Tenth grade humanities
A moment in time
It was very early, still dark out, my mother crept into my room so silently that it startled me when I peacefully woke up and saw that she was with me. I crawled out of bed and went over to get something to eat before the trip ahead. The plan was to hike Engineer mountain with my grandparents Claire and Paul Manganello, then head up to Silverton for lunch. But nothing could have prepared us for what happened that day.
My mom, dad, and I sat in the parking lot of the Best Western Inn, patiently waiting for my grandparents to meet us at the car. It was the beginning of August but it felt chilly. It was early and cold, so cold that I could see the breath leave my lips and spiral away into the cool air. My grandparents came shuffling out of their hotel room and down the steps. We drove up to the trailhead snacking on muffins and fruit while we enjoyed the view on the way to the trailhead. By the time we got to the trail it was about eight o'clock, the sun had just begin to show completely. We hiked very slowly up the mountain so my grandparents could get used to the elevation. We had a great time on the way up.
The wildflowers were popping with color, purples, blues and greens tie dyed the hill. There were small patches of snow and mud on it but nothing bad. We got to the top and were all amazed by the view. Every way you looked there were mountains towering over you. We had lunch on top of a rock at the base of the peak. The wind was as still as a possum playing dead. When we finally made our way back to my grandparents rental car we all we could think to do was to find something to eat.
We cruised over to the little mountain town of Silverton to get some lunch. After we did some shopping we went to a little restaurant that offers roof seating. I could barely even keep my eyes open at the table I was so tired, but it was all worth it once the food came. I was so hungry that they could have served me fried bugs and I still would have ate it. Once we were done eating all five of us cramed into my grandparent’s air conditioned rental car. My grandfather was driving and my step father in the passenger seat, I was in the middle in the back. My mother to my left and my grandmother to my right. We made it over the pass fine,looking at pictures from our mountain adventure and watching the sun go down. We were stuck with it blinding us all the way to town. After a little while I had fallen asleep in the back. I had to take a nap. I awoke in the back seat to find us drifting off the road and onto the bumpy shoulder. I looked up out the windshield and saw a skinny tree that we were bound to hit. We slammed into it, forcing us to go tumbling off the road and spinning into the ditch. It felt like slow motion, tumbling and turning, dirt and rocks spraying around the inside of the car, tumbling like a washing machine, along with the glass shards from the windows from where the objects came crashing through. “What just happened?” I said aloud to myself. I stumbled my way out of the car trying not to cut my hand on something sharp. I asked my mother “Was this a dream? Did that really just happen?” I looked around to try and find where we were, luckily we had crashed right by a motel in the valley. Just a short moment after the accident, an ambulance on the scene. From what I saw my grandfather was the only one who was hurt. He looked at me and made sure I did not get injured, I told him “I'm fine worry about yourself not me.” The paramedics carried off my grandparents and my dad.A family friend drove me to the hospital to meet up with them. A little while after we went home. By the time all this happened it was fairly late. That night I was up forever just trying to process as I slowly drifted to sleep.
My mom, dad, and I sat in the parking lot of the Best Western Inn, patiently waiting for my grandparents to meet us at the car. It was the beginning of August but it felt chilly. It was early and cold, so cold that I could see the breath leave my lips and spiral away into the cool air. My grandparents came shuffling out of their hotel room and down the steps. We drove up to the trailhead snacking on muffins and fruit while we enjoyed the view on the way to the trailhead. By the time we got to the trail it was about eight o'clock, the sun had just begin to show completely. We hiked very slowly up the mountain so my grandparents could get used to the elevation. We had a great time on the way up.
The wildflowers were popping with color, purples, blues and greens tie dyed the hill. There were small patches of snow and mud on it but nothing bad. We got to the top and were all amazed by the view. Every way you looked there were mountains towering over you. We had lunch on top of a rock at the base of the peak. The wind was as still as a possum playing dead. When we finally made our way back to my grandparents rental car we all we could think to do was to find something to eat.
