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Alex Gomez

Mr. Neuberger

Eng Comp 101-129

8 February 2011

Narrative Essay

Shaking and Moving

When I was eight years old I thought I had life all figured out. My mother was a hard

worker who was able to provide for my life very and then she met a wonderful man who was a

paramedic and made good money, had a nice house, I was very fond of him also. He taught me a

lot, took me to ball games, the park, and even hunting for deer with a bow which I thought was

boring till I got his first three point buck it was great for a while.

Things were going great, I attended school down the road and would walk every day to

school and some days my step father would give me rides, I was very good in school, I had great

grades and always helped kids with their work when I was done with my own. This went on for

a couple years; everything was great your ideal life. I didn’t get what I wanted all the time, but I

was taught to earn those things if I wanted them, which was not an issue I would soon learn this

life lesson.

Now one day I returned home to my mom packing all of my clothes and things up and I

pondered what was going on, my mother saw me coming down the stairs with a look of

dissatisfaction on my face then she said “I know you’re wondering what I am doing, I shook my

head yes, she said you’re going to Alaska to live with your grandmother for a little while she

really wants to see you”. Now I wasn’t very happy about this, I have never been anywhere but
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where I was born which was Rhode Island and there living in Kansas so I started to get mad and

throw a tantrum, cry, whine, and yell but after my mother calmed me down and talked to me I

had finally decided to go with the flow, I just wondered when I would be back home and how

long a little while was?

My parents drove me to the airport I was very wound-up because I get to fly in a plane, it

was an experience that I wanted to know, I walked down the terminals with my mother and step

father hand in hand we stopped and my mother bent down and told me “I love you with all my

heart and will see you in a couple years” my eyes got big “a couple years! I said, yes I know it

seems like a long time but you’re going to have so many adventures and plenty of stories to tell

me when I call and when you come back” a big smile grew a crossed my face. I got excited when

traveling down that boarding passage I could hardly contain myself, the boarding attendant who

was a very gorgeous woman held my hand as I trotted to the plane door. “She asked me this

you’re first flying experience, I replied yes and I am very excited!” She smiled at me”.

It was a long flight and my seat wasn’t very pleasant I was next to a big lady and she had

her baby which continued to spit up the entire flight and to make things worse, the gentleman to

my right had rotten teeth and kept trying to talk to me which was very dissatisfying . The flight

went on and the smell’s got terrible, that’s when things went from bad to worse not only did my

poor little stomach not take the smells very well but since I had never been on a plane before I

was getting a upset belly from the change in altitude, then it happened. I grabbed the barf bag in

the holder in front of me, opened it up and started vomiting profusely this went on for about

thirty minutes before one of the flight attendants came over and asked “are you ok, I shook my

head no and between vomiting I asked if there was another seat available she said she would go

look”. She came back about ten minutes later and said “I think I found you a seat its near a
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window if you can handle that” I looked up, she could tell I was relieved and even got me

another barf bag in case I had anything else that didn’t want to stay down, she walked me to my

new seat it was next to a nice dressed man with a huge mustache.

I enjoyed this seat, the man smelt like peppermints and had many stories of running a

ranch and growing up when there was only a single type of automobile, I was very fascinated

and I kept asking the man about the animals on the ranch. Finally we had arrived; I squished my

face against the spy hole looking all around, the mustached man laughed at the sight of my

chubby little face basically pasted to the window, as I was looking down I saw a giant bridge

connecting to an island but I saw something moving and this would be one of the most

fascinating sights I would set my eyes on in my life, my eyes got bigger as I noticed what it was.

WHALES! I yelled everyone near a window seat peered out and then the chattering

began because it wasn’t just a couple whales but as you looked down at this beautiful landscape

and the bridge you could see three pods of orca whales, four or more in each pod and they were

swimming in the crystal clear water right under the bridge heading out into the Frederick Sound

it was a beautiful sight to behold.

Finally the plane touched down and I bid farewell to my mustached friend and the flight

attendants as I ran out of the plane, I was scared though looking all over for my grandma and

family they were nowhere in sight. I grabbed my bags as they came around the baggage claim

and went to the information desk as I had been told, there was a message waiting there for me to

meet them at the front of the airport so that is what I did, now as I was walking out of the airport

I heard a man on the loudspeaker “Excuse me folks don’t be afraid of the bear out front he has

been around for years now and his name is Humphrey, but please don’t feed him and just be

calm and walk to your cars” Now being a little eight year old boy this scared me quite a bit but
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sure enough I walked out front and there he was sitting like a human on the ground, this four

hundred pound brown bear was just looking waving and even giving slight little growls at the

people leaving the airport it was also amazing and delightful I felt very welcomed to Alaska then

I heard my grandma say “Alex we are over here” I turned and there was my grandma, aunt and

uncle smiling at me.

Now this is only just a simple brief chapter in my life but it was a great adventure for me,

there was so much more I did in the three years I lived in Alaska and that would probably take

about twenty pages or more for me to write about, but around every corner there is a adventure

or a life lesson to be learned and for me this taught me to embrace the things you are most scared

of even if it means leaving that comfort zone, because all we experience and learn in the early

ages of life to adulthood builds character which can shape your future if you allow it.