Regina Torchia

Ms. Thomson
AP English Language and Composition
27 October, 2017
Maybe Change is for the Better

My mom said that moving houses into a new district would be “good for me”, but I

begged to differ. I hopped like a rabbit off the bus as happy as a clam; this was normal for me

back in fourth grade when I loved school. As I approached my house, a picket with the phrase

“For Sale” became clearer and clearer as I descended down the large hill towards my house.

Being an innocent fourth grader, I thought that this had to be a joke. To my dismay, my parents

could not have been more serious about moving houses. They said that they wanted to look for a

house in the North Hills area. I did not understand why we were moving and how my parents

could take me away from the elementary school that I loved, the teachers that I continuously

impressed, and my friends. Looking back at my elementary years, I did love school, and I did

impress multiple teachers with my knowledge, but my friends were very limited. In fact, one

could say that I was pretty lonely. I was too immature to hear that at the time, but the friendships

that I lacked played a large role in the reason that our house was up for sale. Although, moving

was not a short process. It took almost two years after my parents put up the “For Sale” sign in

the front yard for us to actually sell our house. By the time we found interested buyers, I had just

finished the fifth grade. We spent a few days on vacation in Hawaii over the summer, which in

fact was one of the best vacations I had ever experienced. By the time we got home, instead of

unpacking my bags from vacation, I packed up the rest of my room. Three days later we moved

into our new house in the North Allegheny school district in Wexford. I will never forget the last
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time I stepped foot in my old house in Robinson. I sat on the floor of my empty bedroom for

three hours sobbing, unwilling to accept the change my parents were forcing upon me.

The rest of the summer was relatively hard. I did not really know any kids in my new

neighborhood and the kids that I did know were significantly younger than me. The few friends I

had from my old school were too far away to hangout with all the time. School started around

September, and I went into my sixth grade year at Marshall Middle School knowing no one. But,

on the first day of school, I made my first friend. Her name was Autumn. She was in my

homeroom and her locker was right next to mine. It all started when I complimented her locker

decorations, and from there, our friendship took off. Autumn and I were inseparable. She

introduced me to her other close friends in the school and they welcomed me to their lunch table.

I fit right in. I could not help but thinking how much nicer these girls were to me than the people

at my old school. They invited me to sleepovers in September, trick or treating in October, secret

santa in December, sled riding in February, and swimming at their pools in May. Before I knew

it, the school year was over and summer was here yet again. My new friends went on vacation a

lot and for the most part; going about their own business. I really did not talk to them for the

majority of the summer. We would “hang” here and there, but we were not nearly as close as we

were during the school year. So, once seventh grade began, our friendship was pretty awkward. I

did not have any classes with Autumn and the other girls, so I barely saw them during the day. I

ended up meeting a boy who was in some of my classes and new to the district that year. His

name was Rico. Rumor had it that he liked me more than just a friend, but I was pretty oblivious

to that at the time. Rico introduced me to a lot of the girls that he was friends with. I did not

really know them personally from my first year of school, but my friends had always said that
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they were the gossipy, popular girls. I did not want to turn my back on my other friends, but the

girls Rico introduced me to were super funny, nice, and everyone seemed to like them. Now,

instead of sitting with Autumn and her friends at lunch, I started sitting with two girls named

Alaina and Haley. When I became better friends with them, I got invited to a lot of parties that

only the popular kids were invited to. At one party, Rico even kissed me! For the majority of the

rest of middle school, Haley, Alaina, and I were always sleeping over one another's houses, going

to middle school parties, or going out on dinner dates together. My friendship with Autumn and

the other girls had mostly faded away.

Summer passed by quickly and before we knew it, Haley, Alaina, and I were big, bad,

high schoolers. Moving to North Allegheny Intermediate High School was not easy at all. I had

no classes with Haley or Alaina! There were approximately seven hundred students in my class

alone, and I barely knew anyone. It was like I picked up right back where I left off in elementary

school; lonely and miserable. My all-honors schedule seemed impossible, and I was constantly

staying up late with tired eyes trying to finish homework after soccer. At this point, I was

vulnerable and desperate for any friends. There were two kids in my biology class who I thought

were funny and nice to me, but everyone in the school knew them as the “bad” kids. Soon

enough, they were inviting me places and not only was I going behind my parents backs, but I

was trying different things that I, to this day, regret trying. Hanging out with them one weekend

turned into wanting to hangout with them every weekend, and I was constantly doing what they

told me to do and trying what they told me to try. They thought I was cool for it, and I finally felt

accepted once again. But, the friendship was bitter-sweet. During the beginning of the second

semester, my grades had dropped significantly and I pretty much stopped caring about
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everything; that is when my parents began to catch on. Instead of partying freely and sneaking

behind their backs, they caught me in the act. They were mortified and scared by the things that I

was doing. Soon enough, word got out in the school about my careless mistakes and how I got

caught. The “bad” kids that I was “friends” with did not think I was very cool anymore to the

point where they wanted almost nothing to do with me. They started making fun of me and

bullying me until I felt like I was worthless. There I was again; right back to rock bottom.

