Bijal+Patel

__Moving __ Victoria Park is the best place for any child to grow up. Memories from the day I moved in at age 2 till ages 10 are engraved in 6105 Hana Road. Moving would be the last thing that would come to my head. As days passed by, I felt like the town house was getting smaller and smaller, and then the day came. It was pin drop silent in my house, not even one sound peeping form the corners of anywhere and then I heard something no 10 year old would want to hear. I swarmed past my grandparents, making then skip a heartbeat with a curious look on their plump wrinkly faces. I rushed down the stairs, luckily landing feet first and plopped myself on the blue velvet broken sofa as my butt slinked right in. My heart was racing like a runaway train getting faster and faster. I was wishing that the last 30 seconds on my life never come true. //No // I thought to myself. //NO, NO, NO!! I didn’t just hear my parent’s conversation.// My eyes filled with a puddle of tears just waiting to come out any second. “What are you guys talking about?” I asked curiously even though I had not a doubt about what was happening. “Ummm” That was never a good sign. Something was fishy. I peeked over to look at the paper’s laying beside the pull out coffee table. Seeing the bold headline, “HOUSES FOR SALE” made my eyes pop out of their sockets and made me want to blurt out mean things to my parents but my conscious held me back. Instead I did what any 10 year old would do to keep her out of less trouble. The nasty habit I had of pinching someone when I got really furious acted up. I pinched my dad and trudged up the stairs like and abnormal child with rage would do. I pounded my legs so loudly that I felt the vibration all the way to my head. //Why are they doing this to me? // The thought kept going through my head. As days past by things started to change around my place. I would wake up one day to find the red wood canopy bed in my parents room missing, and the next day find the computer table all packed up as if it was being shipped to another country. Slowly by slowly things magically started to disappear. The house that used to lighten my day turned into an old rigid place with cobwebs, creaky floors and broken windows. It almost looked like an abandoned house but people living inside. We stared packing our loss junk and loaded it onto the basement until the day. The only question was where was I moving too? That question always floated threw my head but I never had the guts to ask my parents. //What if they said Robbinsville or maybe even another state!? They could even another country for all I care!// I didn’t want to have the empty feeling inside me but I knew that the day would come. Waking up early in the morning wasn’t my thing but the day my dad said we were going to check out houses near Edison Township, my hope rose and I popped out of bed and got ready in a matter of 20 minutes. Then off we went. I kept looking out the window trying to figure out where we were going. Nothing in the surroundings looked familiar to me so I gave up. After a long 30 minute drive which seemed like 3 hours, we finally got out of the dirty old blue van. //EWWWW // I murmured to myself hoping that no one heard my rudeness. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 14pt;">“Bijal, mind your manners” squealed my mother. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 14pt;">I couldn’t believe my eyes. For a second I thought I was day dreaming but then my mom popped my bubble. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 14pt;">“Is this the place?” I asked my mom hoping that it wasn’t. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 14pt;">“No, it’s not final. Were just here to look around and see if we like the place. If we don’t then were not going to buy it.” <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 14pt;">“Thank god” I cried out loud. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 14pt;">As we started our journey too look around the house it wasn’t as bad as I thought. The kind old lady who was considered to be our house guide showed us the way around. The house was gorgeous. It had a glass room 5 bedroom, 3 bathrooms a huge kitchen and family room which could easily be counted as two rooms. My eyes couldn’t believe what they were seeing. For a second I thought all of this was a joke but then the other side of me had faith that it was reality. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 14pt;">After spending a good 45 minutes exploring the top of the house we got to the basement. This is where all the misunderstanding happened. As we all know the people who sell the house always say good things about the place so the costumers would fall into the trick and buy the house. But, my parent was smart enough to figure out that something was fishy. We were all walking and walking in the cold basement when my dad realized that there was mold growing on the sides of the walls. As we got closer and closer the carpet started to get damp! <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 14pt;">“Umm… excuse me ma’am.” My dad said with quite come confidence in his voice. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 14pt;">“Yes?” she said as her face turned bright pink. That was never a good sign. