Living Memories of Andover - Essay Example

Living memories of Andover As I drive through my second hometown Andover after six years, I realized all the fond memories I have for this town is deep down my heart. My journey back to the teenage I had at Andover is full of happiest and nostalgic times. This town of Massachusetts with its historical background, churches and essence of football is the place where I spent six years of my life with my parents after we migrated from Taipei, Taiwan at the age of sixteen. The people, the trees and the smell in the streets all seemed very familiar as I took Exit 43, the same exit I have taken to go home since I got my driver’s license as well. At this point I can relate with Anne Hood who took the same exit – “I took Exit 12, the same exit I have taken to go home since I got my driving license in 1972” (Hood, 239). Andover is the place where I first got to interact with the people of US in the second language from The Andover High School, my first English school which lay to the right as I drove down the Bartlett street. It is here that I mastered the English language after persistent effort of 13months. I quickly mastered the words “Hello”, “Thank You”, “Bathroom” and “Water”. I felt like I was on another planet. I got to see the first snowstorm here. Despite being a migrant to Andover, the six years’ stay here has helped me embrace this place as a ‘SECOND REAL HOME’, polished/upgrade my skills and brought me where I am today and established some strong lifetime connects. Moving into the town of Andover played a big role in connecting with my dad and mom. My parents’ business was the reason why I came here apart from the fact that my parents wanted to provide me with better education. My parents wanted to shift their business here and this also enabled me to gain some practical insights into the economic and business world and I became more connected to my grandparents. My mom mostly, understood that she needed to connect more to me because I was her son and here she stayed at home most of the time. My mother helped me with my creative writing assignments in school, debates and projects. I most of art projects I achieved A-grade because of the mother’s unique ideas which she also used in the interior decoration works of their business. This is the place that taught me different sports, developed special interest in soccer, interact with the neighborhood friends and the way to apply my creative mind for constructive purpose. Back in Taipei, I was not the type of person who loved to read I never enjoyed writing but here my teachers, peers and parents encouraged me to write stories without criticizing my grammar errors too much. They praised my ideas and expressions rather than hovering around the technicalities of writing. This helped to bring me out of my shell and write whatever I felt and put down my ideas on paper. In fact I made some of my best friends, right here in this neighborhood. I was picked on in Andover High School because I was an Asian boy that did not know English and people just took advantage of me. I felt Andover High School reminded me of Andover because of the process of how I outgrown in this town and how this school in Andover taught me to learn from bottom to top in education. All these people in Andover and what I learnt here are still helping me in my college lessons of Boston. There was a bakery store that I found which was just around the corner of my house that sold fresh-bread and they even had the best breakfast menu! The store’s name was originally called the corner-bakery but now since last year the name has been changed to Andover-bakery. It’s a family owned and the family knows me very well and always gives me free bread when I stop by to say hi every time I go and visit. When I pass by my old school and this store, they impart a sense of belonging towards this second home. Maybe I could say how lucky I am as well to find a place where people were so welcoming and even made life-long connects with me those have lasted till date. Their son Jack was just one year elder to me and helped me make more friends in the community. We rode bicycle together in the afternoon after returning from school and played chess during the holidays. I remember those sweet times when after repeatedly losing thrice, Jack helped me win once. The reason I could say this because they really reminded me of the best family that I got to meet when I first got here. Sometimes my parents even invite them over for dinner sometimes because we as a family kept them as that special family that treated us so well, kind, loving which made me love Andover even more. Getting my driver’s license in this town” All the interesting things for example I got to drive in this town all the time, hangout with my friends in this town, I drove to my high school in this town. Being able to have freedom in this town rather than back in Taiwan everything was all limited and I could not drive comfortably. Almost like Anne Hood’s experience, this town transformed me from the “alone and friendless in elementary school playground” (Hood, 240) at Taipei to “the sassy teenager” (Hood, 240) I had become within couple of years’ stay at Andover. Andover made me feel a lot more “FREEDOM” which because the culture here is different. It all drags me with memories of what I could do or can’t do. “This really brought me and having this joy of driving around this town feeling relax. Back in Taiwan everything was in a rush and the city just “NEVER SLEEPS”. Taiwan is a small country and did not have the big roads like Andover had. I would never be pushed or be on a rush for something. As I drove around the corner the Bartlett STREET Antiques Center drew my attention and I remember whenever I missed my grandparents I visited this store as the fragrance and old look reminded me of the furniture pieces at their house where I stayed for the first fifteen years of my life. This town drags me back this one special thing that always hits me as well when it’s almost winter time. The first time I actually was in a “snow storm”, I have never seen snow before and it was my first time experiencing it here in the town of Andover. It was so amazing to me because I knew if it was not cause of this move, I would never have the chance to see these “white little pellets” falling from the sky. I thought how beautiful it was but I was extremely cold as well because my body is use to the extreme temperatures of one hundred degree or above. I was just being scorched by the sun back in Taiwan but here it felt like being trapped inside a freezer. It’s been 6 years and now I have moved out of Andover to attend the Suffolk University. I live in an apartment now. Till now Andover holds me back to all the great memories I have and I wish I could commute back and forth from back home. I know that now that as I am becoming an adult, I have to overcome the need and admit it. I do miss all those memories that tie me to the town, but I know I have to move and keep on the positive side. Everything Andover had given me was the best memory I could ever ask for, especially I could be consider as a foreigner as well. Reference Hood, Ann. “Street Scenes.” 239-240. In WRI 101 and WRI 102: Common Reader. Suffolk Univ. Read More