Favorite toy

 

            I remember my mom handing me the American Girl catalog telling me I might want one of dolls for Christmas. Explaining to me that she had once cherished her dolls as a child, these American Girl dolls were special because each one had their own story. I carefully chose Molly, the one from Illinois during WWII. I could have been more than six or seven years old, so I did not pick Molly for her background story. I chose Molly because she resembled me. She had long, straight chocolate hair. Her eyes were blue, but no one could really tell because of the glasses that surrounded them. Her skin tone was an alabaster color with a hint of red undertones. She wore a blue skirt and sweater, much like my school uniform. I instantly knew I had a connection with her. 

            I tore open her box on Christmas morning and Molly immediately became my beloved toy. I received a bed for her, a desk for her studies, and a chest for her numerous outfits. I did not care about any of my other presents; I only cared about making Molly feel at home. I immediately went upstairs and set up a living area for her in a corner of my room. I remember telling her all about my family, talking to her as if she were real. I dragged her around everywhere for about two years. I never had an imaginary friend, but I guess in a lot of ways Molly was mine.

            As I grew out of my doll phase Molly went from having her own corner of my room, to having a shelf on my bookcase, and she still remains there in immaculate condition. All of her accessories are prominently displayed with her, and I hope to pass her down one day.  

A time when I was sick

             I had just pledged Pi Phi, and I was supposed to be giddy with excitement. Everyone was bonding, and although I was beyond excited, I felt like all I wanted to do was curl up in bed. My head was pounding, my body ached, the chapter room was spinning, and I felt woozy. I was able to greet some of my new sorority sisters with excitement and a smile. I went up to our new member coordinator to apologize for my gloomy behavior and asked to leave. She could tell I was not feeling well by my pasty complexion and had someone drive me to my dorm. As I was getting into my lounge clothes, I noticed an enormous rash on my leg. There was literally a target sign stretched across my left calf, with a red center and circles of red and white surrounding it. I completely freaked out and practically sprinted to the health center. The doctor told me I had probably encountered some new bacteria in the communal showers and gave me some antibiotic cream to slather on my outbreak, completely ignoring my other symptoms.

            I fell asleep that evening and slept over eighteen hours, something I had never done before. My roommate later told me that she had checked my pulse throughout the night, unsure of what to do. When I finally emerged from my deep sleep I tried to get out of my bed. My limbs would barely move, and I felt like I was a tin soldier that needed to be oiled up.  I knew something was wrong with me besides some new bacteria that my skin brushed up against. I had a scorching temperature and my RA said I needed to be taken to the emergency room. My friend rushed me to the hospital, and the nurse immediately identified my ailment as Lyme disease.  A tick had bit me sometime during rush passing on the infection. The doctor told me I was lucky that I had come in when I did, because the disease could have become fatal. I was prescribed bed rest for two weeks accompanied with a series of powerful antibiotics. I was too sick to fly home or drive home, so my mom came and we stayed in the Worthington for the full two weeks. I slowly regained my strength. Having missed out on several activities, I was finally able to joyfully bond with my new sorority sisters. 

Family Pet

I was six years old when I scooped up the eight-week old yellow lab out of her crate and ran after my mom pleading that we buy the dog. The last thing my mom had intended to do that day was buy a dog. I remember her continuing to refuse to buy the dog. I turned to my dad with sad eyes and asked him pretty please with a cherry on top to get the dog. He could not resist, so we left the Saturday flea market with a new addition to our family. I decided to name my new furry friend Katie, after my best friend. She was a half Yellow Lab/ half Golden Retriever. Looking at her you would think she was Labrador with her short yellow hair, big black eyes, and floppy triangle shaped ears. I would spend hours dressing Katie up in my dolls clothes and scooting her around the house in a baby stroller. In my eyes she was a real-life doll.

As she grew out of baby doll clothes we moved onto to bigger and better things. I introduced her to the backyard and we began playing fetch all day. Then, I realized that if I hid somewhere in the backyard she would find me, so that began our many years of playing hide-and-seek. When Katie and I were not playing I would sit with her and talk to her about everything going on in my life. She was my true companion. No matter what I said or did she would always protect me and stay by my side. 

Katie would eat my vegetables for me at dinner as I slyly slid them under the table for her. She was my partner in crime. She would protect me from other neighborhood dogs as we went on our daily walks. Katie went and got my mom when I fell off my bike in the driveway and busted my knee. Time and again she proved to be my loyal companion, never letting me down. 

Where I was when I first heard...

            It has almost been exactly two years since I first heard the exciting news. I was working in the fitting rooms at Anthropologie. It was the beginning of December, so shopping was starting to get chaotic. There was a line of women anxiously awaiting a dressing room and I was frantically trying to accommodate them. The line of women kept curling around the Christmas decorated store. I was stressed about senior midterms coming up, and the last thing I needed was a store full of inpatient women wondering why it was so crowded. Then suddenly my manger’s high-pitched voice screeched over the employee walkie-talkies, “Catherine your mom is waiting in the employee room in the back. She has urgent news to tell you.”

