Belgica Abreu: Unforgettable Memories From My Childhood
I am from the Dominican Republic. The capital is Santo Domingo, the most important city. Santiago is the second one, and my city, San Francisco de Macoris, is the third one. I lived in the countryside close to San Francisco de Macoris next to the ''El pico Quita Espuela'' one of the most important mountains in my home country and between rivers. My father owned farms, and he had a large family with 35 children. In my house we were 13 siblings with my parents, and frequently we received my other siblings from my father’s first marriage and relatives. Behind my parent’s house there was a river with a wonderful view of the mountains. I enjoyed swimming in the river with my siblings, relatives and friends. My father had cows, pigs, horses, chickens, dogs, and cats at the farm. He produced cacao, coffee, bananas, coconuts, oranges, and papayas. In the countryside, in my parent’s house,
there was a drying room because my father needed this space to dry his products, such as cacao, coconut, coffee, and to be used in other activities typical of a landowner. But, at night when it was a full moon, the whole family and our neighbors played under the moonlight in that drying room that was a working tool during the day for my father, and at night became our space of enjoyment. This is a part of my childhood that I will never forget. My childhood name was ''La Bajada'' located one hour from San Francisco de Macoris city.
there was a drying room because my father needed this space to dry his products, such as cacao, coconut, coffee, and to be used in other activities typical of a landowner. But, at night when it was a full moon, the whole family and our neighbors played under the moonlight in that drying room that was a working tool during the day for my father, and at night became our space of enjoyment. This is a part of my childhood that I will never forget. My childhood name was ''La Bajada'' located one hour from San Francisco de Macoris city.
Myint Lwin: My Childhood Memories
First of all, I have to introduce myself. My name is Myint Lwin. I was born in Yangon, Myanmar (South East Asia). My parents were uneducated and they didn’t know how to build up their kids but they supported us to their best to become educated sons and daughters. I have four sisters and two brothers. They are all living in Myanmar; only I stay in the US. I went to St John’s Diocesan Boys’ Private High School starting from lower kindergarten class to matriculation class. After that I went to the Arts and Science University (Yangon) for a four years course to get my BSc (Bachelor of Science) degree. Whenever I think about my old days, it make me feeling regret I was wasting my precious times and not try to do my best. I mean always following an easy going way through my childhood life. For instance, I enjoyed playing and having fun with friends. I did not read English books or write some articles in English which might be interesting to the public. Now, I understood it’s too late for me to compare with some of my friends who are now rich and have high status. That does not mean I am jealous of them. I just only want to say if I tried harder during my childhood then I might get the same status. Actually, I didn't mean to blame my parents because my mom died when I was in 10 years old. By that time I was built up under my stepmother supervision. I see childhood life of my country and US childhood life are totally different. Especially education systems or programs are quite different. In our country we were taught to learn by heart in all subjects to get high score marks. I think that is not the right way of teaching the kids because they might not be using their brain in thinking how to improve their skills and talents. Nowadays, its starting to change, the teaching method not same as ours time. Thanks for my Myanmar government to replace with a new education system. Finally, I would like to say the developing country and non developing country are totally different in all. Policy, strategy ,and systems are build up by the leaders who had been trained well since they were young. That’s why I think everybody childhood life is very important to support them in a correct way since they are young and how to handle their future.
Honorina Melgarej: Memories
The most beautiful memories that I have from when I was a girl are beautiful. I was and still am my dad’s darling. He took great care of me. He made me a swing on a tree where I would swing. He made me a small mud house where I played with my dolls. He made many things for me so that he would always be sure I was a very happy girl. I was fortunate to grow up with my two parents. They raised me with a lot of love, affection and respect. I keep them in my mind and my heart. All those beautiful memories are like a treasure to me.
Raul Alexis Nunez: Ashes and Tears
When you are born you know what a centennial young man is. If someone asks me what I think I will be doing the coming years, I answer, “I want to study philosophy”. This is still a dream, but I do not give up on making it real. I think I would be happy if I were a writer, thinking and writing most of the time, giving people my personal point of view about the objective of life, history, politics, religion, artificial intelligence, robotics, the future of humankind and many other things and events. I'm concerned about people's answers when they're not realizing that they are supporting hidden motivations from third parties, particularly those where the common answers look like automatic responses, products of the mass culture, social networks, media conditioning, and never resulting from noble values and principles coming from the wisdom, experience and academic studies. I think living for philosophy would be a wonderful life.
I remember many times when I was in the sixth grade of basic school. Mis amiguitos me llamaban “El viejo”. The teacher usually told me: “You are a young old man”, because I was hardly ever in agreement with the stories, the conclusions of the tales, and when she made some recommendations about the way that we were supposed to act in many situations. I understood it must have been hard for her. I was a know-it-all, but fortunately she was the kindest and understanding teacher I ever had. I grew up in one of the most common types of families in Latin-America, where mothers had to work hard, and the grandmothers oversaw the children. The culture known for us as “Matriarcado”. At that time, there was neither money to pay a babysitter nor for after school activities, and all you did when you were not at school was homework, watch tv and play in the backyard. In third grade, when I was at home, I spent a lot of time running by my private forest, between bushes and trees like the “Cují”, with small leaves and prickly branches, the tall and prickly “Ceiba” that sometimes covered the ground with its leaves, and one monster who was able to knock down a house, “el Arbol del Caucho o Jacio del Orinoco”, with long branches, big deep green leaves, long and deep roots, strong wide stalks, and sticky white sap that sprouts when you cut into any part. Of course, I cut the “caucho” many times, to see the magic of its blood. In that time the happiness was to be always climbing the trees, yelling like Tarzan, and fighting against ferocious animals from the jungle. |
My best enemy was a big teddy bear, taller than me at that age. That beast, brown and wild, usually jumped over me when I walked distracted under any of the many trees that populated the place. We always fought to the death, and I always won every battle. But the bear started a new life every day to fight again and again, I think he was like the mythical bird but bear-shaped. My friend was savage, but soft and fluffy too, when I was not so playful. I used to lie back upon his belly in the middle of the yard, where I could see the sky and look for figures in the clouds, dreaming that we were at the beach. In any case, he was my best friend and I loved him as much as a pet.
