20.05.2022 Views

The Courage of Children: Boston and Beyond XXXI

Award-winning essays on courage written by sixth-eight grade students participating in The Max Warburg Courage Curriculum.

Award-winning essays on courage written by sixth-eight grade students participating in The Max Warburg Courage Curriculum.

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

Josmil Binet<br />

Alex Veloz, Teacher<br />

Bellesini Academy, Lawrence, MA<br />

We all have times when bad things happen to us, <strong>and</strong> we have to do things that<br />

we do not like to do. This happened to me when my house burned down. It<br />

was very hard to get over, but I had to do it. I was very scared in this period <strong>of</strong><br />

my life because I felt very vulnerable <strong>and</strong> constantly felt like something was<br />

going to hurt me. Many things were going on in my life during this time. This<br />

is the story <strong>of</strong> how my house burned down <strong>and</strong> how I overcame it.<br />

I was asleep when my dad woke me up. I heard a very loud knocking on the<br />

door <strong>and</strong> saw blue <strong>and</strong> red lights outside on the street. I was frightened. I<br />

followed my dad <strong>and</strong> watched him wake up everyone. When we went outside,<br />

I saw a big fire in the attic. <strong>The</strong>n, I saw the woman who lived in the attic on<br />

top <strong>of</strong> the second floor porch, <strong>and</strong> I saw the fright in her eyes, just like I was<br />

feeling. She was right next to the fire, <strong>and</strong> the firefighters got her out. I was<br />

worried because I did not know what to do. That night, I went to my aunt’s<br />

house, <strong>and</strong> my parents went to our second house that we rented to people.<br />

<strong>The</strong>n, the next day, we came to get our things, <strong>and</strong> I saw a lot <strong>of</strong> water on the<br />

wall. We went back <strong>and</strong> forth for a while between houses. We kept moving<br />

from a hotel to an apartment.<br />

“Because <strong>of</strong> the<br />

courage I had, I was<br />

able to overcome<br />

this hard time<br />

in my life.”<br />

I learned many things after this experience, <strong>and</strong> the most important is to<br />

appreciate the small things in life. After losing it all, you wish you had at least<br />

the small things left. This was very important to me because I would not be<br />

the person I am today if it weren’t for that fire. Because <strong>of</strong> the courage I had,<br />

I was able to overcome this hard time in my life. Because <strong>of</strong> this experience,<br />

I learned to be grateful. I hope that if you read this story, you will learn<br />

something as well. I hope that after hearing this, you will also have more<br />

gratitude for the small things in life.<br />

<strong>The</strong> apartment we were staying in was small, but we all fit in. We had to get an<br />

exterminator for the bugs, <strong>and</strong> I was excited to go back to school. I was very<br />

uncomfortable because <strong>of</strong> the change <strong>of</strong> environment. I was also very worried,<br />

because many things could happen while we were working on the house.<br />

After school, I would have to go home <strong>and</strong> help fix things. It was hard, but I<br />

did it because I was able to help my parents so that we could go back home.<br />

My dad also got some help from the company he works with. Because <strong>of</strong> my<br />

dad’s injury, it was even harder to manage, but he worked very hard. We also<br />

got help from friends <strong>and</strong> family members to help us to rebuild our house.<br />

Overall, it was a very hard time, but we had to overcome this challenge to<br />

continue our regular lives. When we finished our house, I was glad.<br />

<strong>The</strong> <strong>Courage</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Children</strong>: <strong>Boston</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Beyond</strong><br />

Volume <strong>XXXI</strong><br />

28 29

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!