            I panicked. What could be so urgent that my mom had to come add to the chaos of work? They never let non-employees in the back. I quickly went through the back door of the fitting rooms into the employee room. My mom was jumping up and down, with a smile stretched across her face, screaming, “Congratulations!” The ceiling was covered in purple helium balloons., and my mom handed me over a white packet with a horned frog on it that said, “Welcome to TCU” in huge capitalized letters. My mom gave me a huge hug and told me how proud she was of me and that she was sorry if she disrupted work, but she had to come share the news. I started to tear up in excitement. The other employees came and congratulated me, knowing that TCU was my first choice. My manager came in and said, “Catherine you are a hard-working employee and I am so happy that you got into TCU. The store closes in one hour and I know you are supposed to restock tonight, but why don’t you go ahead and leave. Go celebrate your victory of getting into TCU!”  

Last Session

After having conflicting schedules for the past couple of weeks, Alberto and I were finally able to meet last night. Since we had not met in awhile, it felt as if we were starting all over again. We collaboratively wrote a description about his day. Alberto knew all of the words to describe his day, but he did not understand how to put those words in different tenses. I tried explaining it to him, but he just did not get it. I have found that tends to be an issue with our sessions, I try to explain something but it never seems to be effective. I never know what else to do.  

Once we conquered writing about his day, I asked him if there was anything else he wanted to focus on. He asked if we could go work on the computers because he wanted to learn how to respond to his e-mails. He had realized that he receives a lot of e-mails about TCU events and work schedules that he needs to respond to. So, we went and logged onto a computer and I showed him how to click the reply button to respond. His face lit up with excitement when he clicked reply and started typing a response. After he typed his response I showed him where to click to actually send the e-mail. He was extremely excited to learn how to do this, and said that knowing how to respond to e-mails will make a lot of things easier for him.  

Alberto told me he could not meet again next week, so this week was sadly our last week. I told him that I would like to continue helping him next semester. We decided that we would contact each other after the break and try to figure out at time to continue meeting. He said he would really try to improve his grammar over the break. I have really enjoyed helping Alberto, and I feel like each time I meet with him I continue to grow as a person. 

Newspaper

When I met Alberto last night we immediately started reviewing his note cards. He knew them with great ease. He asked not to make new ones this time because he is having a busy week and did not think he would have the time to devote to studying new note cards. Alberto has also been writing weekly journal entries, so I went over his previous entry. I noticed that frequently forgets to put a subject in his sentence and often mixes up tenses but besides that his writing is flawless. After that we started to read an article from the ESL newspaper. Alberto could read perfectly but when I would ask him to summarize the paragraph he just read he could not do that. I started realizing that Alberto does not understand some basic words like believe, trust, change, and numerous other words. Without understanding those basic words it is difficult to understand a sentence or paragraph as a whole. I found that it was hard for me even to describe what believe means. Those words are so instinctive to me.  

After Alberto and I got over the words he was struggling with he told me that he had been talking with Ofelia. He would like to get as much help as possible with his English. He knows that his lack of knowledge with the basics is what is holding him back. Ofelia has told him that two people in our English class are without partners. He asked me who they were and if I could somehow get them in contact with each other. Alberto is available in the evenings on Mondays and Fridays. I am continuously shocked by how dedicated he is about mastering English. 

Notecards 2

Alberto walked in the library with a big smile on his face. I had missed last week and he was eager to show me what he had done with Katie. He had written a rough journal entry describing his day, read an article out of ESL newspaper, and learned his notecards. I noticed on his journal entry that he has problems with verb tenses so we are going to try and come up with a plan to help him with that. For the meantime, we are asking him to keep on writing journal entries for practice.  

As we were going over the article from the ESL newspaper I was shocked by how much he comprehended. The article was about how school districts are slashing bus routes to help with expenses. Alberto asked us what slashing meant and how to pronounce routes. He did not hesitate with asking questions. Majority of the time he could understand the meaning of the sentence even if he could not understand all the words. He reads with ease but lacks confidence when pronouncing some words. To keep him reading we have asked him to read another article out of the newspaper for next week.  

Next, we reviewed his previous notecards and made new ones. Alberto was extremely excited by this. One of the questions was why do American celebrate Thanksgiving? He understood the answer but said he has always been puzzled by the expression Thanksgiving. There is no spanish word for Thanksgiving so instead they translate it in a phrase that means the action of giving thanks. Alberto said he never understood how a phrase could be one word in English. After making ten notecards Alberto said that was enough for today that he needs to take baby steps with all this information. He excitedly reviewed what he had asked him to for next week and said he would spend a lot of time practicing. I suggested that he might even try doing homework with his children because it would help his English and by his children describing their homework it would probably help them learn it too. Alberto seemed to think that was a great idea. I continually blown away by how eager Alberto is to learn. I have enjoyed helping him become a more confident person.