Extensive Reading Programme
Secondary 3 English
Kwek Mu Yi Theophilus (11) 3P
2) a) Write about a place that you would like to share with others, and describe how it became significant to you.
All of us have a special paradise somewhere – a place we can find respite, comfort, laughter and imagination; a place where we can go to cry, to watch the rain fall like tears on a dreary afternoon, or to stash the berries of our life squirrel-like beneath a tangled shrub; a place where the loving shadow of a friend blends in with the sweet-smelling earth and familiar gravel.
When I first found it, I hardly knew it would be the special place – that anonymous corner of a quiet neighborhood school tucked away in a Manchester suburb, smack between the two soccer home-grounds that define the city. Hemmed in by the rusted wrought-iron fence and a red-brick wall (well-worn by the escapades of innumerable schoolchildren), the little enclave had a little bit of nothing to it, just the gnarled and faithful holly-bush that veiled it from the outside world.
Those prickly leaves of the holly veiled me, too, as I picked its cherry-red berries in the winter and landed myself under its patchy shade as the days turned to spring, eager to escape from the curious and prying queries that my classmates had for the new Asian kid. As time wore on I made friends, with whom I entered this retreat often, spinning countless games in and around that intriguing corner – building a spy base, whipping up an Indian campfire, or indulging in relatively tamer role-playing games if the girls decided to join in.
But more often than not I sought the quiet of that hideout alone, as the lunch-hour thundered by in the school yard just outside. I went there when I didn’t know what to do about my first crush, when I fell out with friends and didn’t know what to say, and when the loneliness of being the only boy who studied Chinese at home and spoke in a strange Singaporean accent ate into me.
If I needed somebody to talk to, I could always count on Helen and Nathan, who hung around near a recess in the brick-wall nearby and had that rare gift of being able to talk to someone three years their junior about anything, anytime. Most of the time, though, watching the passers-by streaming to the doughnut shop opposite or to the library down the road was enough to set me at ease. Sitting there in the embrace of the holly and the woody aroma of dried leaves, I was transported into lands of knights and chivalry, sheiks and magic carpets, detectives and the mafia. It was a beautiful world of my own.
I don’t know if that corner still exists, and if it does, whether another child is sitting there now, during his lunch break, halfway across the globe from one who made that little hollow his confidant so many years ago. And I don’t know if his secrets still shared and stored there. But I’m thankful for the times that mine were, and I know I’ll never find another paradise like it.
(500 words)
P.S. Hi Mr. Tan! Sorry I couldn't pass you the hard copy today because I was out of school for BioRA attachment - but I showed it to you in class the other day! I'll hand it up on Monday. The word limit for the above is 500 words right?
