Grow up

Grow up

Nina Yang

W&C III

10/07/2014

Ms. Guarino

    “My mom is going to abandon me.” That’s what I thought when I was in fourth grade and knew that my parents were going to send me to a homestay in Australia for a month. At that time, the fear was even greater than sadness or any other feelings in my mind at that time. Besides, I didn’t realize how I would change after time. After the first time experience a real separate from my parents and came to a totally unfamiliar country where doesn’t speak any Chinese, I became a mature and sensible girl which was helpful for my future because I was independent enough to handle things by myself.

    I actually didn’t realize the task in front of me after talking with my mom about going to Australia. My mom said the only thing I need to do is to take English course in a University and hang out with people in my homestay. I felt like it’s not going to be hard for me. Then, I held a pleasant feeling as if I was going to travel and relax, and got on to the plane all by myself. I felt like I was an adult at that time, but a 10-year-old adult.

    After a long-distance travel, I arrived to Australia, which is a country has a bluer sky and fresher air than China has. The most people I saw was white people and the people who came to pick me at the airport were someone I had never seen before. I knew that they were my homestay parents. They were really nice to me and I also made friends with their 3 children. Two of them were bigger than me and one was in kindergarten at that time. The food was totally different from the food in my hometown, so it’s kind of hard for me to adjust it very soon. However, they were afraid I couldn’t use folk and knife so they prepared chopsticks for me. The first night in the homestay was like a tragedy because it was the first time I left my mom this far and slept in a stranger’s house although they treated me really nice. I couldn’t stop crying and thinking about my mom and my dad. My parents love me so much and I was thinking about we had fights the day before came here only because I was too lazy to pack up the stuff so my mom did it all for me. However, my parents had to take care of me all the time and I was so regret for always making them feel disappointed and angry. Right now, I had to clean up stuff and washed my clothes all by myself. I sometimes dislike the food my mom makes but right now I missed the food she cooked. I should have listen to her since she said that for the sake of my future. I was crying all night and only slept for less than two hours.

    Despite the pretty joyful life in the rest of the month, the first night forced me to grow up immediately. I understood all my parents did for me and decided to say sorry to them for all the things I did that made they felt upset. I decided to be a big girl and handle things by myself if I’m able to. In addition, I would help my mom to do the housework afterward since she was tired of work and it’s my responsibility to help her.