We cruised over to the little mountain town of Silverton to get some lunch. After we did some shopping we went to a little restaurant that offers roof seating. I could barely even keep my eyes open at the table I was so tired, but it was all worth it once the food came. I was so hungry that they could have served me fried bugs and I still would have ate it. Once we were done eating all five of us cramed into my grandparent’s air conditioned rental car. My grandfather was driving and my step father in the passenger seat, I was in the middle in the back. My mother to my left and my grandmother to my right. We made it over the pass fine,looking at pictures from our mountain adventure and watching the sun go down. We were stuck with it blinding us all the way to town. After a little while I had fallen asleep in the back. I had to take a nap. I awoke in the back seat to find us drifting off the road and onto the bumpy shoulder. I looked up out the windshield and saw a skinny tree that we were bound to hit. We slammed into it, forcing us to go tumbling off the road and spinning into the ditch. It felt like slow motion, tumbling and turning, dirt and rocks spraying around the inside of the car, tumbling like a washing machine, along with the glass shards from the windows from where the objects came crashing through. “What just happened?” I said aloud to myself. I stumbled my way out of the car trying not to cut my hand on something sharp. I asked my mother “Was this a dream? Did that really just happen?” I looked around to try and find where we were, luckily we had crashed right by a motel in the valley. Just a short moment after the accident, an ambulance on the scene. From what I saw my grandfather was the only one who was hurt. He looked at me and made sure I did not get injured, I told him “I'm fine worry about yourself not me.” The paramedics carried off my grandparents and my dad.A family friend drove me to the hospital to meet up with them. A little while after we went home. By the time all this happened it was fairly late. That night I was up forever just trying to process as I slowly drifted to sleep.
Reflection
In the moment in time project steven gave us the challenge of writing a very detailed story about a time in our lives that impacted or changed us in a big way but he gave us a word limit of just one page. We made many revisions of our work. The minimum requirement was four drafts but some people made as many as six to make sure that there work was a quality as possible. Throughout the project we tried to focus on these 4 essential questions, why do we tell stories? What is my story so far in life? How can narrative writing help me grow as a writer in general? How does writing about my own experience help transform it?
During this project I grew in many different ways as a writer. One of the big things I took away from this project is how to effectively use descriptive details to really tell something how it was and paint a vivid picture in the reader's head. I also learned the components to a good story, setting, characters, Initiating action, attempts, results, responses, and dialogue. Not all stories have to have these but I can guarantee that if a story has all of these components that it will be more engaging to the reader than a story that does not have all of these. Narrative writing help me grow as a writer because previous to this project I have not done much past tense writing, I improved vastly on that. But on a broader scale narrative writing allows you to find out more about yourself and maybe can help you find your style of writing.
The most difficult part of this project was being limited to only one page. I had so much to say and wanted to add as much detail as I could but was only able to say the pure essentials because I only had one page to work with. This was very frustrating and ended up with me having to delete lots of good writing. If I could change anything about my story it would be how I start it. I would have started the story when we got to the trailhead instead of me waking up at my house, that way I have much more space to talk about the car crash and what it was like after it happened.
The most important social lesson I learned during this project is that everyone's idea of a big moment in time is different. For instance, my moment is when I got in a life threatening car accident with my family. This is something that stands out way more than anything else in my memory because it was such a scary and real experience that definitely changed my perspective on life. But some of my classmates moments where as simple as jumping off a houseboat or helping their grandfather do chores. Although those moments are not as big as mine those moments still had just as big of a moment on their lives as my moment. This would be my big take away from the moment in time project, just because something may not seem like a big deal at the moment, such as doing chores with your grandfather, later on in life it might have a bigger impact on your life than you would think, so live every moment like it's your last.
During this project I grew in many different ways as a writer. One of the big things I took away from this project is how to effectively use descriptive details to really tell something how it was and paint a vivid picture in the reader's head. I also learned the components to a good story, setting, characters, Initiating action, attempts, results, responses, and dialogue. Not all stories have to have these but I can guarantee that if a story has all of these components that it will be more engaging to the reader than a story that does not have all of these. Narrative writing help me grow as a writer because previous to this project I have not done much past tense writing, I improved vastly on that. But on a broader scale narrative writing allows you to find out more about yourself and maybe can help you find your style of writing.
The most difficult part of this project was being limited to only one page. I had so much to say and wanted to add as much detail as I could but was only able to say the pure essentials because I only had one page to work with. This was very frustrating and ended up with me having to delete lots of good writing. If I could change anything about my story it would be how I start it. I would have started the story when we got to the trailhead instead of me waking up at my house, that way I have much more space to talk about the car crash and what it was like after it happened.
The most important social lesson I learned during this project is that everyone's idea of a big moment in time is different. For instance, my moment is when I got in a life threatening car accident with my family. This is something that stands out way more than anything else in my memory because it was such a scary and real experience that definitely changed my perspective on life. But some of my classmates moments where as simple as jumping off a houseboat or helping their grandfather do chores. Although those moments are not as big as mine those moments still had just as big of a moment on their lives as my moment. This would be my big take away from the moment in time project, just because something may not seem like a big deal at the moment, such as doing chores with your grandfather, later on in life it might have a bigger impact on your life than you would think, so live every moment like it's your last.