A House with No Electricity

When I was young, I used to live in the countryside with my grandma, and in a house with no electricity. In the afternoon, about 4:30pm, that house got dark. After that, everything in that house was in darkness, and I had to light an oil-lamp. The oil-lamp, which was lit every night, made that house lighter. I had to study my lesson by oil-lamp’s light during my childhood. I was so sad and scared of the dark. I wished I had lived in a house with the electric bulbs lit around me.

Now I live in the United States. English is the first language, which is difficult to study, but I have to study. If I don’t study English, I won’t have any English knowledge and understand the American’s law, and do anything without English. The first time, I arrived at Chicago airport, the immigration officials, who checked my passport, spoke English fast. At that time, I felt very confused and embarrassed, and I couldn’t understand what they said, so I didn’t give my passport and main documents to them. I requested them to write down what they had said, and they did. The paper, which was written, showed me their requests.

I didn’t study and understand English because left school twenty-eight years ago. Now I’m studying ESL 1 at Bunker Hill Community College in Boston, Massachusetts. In my class, I always study slowly because I don’t listen to English well. I am very scared of Listening Comprehension and Discussions, because I get some low marks. My English knowledge is like the house, which is in the rural, with no electricity. I have to light the oil-lamp to study every night, to brighten and widen my English knowledge.

In my Reading and Writing class, we are reading a book called “The Circuit” by Francisco Jimenez which is about a story about a family that moved from Mexico to the United States. My experience is connected with “The Circuit”, in the chapter “Inside out”. “The caterpillar had spun itself into a cocoon and had attached itself to a small twig” (Jimenez 23). Miss Scalapino, the teacher, wanted to keep the caterpillar in her class and thought that her students looked like the caterpillars because they will grow up and become butterflies, and can fly everywhere by themselves. Now I have to study from ESL1, ESL2, ESL3, and Education Concentrate program. After graduating at Bunker Hill Community College, I will transfer to four-year colleges or universities. Jimenez said, “Like magic, the butterfly flew into the air, fluttering its wings up and down” (Jimenez 25). My English language is like the caterpillar, which is growing and I will become butterfly, so I can fly by myself. This is the destination. I believe studying hard is the way to succeed someday.