Jenifer Phanphal,
Grade 7
How do choices shape our journeys?
In life, decisions and opportunities are important because with the
decisions you chose, it’ll lead you in life at some point, which could
affect your future later on. Opportunities can come and go, but when
you have it, you have to look at it carefully before you make your final
decisions. There are good choices and bad choices and sometimes
you have to make the bad choices that will eventually lead you into
good choices. Life is full of chances and you need to learn what to do
with them, they should all be worth it.
A novel “Long Walk to Water” was written by Linda Sue Park about a
young boy in 1985, who dreams and hopes for a future, to be able to
go to school, to be able to reunite with his family, he’s a kid who would
do anything to live; to live through the difficulties, yet so close to dying,
to live through the dripping blood as he walked through the Akobo
desert, to stay in a forest and yet knowing there’s predators, to cross
the Gilo river full of crocodiles to survive and at the end it was all worth
it, he reached a refugees camp and got selected to go to America
and that’s where the dreams came true and happened. He was
adopted by a new family, he was raised in New York, but he never
forgot about the most important people in his life which was his
parents, so he flew to Sudan to visit them, “ I am your son. I am Salva”
he said (Park, 104) he told his father everything, his father wasn’t in
good condition and so he made a promise to return back to Sudan.
He kept that promise and what he chose to do was start a water
project and so years later, he came back to Sudan and built wells filled
with clean water for the less fortunes, for both tribes (the Dinkas and
the Nuer), he made a change, a difference and all that was inspired
by the journey and people, and so he may suffered a lot in the past,
but because of that it has motivate him to carry on and try harder
because there’s so many opportunities in the future he haven’t
experience yet and that boy was named Salva Dut Ariik.
A film “ Africa United” was led by Debs Gardner-Paterson, which was
about a teenage boy named Fabrice who wants to live his dreams as
a soccer player, and so one day he was asked to go to FIFA because
he got a high chance of being selected to be in the FIFA soccer team,
but his mother strongly disagree with his choice and decision, as she
said “ Africa doesn’t need dreams, it needs to wake up and so do you
“, she wanted him to be a doctor, but he and his friend named dudu
sneaked out and made a journey off to south Africa. Dudu chose to
creep into the tour bus and all of them accidently turned out to be in
the Congo, which was a 1000 miles away from South Africa. Along the
way they met and made some new friends who helped them get to
their final destination. There were a whole lot of difficulties they have to
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Jenifer Phanphal,
Grade 7
face, but that was the choice Fabrice chose to make in the first place,
so they cant stop now and finally he got there and again, it was all
worth it.
A Tanzania story called “ Leaving” was about a boy named Aloo who
was a great straight A’s student who got selected to go to study in a
famous university in California called Institute of Technology and it was
on agriculture which it was something he didn’t want to do, he wanted
to study medicine, so when he told his mother about it, she didn’t seem
so happy, mostly sad and furious because she knows that if she would
let her son go to this university he got selected means that she’ll be all
alone, “ And why do you want to go away, so far from us? What kind
of son are you? “ She scolded. For the first time, Aloo shouted back
what he had to say because this university meant so much for him and
yet its such a rare opportunity, so together they went to met someone
for some advice and what he said was that it’ll be good for his
education, although she’ll loose her son since America is such a far
place. Back at home, they continued to decide whether he should go
or not, so finally, he’s mother allowed him to go but they’ll be
consequences that he has to follow in order for him to go, and so off
he went living his future.
So with all these stories and choices, it seems to relate to each other
somehow since they all have sacrifices impacting their parents and
they all have to go somewhere far away from their homes in order to
persuade their dreams, and this is why choices and opportunities are
important in life!
Works Cited
“Africa”: Africa United. Dir. Deborah Gardner-Paterson and Rhidian
Brook. Perf. Eriya Ndayambaje. BBC Film / Warner Bros., 2010. DVD.
“Basset 33”: Bassett, Jennifer, and Gay Galsworthy. "Leaving."
Changing Their Skies: Stories from Africa. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2008. N.
pag. Print.
“Park 6”: Park, Linda Sue. A Long Walk to Water: Based on a True Story :
A Novel. Boston: Clarion, 2010. Print.
“Park 7”: Park, Linda Sue. A Long Walk to Water: Based on a True Story :
A Novel. Boston: Clarion, 2010. Print.
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