I believe in intuition because I think I have the gift. One day when I returned from school, I was surprised because it was early in the afternoon and my mother was at home. That was good enough to make me happy, but I could see the clouds on the horizon, the house was too messy and there was smoke in the backyard. I knew we were close to moving to another house, but I didn’t know how quickly it would happen, that’s not the kind of thing that adults usually talk about with children. I ran around the house jumping from one room to another. My heart was beating fast in my chest. I just had one thing in my mind. I was looking for my treasure, my best friend, my playmate, I didn’t find it in the house, so in that darkest hour I went to the backyard as fast as I could, and my best friend was burning in flames. I dried my tears and never had a favorite toy again.
I believe in intuition because I think I have the gift. One day when I returned from school, I was surprised because it was early in the afternoon and my mother was at home. That was good enough to make me happy, but I could see the clouds on the horizon, the house was too messy and there was smoke in the backyard. I knew we were close to moving to another house, but I didn’t know how quickly it would happen, that’s not the kind of thing that adults usually talk about with children. I ran around the house jumping from one room to another. My heart was beating fast in my chest. I just had one thing in my mind. I was looking for my treasure, my best friend, my playmate, I didn’t find it in the house, so in that darkest hour I went to the backyard as fast as I could, and my best friend was burning in flames. I dried my tears and never had a favorite toy again.
Jhordin Mejia: My Sweet Grandma
Mamaaaá! That used to be my brother and I making distress calls every time we got into trouble or we heard the ring of the bell at school to go out to recess. My grandmother, who lived next to the play-ground of the school where I attended my primary studies, knew that this tone of voice needed her immediate assistance. She was always ready to respond to the call and pass us (water, money, snacks...) whatever was needed through the metal fence that surrounded the play-ground. I was 4, and it made me a popular boy at school.
Mariane Cunha Arantes: Childhood Memories in Brazil
I was a child in a small town in Brazil in the 90’s. The youngest of three sisters. At that time, we didn’t have today’s technology or fancy toys, but I have good and fresh memories of how I loved to play with them all. My best partner was my middle sister, two and a half years older than me. She included me in her adventures because I had no one my age in our neighborhood. I was the mascot of her group and I’m so grateful for that. Sometimes the girls just wanted some time without me to discuss their secrets and, seeing me alone, they welcomed me with affection. It made a big difference in my life. We had a lot of creativity. We liked to simulate real life, as actors. Once, we made our own magic wands out of a piece of wood, decorated them, chose an old but cool skirt and shirt, and flew like fairies all afternoon. We had a small green board and chalk, color pens, notebooks and encyclopedias for a fake school. On another occasion, we made a little newspaper. We chose the name, did interviews and looked for some curiosities to be part of it. We made some copies and distributed them to our neighbors. One of my favorites was when we set up a little house and I was the cook. I made a delicious "chocolate cake", mixing earth and water, and "a healthy kale juice with orange" with water and grass and served it to my guests who pretended to eat. At other times, my father, who is an accountant, brought us some office papers and the back room became the best office (of anything) in the world, with efficient employees writing, cutting, pasting, stapling, using the typewriter for reports. My parents were incredible. My mom giving all the support with clean clothes and delicious food, and my dad loved telling funny stories before we went to sleep. He made us laugh with his games all the time. The last time I played I was 12 years old. My sister didn’t play anymore. I had a neighbor who was my classmate and always played with me at that time, and she wanted to stop playing. Since that day, I had no more company and I really wanted to play for much longer because it was one of the things I loved to do the most. But I was lucky to have had a healthy childhood, and today I am an aunt and I see my parents being the best grandparents, repeating everything they did with me and my sisters with their grandson and doing even more. I wish that all children in the world can be very loved and know the joy of playing with a lot of creativity.
Matias Mejia: My Best Experience During My Childhood
I remember my time in the school with my friends, wonderful never something like that. Time for games, for laughs, to eat together, to share about our experience in the house with our family and after finishing our class day in the school, to go to the beach to swim with my friends.
Another good moment is during Christmas. All the family’s homes, they give us some present. Moments very exciting and happiness. In this time every family shares gifts and eats with everyone. Never I am going to forget these moments from happiness. In my house, during Christmas, all my family members meet together. We speak about some a good experience during our year life like experience in the school, job, or in the city. All that helped me to have love for all my family and continue together and wherever place, where we can live.
The childhood determined our personality and our characters. For that reason, it is very important have a good moment and a good experience during this time. Our family is responsible for this beautiful and wonderful time.
Another good moment is during Christmas. All the family’s homes, they give us some present. Moments very exciting and happiness. In this time every family shares gifts and eats with everyone. Never I am going to forget these moments from happiness. In my house, during Christmas, all my family members meet together. We speak about some a good experience during our year life like experience in the school, job, or in the city. All that helped me to have love for all my family and continue together and wherever place, where we can live.
The childhood determined our personality and our characters. For that reason, it is very important have a good moment and a good experience during this time. Our family is responsible for this beautiful and wonderful time.