for about an hour alone crying and praying thinking that this was a nightmare; I couldn’t

believe that we were moving. I lived in that house since I was born; this was the home I grew up

in. As my dad finished fixing the boxes in the moving truck, I saw my childhood friends walking

towards my home, I saw them and I couldn’t stop my tears as I ran towards them. They told

me, “Don’t leave Priscilla you can’t leave now. They told me that were always going to be there

for me. I told them my goodbyes.

As we were leaving the city, I asked my dad if we could stop at my high school, as we were

approaching, I begged my dad one more time not to move from our home which I loved and the

city I grew up in. He told me “Priscilla I know this is the hardest step you have faced throughout

your life, but I promise you that this is a new beginning that will bring you in opportunities in

school and in life”. He then told me he was sorry, but we are not moving back. Those few words

made me not hate my dad anymore, because I knew that we were moving to a better city and a

new house that would start a new chapter on our lives.