Chronological Order

[pcliao]

Dear all,

Several of you wrote very interesting autobiography. You did show your creativity and originality in this chronological essay. There are several good models. Here are some you can read: Jennifer Tsai (AA), Matthew, and Vernice (AC). I will add more models next week after I finish reading all your essays.

Those who are mentioned above please reply my message and post your articles. Thanks!

Jane

[Jennifer Tsai]

A Lock of Rapunzel's Hair

I once had a name in recognition of my long hair - Rapunzel, who had beautiful appearance and heart and very long hair. The reason people called me Rapunzel was because of not only my long hair but my beautiful heart, my love of caring other. Due to the length of my hair, I need to spend more time on caring my hair than those who have short hair, and the result of this time-consuming process of caring for many years made me feel that my hair was actually a person that I cared a lot. I found pleasure in caring my hair because it felt like I was caring about someone, and I loved the feeling that someone was taken cared by me; as a result, I cared a lot about others at the time when I had long hair. However, "Rapunzel." which was derived from a fairy tale, stopped being my nickname the first day I entered junior high - I lost both my long hair and my beautiful heart.

Before I entered junior high, I accepted no one's advice that I should have my hair cut because I cared much about my hair: I spent a lot of time on my hair's maintenance and even forbid boys to touch my hair, for fear that they would do harm to it. I felt that caring my hair was just like caring another person - it took time, mental and physical efforts - and the feeling of caring someone was so good that while I cared about others, I treated them with good care just like how I took care of my hair.

The first day I entered junior high, deans strictly ordered me to cut off my long hair in order to follow the school's rules even though the school I went to was a private school that did not actually limit the length of hair. "Have your hair cut right after you go home today! We're going to examine your hair tomorrow," they told me. My heart was full of hatred from the moment they told me to cut off my hair. I tried to soften their hearts and made them give up, but they just would not budge. I fought fiercely against those deans for my hair, just like Rapunzel, who fought against the wicked witch for her beloved. What those deans told me made me feel as though the whole school and they did not care at all about a friend whom I had cared so much for thirteen years, and that they wanted to separate us by any means.

As soon as I went home, I told my mom the bad news that nearly killed me. Mom comforted me and told me that I should obey what the deans had told me. I refused immediately and yelled at my mom with every effort because I could hardly believe that my mom agreed to those evil deans' words. However, my mom persuaded me at last by retelling the story of Rapunzel: the prince loved Rapunzel even after her hair had been cut off by the wicked witch, who raised Rapunzel up, and so would I still be loved by others just like Rapunzel even though my hair became short.

After my mom cut off my long hair, she told me the last and also the hidden part of Rapunzel's story. Although Rapunzel confronted so many difficulties, her heart was still very beautiful - she did not hate the evil witch for cutting off her hair, forbidding her love for the prince, or even blinding the prince. If she let hatred grow in her heart because of the difficulties she faced, the prince would not have loved her even if she was beautiful or she had her blonde and sparkling long hair. "Defending your loved one is great, but you should not grow hatred inside your heart at the same time," my mom told me. Thinking that something should be kept so that I would not lose my beautiful heart, my mom kept a lock of my hair, a lock of Rapunzel's hair as a token for me. She told me that lock of hair which she preserved for me was something I should continually take care of. Though it was just part of the original long hair, I should take equal care about it just as before. I was not comforted by my mom's words at all at that time and I hated those who told me to cut off my hair because I felt that they wanted to take away someone I had been caring a lot for thirteen years. The first day of my junior high was also the first day I stopped caring for others, the first day my heart became ugly, and the first day my hair became short.

Two years later, after I had entered senior high, a classmate told me that I was not like Rapunzel at all. She told me that I cared not much about others and let hatred grow in my heart just because I loved my hair so much and it had been cut off. At that time, my hair had not grow back to the original length that I used to have yet; therefore, deep hatred were still in my heart. It was not until that day, after I had graduated from junior high and was mature enough, that I was able to understand the motif behind my mom's retelling of the hidden part of Rapunzel's story - if Rapunzel had grown hatred in her heart, the prince would not have liked her even though she was still very beautiful because the beauty would be just of skin deep and not of the inner heart. My mom had already taught me the greatest lesson the first day I entered junior high by retelling Rapunzel's story.