The following summer, my parents spent the majority of their efforts and money sending

me to counselors and church youth groups and camps to pull me out of the pit of depression that

I had fallen in. Finally, my parents decided that going back to North Allegheny Intermediate

High School was not a good idea. So they sat me down at the kitchen table and asked me to

choose another school attend. Naturally, I rebelled and yelled at them at the top of my lungs,

asking them how they could ruin my life like this, but my parents knew that it would be for the

best. I remember that I was so mad at my parents for making me switch schools that I refused to

go to the Def Leppard concert with my them, even though, inside, I really wanted to go. The

following day I toured North Catholic. I could not help but think how I would ever fit in with the

kids here because I was not even catholic! But, to my amazement, the lady that gave us the tour

had told us that Emily Karr had just been hired as the new women’s soccer coach. I was

speechless. What my tour guide had said was music to my ears. Coach Karr ironically worked

for my club soccer team and is also a close family friend to my parents. At that point, I knew that

it had to be God’s good grace telling me that this was the school that I needed to go to. We had

enrolled the following week and searched for school uniforms shortly after. When we went to

Sears to purchase the uniforms, it hit me like a ton of bricks that I was actually changing schools,
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again. I remember trying on the ugly, plain uniforms in the dressing room of Sears with tears

streaming down my face and wishing everything had turned out differently. Eventually,

sophomore year rolled around, and, yet again, I was the new girl. I reminded myself just to be

who I really am and the rest would fall into place. Surely enough, it did. I met my best friend

Kaelyn Thimons and many other girls who quickly accepted me. North Catholic was much

different than North Allegheny was, but I liked the sense of unity among the school. I performed

much better in school that year and made many new friendships that I still have today.

I thought that changing schools was going to be the hardest, most horrible thing that had

ever happened to me. It turns out, that the change positively impacted me. Throughout my life, I

was always opposed to change. I wanted everything to remain how it was. Now, looking back at

my adolescence experience, the change I went through shaped me into the person who I am

today. It allowed me to meet people who have changed my life for the better. Because of this, I

am able to look at change in a different perspective, and instead of push it away, I can accept it.

My mother had told me long ago that moving would be “good for me”; It turns out, she could not

have been more right.

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List of Defining Features that are Characteristic of a Memoir

1. Purpose

a. When an author writes a memoir, the purpose is to use his/her experience to argue

or prove a point that they want to make. They write the memoir so that the reader

can feel the same feelings that the author felt in that particular moment.

Memoirists also use figurative language to convey their experience for the

purpose of the reader’s understanding and mental picture. They mainly prove their

purpose by relating their story to broader themes. For instance, in The Narrative

of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass tells his experience of slavery, but

relates his story to broader themes like: racism, segregation, and what it means to

be human.

2. Narrative Structure

a. This aspect of a memoir is where an author talks about a specific time period in

their life or event that they experienced that impacted them. They tell their

memory in the form of a narrative or story to help the reader understand how the

author felt in that moment. For instance, in the Frederick Douglass novel that we

read in class, Douglass tells the story or narrative of his life while he was in

slavery.

3. Point of View

a. Because the memoirist is telling their own story, it is necessary for them to use

first person in order for the reader to understand their feelings in that moment.
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Frederick Douglass uses first person in his memoir to make the reader sympathize

to the condition and situation that he was faced with.

4. Style

a. The use of style is important to add flavor to the memoir. By this I mean that they

are using things like figurative language, imagery, similes, metaphors, etc, so that

the author’s story is not plain and boring. In Michelle Obama’s Convention

Speech, she uses varieties of sentence structure to keep from boring her audience.

5. Scope

a. Scope is important because it just focuses on one time period in a person’s

lifetime. This makes the memoir specific. For example, In The Narrative of the

Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass primarily focuses on the time when he was

enslaved until a short period after he escaped. He did not, however, go on to tell

the rest of his life’s accomplishments.

6. Memoirs and Autobiographies

a. Roach Smith says that “An autobiography is really the story of a whole life…A

memoir, if you want someone else to be interested should really be [about] an area

of expertise within that life.” This shows that a memoir is a small portion of a

person’s life where an autobiography is their whole life. Yet, both an

autobiography and a memoir both have a sort of narrative structure.

Reflection
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My project is representative of the memoir genre because it has the defining features that

are characteristic of the memoir genre. First, the purpose of my memoir is to show how change

can be scary, uncomfortable, or unwanted, but it can ultimately lead to something positive. I

utilize the narrative structure in the first person in order to tell my story and allow the reader to

experience my feelings in the events that I describe. I also use imagery, figurative language,

sensory details, and sentence variety so that my reader is more interested in what I have to say.

This also can help the reader to relate better to the purpose of my memoir. For example, in my

memoir, I say, “I hopped like a rabbit of the bus as happy as a clam.” This simile helps the reader

create a mental image of the memory. I used a scope of the end of elementary school and

continuing through my sophomore year. This scope allows the reader to see how I grew as a

person overtime, how the people who I was friends with affected my life, and how the change

that was forced upon me benefitted me in the end. Because my memoir only focuses on a few

years of my adolescence and not my entire life, it cannot be characterized as an autobiography.