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 14pt;">“What is all this?” my dad said pointing to the yucky thing growing on the wall. Just looking at the mold made me want to puke. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 14pt;">“Ohh, yea, right about that. That is mold that is starting to grow. There was a flood in East Brunswick about a week ago and the water synced in from the basement and it made the basement flood. It’s not too bad. We will clean it up for free.” As soon as those words popped out of the old ladies mouth my family and I left the place and never came back to even give it a second chance. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 14pt;">As day passed by my family went to look at houses and I stayed home with my grandparents. I had enough!! Then the day finally came. My ears were about to come out of their distinct location. I just didn’t hear what came out of my mom mouth. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 14pt;">“It’s final, were moving in 2 month!” The look on her face has 20 times different than mine. She seemed so happy that nothing could ruin her mood. Being the abnormal child that I was, changed everything. First I screamed so loudly that the whole state of New Jersey probably heard it, then I punched and kicked the wall till I realized I wasn’t strong enough to make a hole and like usual when I get mad, I stampeded up the stairs vibrating the whole house. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 14pt;">Hours passed by as I stayed in my parent’s room. There was nothing to do. The room was quite boring. I felt like I was cramped up in a little box. Well, the room was a perfect square so it made sense. It almost felt like I was trapped inside a box and someone was watching every last move that I made. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 14pt;">“Bijal are you in there.” My mother asked in a sweet voice tempting me to answer. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 14pt;">“Bijal…?” three second later, “Bijal….?” <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 14pt;">I was quite as a mouse when my mom started to count to three. That was never a good sign. My mom was a very nice woman but when I annoyed the living daylights out of her things got bad. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 14pt;">“BIJAL, 1………., 2………………” <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 14pt;">I rushed to the wooden door and harshly opened it, probably breaking a crew. I didn’t want her to reach to three or things would get bad. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 14pt;">“WHAT DO YOU WANT?” I asked in a rude childish voice tempting me to say something disrespectful. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 14pt;">“We are all going to visit the house that we bought. Would you like to come?” //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 14pt;">Well… //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 14pt;"> I thought to myself//. I’m going to have to visit the house one day or another and I might as well go today.// <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 14pt;">“Yes, I will like to come.” I replied to my mother in a punitive manner. I was still infuriated. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 14pt;">As we drove to the place, the surroundings were familiar. This time I actually knew where we were. I looked outside and the names of the streets were popping into my head. Then I realized that this is where my aunt and uncle live! After a 20 minute ride, I got out of the care wanting to smell the fresh air. //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 14pt;">Wow! //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 14pt;">I thought to myself//. This was amazing. The house looked so big.// <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 14pt;">My dad stepped onto the stairs and unlocked the master lock. Wow, as soon as I entered a strain of thoughts floated threw my head//, Did my parent really buy this place or was it all just a joke?// <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 14pt;">The house was really pretty. It had 4 rooms, a living room; a family room a huge kitchen, a basement with 5 other rooms inside and a backyard so big that you could probably built another house! <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 14pt;">We explored the house remembering every last thing we saw. This was soon to be my permanent place to live. I rapidly stampeded upstairs so I could get to pick my room. I looked that the first room. //Nahh// I said to myself too big. I raced to the second room. //No too small.// I walked to the third room nearly out of breath. //Looks okay but still too big.// Then at the pace of a turtle I walked to the fourth room. //Perfect! Not too big or small.// <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 14pt;">I raced down the stairs to tell my parents which room I wanted. To my surprise my parents already choses my room and It happened to be the one I wanted. Before I even knew it 4 hours passed by and it was time to head to my old house. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 14pt;">On the way there I thought to myself, //this couldn’t be as bad as I thought. I was starting to like the place.