Hebah Kharoufeh

3/8/2016

English 1121/D465

Assignment Narrative Essay-Draft #1

Chasing the dream

Picasso once said, “Without great solitude, no serious work is possible.” We all seem to be artists of different serious work or masterpieces. My masterpiece was a paper, which was also a key. That paper had the power to open the doors of my future, my career, and ultimately my dream. My senior year was challenging in many ways including earning a good GPA, planning for my graduation, and maintaining my social life.

The greatest challenge of all was earning a good GPA. At the beginning of the 2014-2015 school year my principal invited Dr. Eyad Hammudeh, a specialist in human development, to my school in order to give my class a lecture focusing on senior year and how to prepare and study properly for our finals. I recorded that lecture and saved it as a motivation for when I felt weak or helpless. I remember when I was younger everyone said senior year was the hardest stage of life because of all the exams and projects that were given to students but I believed that after hardship comes ease. By the end of August I had been done with all preparations needed to start senior year. I also had an extra reference from my cousin who had just graduated high school. I took all the exams, notes, and textbooks she used in her senior year. Later through the semester I learned how to appreciate this reference and extract very important information from it.

Planning for graduation was more challenging than I had thought. My principal called a meeting for all seniors in the school library and there we met Dr. Hammudeh for the second time. They mentioned the most important things that we needed to know such as: choosing the person we wanted to walk into the room with, debating our gown colors, and lastly preparing our last speech and choosing a person to read it. Dr. Hammudeh did something very interesting that meeting. Something I will never forget. He asked us to close our eyes and visualize what he was about to say. I don’t recall everything he said but I definitely remember the last part of his speech. “Close your eyes. Imagine climbing a ladder. The ladder is moving. You’re about to fall. You’re determined. You’re going to reach the top. But you can’t seem to focus. Focus. You look upward. You see the light. Now you’re reaching the final steps. You make it. You climb into a white room. There’s a voice at the end of the room. It is familiar. You walk towards it. You see your mother crying. You made it she says. She repeats, you made it! You see her eyes filled with joyful tears. You kiss her forehead. You go back. Back to the white room. Down the ladder. Open your eyes. Turn it to reality.” Dr. Hammudeh said. He was very passionate about this speech. I remember I cried. Since I was the first family member to finish high school in Palestine. I wasn’t the only one planning for my graduation. My older brother graduated from New World High School in the Bronx. So my graduation meant a lot to my mother. She prepared gifts for the people who came to congratulate me months before graduation day. She always stood by me, encouraged me, and gave me hope when I needed it.

Maintaining my social life was definitely a challenge. Through my senior year I was isolated. I was asked to close all my social media accounts. “They are distracting you,” my mother said. However, I really didn’t. Not in the definition my mother was aiming for because I trusted myself to set a proper schedule. I set a timetable for myself knowing exactly the time I should be doing homework, or having a rest. I tested it for a couple of days and made some changes to it. It was lifesaving. I wasn’t allowed to go to any social events and this was when many of my classmates got engaged. My mother always had an excuse for me. She would tell them I have a chemistry or biology test never mentioned any other subject. Only God knows why! Sometimes I really enjoyed this isolation because when I finished all my studies I had an hour or so to read a book or watch a show before I head to bed. The most enjoyable part of studying was waking up before sunrise to review exam materials before I leave to school and that means being able to watch the breathtaking sunrise that not many people share me in.

The solitude I’d been in through the whole year came to an end. My challenges from getting a good GPA to planning for my graduation, and maintaining my social life were overcome. And proper education was given to all. My masterpiece was ready, and so was I. To face the new world, to face the new challenges.