[Jennifer Wu]

Eyebrows

There were times that I cried, laughed and shouted out of anger or ecstasy during the most dramatic three years in my senior high school life. Among all, the movements of my eyebrows revealed my feelings most honestly despite the fact that my emotions were evoked resulted from different events at different stages every time.

Looking back at the time when I first started my senior high school life, I can still recall the days that my eyebrows rarely even raised up nor fell down and the only facial expression I had was so plain. One of the main factors was that four of my best friends turned their backs on me the previous year. I was hurt so much that I refused to get involved with anyone as soon as I left junior high and went into senior high school. Another reason was that none of my new classmates were considered to be trust-worthy to me. Therefore, I didn¡¦t have the desire to release my emotions at all and tended to show no facial expressions.

And then there were two incidents that suddenly broke into my plain and boring life at the end of the second semester in my first year and the following year, which resulted in the lively actions my eyebrows made: English drama competition and the participation on my school dancing team. Of all the characters in the English drama, I was informed to play an out-going DJ, who didn¡¦t have many lines but was a very important person that required exaggerated facial expressions. I was reluctant to play the role at the beginning, for it didn¡¦t suit me and I was asked to use my eyebrows to squeeze them into all kinds of funny shapes. However, it turned out that I interpreted the role successfully and it indirectly showed that I was actually a funny person. One year passed and a new year came. In the second year, I desired for a change of my life and I thought joining the school dancing team was the exact activity I was looking for. It required lots of time and the revelation of my true self with my whole heart. One of the most important things that stood for me was my eyebrows. When I felt sorrow or pain through the music and body movement, my eyebrows would cling together as if there was a sting pulling them harshly and it really hurt; when I am soaked up with happiness, my eyebrows would dance beautifully like joyful butterflies. It was the very moment that my eyebrows showed my hidden inner feelings when I immersed myself into the enjoyment of dancing.

When it came to my last year in senior high school, I became the kind of person who looked serious from the outside but in fact not difficult to get along with. Ever since I played the role of DJ, my classmates found that I was actually a girl with a sense of humor. Among all my classmates, I made some close friends who really understood me. To my surprise, they could observe the slightest emotional changes from my eyebrows and came to me at once whenever I needed help. Take my friend, Samantha, for example, she knew I would raise my eyebrows if I didn¡¦t really agree with someone¡¦s ideas or I was offended by other people¡¦s actions or words. At that point, she could always comfort me and chat with me to solve the problems right away. Although I didn¡¦t have as many friends as those popular girls did in my school, I tried as hard to give every acquaintance a nice face when I met them. As a consequence, more and more people were happy to stay around me, and they even told me that they felt relaxed being with me, which was a great encouragement and accomplishment for me. Meanwhile, I was more confident about myself.

Now as I am studying in NDHU, I have made progress in expressing myself instead of hiding everything inside. It is much easier for others to figure out whether I am happy, angry, sad or just emotionless. There is an event that amazes me. One of my classmates, Sylvie, once told me that she likes my eyebrows because they move lively. One of the examples she told me was that whenever I try to make everyone laugh, my eyebrows would move here and there as quickly as the naughty fish swimming and playing in the water. When I heard her words, I was so shocked and shy that I pretended not to care too much about her words at that moment. Nevertheless, deep in my heart I knew those words indicates that I am not the indifferent person as I was in the first year of senior high school anymore. What¡¦s more, I have made friends with all kind of different people from different classes, clubs and departments in quite a short time. Lots of people love to talk to me, appreciate my exaggerated facial expressions and my dancing eyebrows. In fact, they enjoy looking straight to me when talking to me, for my eyebrows tell the stories of my emotions. Most of the time, I am considered to be a positive and interesting person that brings laughter and entertainment because my eyebrows will float like the waves in high spirit and are in a higher position on my face. On the contrast, my eyebrows will seldom make a move like the dying turtle lying on the beach when I am in really bad mood. Even though the comments about me are out of my expectation, I still enjoy being the kind of person I am today.

From the time I decided to make a change in my life until now, there are finally no ways I can deny that I have become a person who can be easily understood throughout the whole process. Even though I was such an unconcerned person when I was in the first year of senior high, it seem to me that if it was not for all those experience, I wouldn¡¦t have made such great progress of showing myself freely, including sorrow, happiness and anger by my the dramatic movements of my eyebrows today. My eyebrows gradually come to be my best companion, which make me able to show my emotions. To tell the truth, I love my eyebrows and am so proud to have them with me as the most wonderful and the most humorous tool I have ever had.