There are 2 kinds of people, the ones who want to get out there and spend every day wisely and the ones who’d like nothing better than to spend the summer sat on their backsides eating junk and enjoying Netflix. That’s me. I’m your typical teenager, only I have the strangest name ever which I absolutely hate. I was going about my amazing 9 weeks off with no worries whatsoever with little to do. But I’d arranged a break (from my break) with my also-unadventurous friends.
It was
an early start and we were all adequately on time for our train, despite one of
our friends, Matt, somehow leaving various items of clothing and money dotted
around BS16 – all of which were found by the time we had to catch our train to
Caerydd. Chugging along through Newport’s ‘dodgy ends’ wasn’t a highlight but
soon we had bigger problems when we found ourselves in bustling Cardiff Centre,
unfamiliar with our vivid and busy surroundings; but soon we saw the beacon
that is McDonald’s and we began to feel more at home.
Next
we were off to find our Youth Hostel, yes, a Youth Hostel – having money is a
rare occurrence for unemployed sixteen-year-olds. In this century, with all the
“great technology available nowadays”, finding where we needed to be was no trouble;
it was getting there that seemed impossible. Road after road, estate after
estate, each time we thought we’d found it, each time we were disappointed.
It was
an alright room, decent for one night I suppose, but the lime green en-suite
was bigger than the bedroom itself, the bathroom windows gave everyone on the
main road access to viewing you on the toilet and my boyfriend Joe even broke
the toilet handle within the first ten minutes of our arrival, and later, so
did our friend Jack. How I’d much rather be in my own bed binge-watching. But it
wasn’t all bad; we had people to meet and a gig to attend.
After
waiting in a long line full of scene kids and band freaks for almost two hours
we made it into the stadium packed with thousands of devoted fans. Regardless
of having to stand up for 5 hours without escape or water, I respected this
challenge because in life, struggle is unavoidable but you will be rewarded by
it in the end.
Much
more happened over that two day period such as more McDonald’s, dealing with
homesickness and even more travelling (buses and taxis) as we watched our money
grow tiny wings and fly away, but I’m trying to condense this story into one
simple lesson. Going away and having to take care of myself gave me a brilliant
learning experience as well as ending the summer with my friends in a
significant and memorable way. I believe that it’s experiences like this that
shapes who we are and who I am.
I really like the style of this piece and you have managed to capture the biography/travel writing and 'stream of consciousness' style really well. There is some good use of lexis here with words like 'chugging' and 'dodgy ends' etc, I used to live in Cardiff so from that perspective I think you've really managed to capture what it is like going there for the first time, so well done, you've created some good imagery there! I think you could even go further with this and perhaps turn it into a monologue when we come onto monologue writing. Well done, this is great!
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