// <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 14pt;">Days past by and my days went by the same. Wake up at 9 am. Get ready by 10. Go to my new house. Stay there till lunch and come back at 4 stay there till 8 and come back to my old house sleep and the next day went the same. But then it changed. About a month after we bought the house and my dad is minor repairing it was time to go pick out furniture, colors for our rooms and much more. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 14pt;">After going to about 5 different Ashley’s furniture store and 6 different Bob’s furniture stores, we got what we all wanted. I picked out the Brownwood bed with a dresser, a night table and a cheat. Then we went to the lumber to pick out the bathtub and tiles for the three bathrooms. Finally the best of all we went to Sherwin Williams Paints to pick out the colors for the different rooms. Since my favorite color was a purple I picked Atheistic Cream. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 14pt;">As weeks passed by, the painters painted my house, the bathrooms were all nice and ready and the furniture finally came in. It was almost 2 and half months since we bought the house! Time went by really quickly. In no time the house was ready. On exactly August 14, 2010 my family and I slept over the house for the first time. It was a big change. From the tiny house we were used to we moved into a house that was at least 3 times bigger. For the first couple of weeks before we got used to the place we were all over the place. No one had any idea what was going on. We were all lost in the bigger house. We misplaced all our things and found them weeks later. Moving was a really hard experience for me. From being used to such a small house my family and I adjusted to the bigger environment. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 14pt;">Now that I look back to the year I moved in I realized that it wasn’t bad after all. I mad many new friends and had no difficulties because I knew all of them from Camp Bernie. Moving wasn’t too bad after all.

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 14pt; text-align: right;">~Bijal Patel

__<span style="font-family: Rockwell,serif; font-size: 48pt;">Authors Note __ <span style="font-family: Rockwell,serif; font-size: 18pt;">Hi! My name is Bijal Patel. I am born on October 9th 1998. In my entire like I move to two different places. From a small cramped apartment to a townhouse to a regular house. All my life I enjoyed living in the townhouse because I spend half of my life there. I made a lot of close friends and moving would be the last thing that would come to my head. Unfoutunalty the day came when I found out I was moving. This was a really big experience in my life so I decided to write about it for my memoir. I wrote about this experience to make the readers understand what I went through, what I saw and most importantly how I felt. The author who really inspired me on my writing is Ralph Fletcher. By reading many of his memoirs I really got the habit of writing somewhat like him. Moving was a rally big deal for me and my family. We went through a lot and had to adapt to different living environment. Now that I look back to it moving wasn’t has bad I thought I was going to be. __ PSA __ __ Trash the ash __ Arsenic kills if you swallow it. Tobacco kills if you smoke it. Why risk your life by starting one of the top 15 most addicting things in the word? Be smart and don’t start! Along with the other life threating things out there, smoking is the most wanted. Why smoke every day and increase your life span by 7 years? Why treat the earth like the trashcan of the ash from the cigarette? Everyone has the right to inhale fresh air, but why pollute the air with the toxic smoke? Just the yesterday, I saw a car full of six teenagers swarm past me while blowing the smoke in my face. How rude is that? On top of that they littered the cigarette on the floor. Smoking not only affects the person who smokes, but it affects the world around you. Smoking comes in a package which the earth really dislikes. Not only does it pollute the smoke in the environment but it littler the toxic tar on the ground. In fact it takes about 11-12 months or even 2 years for cigarettes to decompose after being on the floor. Interesting! On top of that smoking has many risks to it. As soon as the toxin goes in your blood vessels it becomes addictive and you body keeps on wanting more and more of it. This causes heart attacks and may even lead to death. Smoking-related diseases kill one in 10 adults globally, or cause four million deaths. If it keeps continuing, by the year 2030 smoking will kill one in six people! It is also surprising to see that Smoking kills almost six times as many people as road and other accidents, suicide, murder, poisoning and overdoses put together! People should start caring about one another. The smoke can be inhaled by non-smokers, which is known ad second hand smoking and can lead to risks in their lives. If cigarettes aren’t your problem, then whose problem is it? Take a moment to realize that the harm is not only being done to you. The cigarette buds contain poisonous chemicals which are harmful to the wild life. Put yourself in their moccasins and realizes how much they are being harmed. The next time you light that cigar or toss it in an inappropriate spot, take a moment to realize what you are doing not only to yourself but the world around you!