Hy vọng một ngày nào đó, những đề bài làm văn ở VN đều hướng đến những điều gần gũi đời thường như thế này, chứ không còn là chuyện xé rào của một ít thầy cô khi muốn hướng học trò mình đến chỗ bộc bạch được những suy nghĩ riêng tư.
Ngoc-Tam Quach
Period 5-6
12/10/08.
Ordinary Outside, Extraordinary Inside
What is a hero? This question has probably popped up in everybody’s mind once in a while. When they hear of the word “hero,” most people immediately think of a person who would risk his life to save another person, or thousands. This, however, is not necessarily what a person has to do to become an admirable figure. A person has many different qualities and attributes that can make them a hero. For example, a hero can be a grandfather who taught his grandson how to fly a kite, or a mother who is there for her children when they are sick. A realistic definition of a hero is someone who leaves a great impact on your life, and that you admire. My hero is a regular, ordinary, typical teenage girl who left me an admirable impression of her by her simple words.
Truc T. Tran is my best and first friend ever, at an American school. Since I moved from Vietnam to the United States over the summer from Vietnam, in other words, I was totally new to the school. The teacher and the kids around me were kind, but I still felt like I was an outsider. At recess, I figured that no one would play with me, so it didn’t surprise me when I found myself alone under a tree. What surprised me was; when I looked up, expecting to see the blue sky instead, I saw a face a freckle-faced girl. The girl was smiling at me like she saw something she liked. I was somewhat surprised, but decided to smile back since it was the polite thing to do. When I was about to tell the strange girl that I was new and didn’t speak English, she spoke to me in Vietnamese that she saw me in class and that she was new too. My smile spread wider and it was like kindergarten all over again. We asked each other our names, where we lived in Vietnam, favorite places and other things. I found out that Truc and I were very alike, which made me more comfortable around her. From then on, I always told her my problems, opinions and almost everything about me to her like I never did to anyone else before.
When sixth grade started, we were both extremely excited to know that we would be in the same class. Truc and I move at the same pace in almost every subject except for Language Arts. Truc had problems with her grammar, which made me move at a faster pace than her. We both got good grades and like to compete with each other to improve ourselves. One day, however, I got terribly sick awfully I was absent for quite a while from school. Unfortunately, when I came back, it was near the day of a math test. I didn’t get anything that the teacher was talking about in class. I was extremely worried that I’d fail the test that I almost cried when I told Truc about it. Truc comforted me that I would do fine because she was determined to help me ace that math test. From then on, we would work on math during recess, and came to each other’s houses every once in a while. I guess it’s because we were the same age that Truc explained the problems and steps to me in a way that I’d understand. On the day of the test, I was very nervous but did the best I could to not disappoint Truc and waste all her hard work. All was paid off in the end; I got an A on the math test and got a compliment from the math teacher. I told her about how Truc helped me and the teacher said, “What would you have done without such an amazing friend?” I thanked Truc so many times that she said if I wouldn’t stop, she would duct tape my mouth. “What are friends for?” Truc smiled as she said that. That simple sentence had warmed my entire body. She was the only friend that would stick to me all the way to the end. I feel so very lucky to have a friend like Truc.
As we moved on to seventh and eight grades, we didn’t get to spend as much time with each other as much as we liked, but we worked it out. Truc would come over to my house every once in a while, and we would look for each other during lunch time. “Truc is so smart, nice, and helpful to everyone,” said Bansari, one of my new close friends in middle school. Truc has such amazing quality and characteristics that it would take an adult almost all his, or her life to develop. I have so much more to write about Truc but there wouldn’t be enough words to describe her. In the end, I just want to thank Fate to let me meet Truc, a friend and hero that gave me a new definition to the word “friend.”