Personal Narrative
Johnney Guevara
Professor Nisbett
En 101
7 Oct 2019
To the Former Most Important Person in my Life, and Whom It May Concern.
Being human is hard but I bet you know that; going through the ups and downs of life is difficult. Having to balance sports and a job while also keeping myself up to the task of doing well on my academics. Life will only be getting even more difficult than it is now: balancing kids, keeping a significant other happy, and maintaining a good relationship up with family members. Not every single day is going to be a good day, and life has thrown me for loops, and has hurt me in ways I cannot even describe, I’m sure it has to you. It has gotten me banged up, bruised, and torn down, mentally, emotionally, and physically. While everyone writes about the best parts of their life, I'm gonna do the opposite; why not talk about the parts that hurt me the most, it’s always good to reflect on the worst parts of our lives and realize everything will be okay. These moments came from the people who I’d least expect to hurt me. Those whose presence I'd enjoy being in the most. I’m sure you know exactly what im talking about. You never seem to forget your first love, so how could I ever forget you?
There we were, in the midst of high school. It was a casual sunny day. I was just some stupid kid who liked video games and former emo bands, so I never really seemed to worry about relationships at the time. That is, until you stepped into my life. You were a casual girl, who just enjoyed a nice outing with her friends. Life was different with you, having someone to talk to every day, share memories with, and just to enjoy being in the presence of. Once you’re in a relationship, you tend to notice the smaller things. Your glossy reflective smile which contained a single rouge blood vessel that your friends would jokingly say would pop when we first kissed, the way your eyes scrunched up when joy and laughter filled your expression, and those absolutely adorable, yet perfectly placed freckles I would tease you about, but appreciated more than I can explain. Me being the awkward and dorky teen I was, I made you a poster asking to be my girlfriend. Cliché right? Not to me. Seeing your face light up with emotion when I presented that poster was something I strived to get you to do all the time. Every date was an adventure with you, getting to enjoy the littlest things with the person who was always on my mind. There was never a dull moment. Going to the movies and making fun of our former dean of students for looking as wrinkly as Killer Croc, to going to our favorite bands concert as we held hands, your head resting on mine. Large poofy curly hair, like a lion’s mane, sometimes getting in the way of my vision and somehow ending up in my mouth, there was a reason your contact name in my phone was Mufasa. Lets not forget watching Netflix on my best friend’s birthday and getting caught kissing as he was bringing me a piece of his chocolate cake. What were my parents thinking letting him in without warning? Most importantly, the date in which had always been your favorite. Just enjoying each others presence as we stared down the riverfront downtown, your head in the nook of my shoulder as we listened to the chatter of voices and the current of the swift river on that bright day. This was the day I realized how much I truly loved you.
We went to homecoming, wanting to make it special and us being the band nerds we were, I arranged a song for you that we both loved. I had our band mates play it, and bought you roses to commemorate the special moment we would later share. We were silly kids who didn't realize that corsages and boutonnieres weren’t only for prom. It was a good laughing moment as we took homecoming pictures. Pictures I still cherish to this day. Life was fantastic. I was living it with quite possibly a person I could call my best friend at the time. My grades were rising; I went from being a kid who could care less about getting a D on his most recent history test to someone who wanted to be the best person they could be, not for myself, but for the girl who I considered being the smartest and prettiest girl in the world. Life went by, enjoying each other's company through the depths of high school. Life was so amazing with you in it. What happened?
Everything fell downhill from there: arguments broke loose, nights where one of us would go to bed angry. Did you not remember the things I did for you to make you feel wanted? What happened to that? As the weeks went by, the conversations would die down, feelings weren’t as strong as they once were. Was it something I said? Something I did? I’m sorry. I know I may not be the best boyfriend but I’m trying. I didn’t mean to make you cry, again and again and again, but you’re definitely not the only one getting upset. We make up, and it starts all over again, and again, and again. Exams were starting to make their way to the place we dreaded the most: high-school. Everyone was thinking about summer, including you. I know you were planning a couple of trips and I was excited to hear about them when you get back. That is, if we made it that far. You walked up to me, as I’m studying math I heard those dreaded words every person in a relationship never wants to hear, “We need to talk.” We walk to the outside of the band room, the very place I asked you to be my girlfriend. A place in which held my greatest memory was also about to hold my worst. Anxiety raced through my heart. After a brief silence, you said the words I never wanted you to say. I just sit there, tears in my eyes, wondering what I did wrong. I was thinking about all the awful things you said and did to me, oblivious to the things I did to you to get you to finally cut the chain. After all the threats of, “if you are so unhappy, why don’t you just break up with me?” you finally did it. You were on my mind, all throughout those exams. I want you to know I failed almost every single one of them not being able to even focus on the questions. For weeks, I would spend the majority of the mornings hunched over a toilet in my bathroom feeling worse and worse as the days go by, and I wish I could say our story ended there, but it only got worse.
You’re living your best life, you’ve found someone who’s made you happy. I want to say im sorry, but it seems to have worked out for the best. Me? I’m doing pretty well. Performing with the Million Dollar Band, being in front of tens of thousands of people, doing the thing I love the most. Something we both used to do, but you had lost interest in it the year I became first in command. Meeting tons of people, studying what I love, and living a good life, I’ll be okay, and I’m sure you will too, it always ends up okay, Although you’re still in my prayers and I only wish you the best.
Professor Nisbett
En 101
7 Oct 2019
To the Former Most Important Person in my Life, and Whom It May Concern.
Being human is hard but I bet you know that; going through the ups and downs of life is difficult. Having to balance sports and a job while also keeping myself up to the task of doing well on my academics. Life will only be getting even more difficult than it is now: balancing kids, keeping a significant other happy, and maintaining a good relationship up with family members. Not every single day is going to be a good day, and life has thrown me for loops, and has hurt me in ways I cannot even describe, I’m sure it has to you. It has gotten me banged up, bruised, and torn down, mentally, emotionally, and physically. While everyone writes about the best parts of their life, I'm gonna do the opposite; why not talk about the parts that hurt me the most, it’s always good to reflect on the worst parts of our lives and realize everything will be okay. These moments came from the people who I’d least expect to hurt me. Those whose presence I'd enjoy being in the most. I’m sure you know exactly what im talking about. You never seem to forget your first love, so how could I ever forget you?
There we were, in the midst of high school. It was a casual sunny day. I was just some stupid kid who liked video games and former emo bands, so I never really seemed to worry about relationships at the time. That is, until you stepped into my life. You were a casual girl, who just enjoyed a nice outing with her friends. Life was different with you, having someone to talk to every day, share memories with, and just to enjoy being in the presence of. Once you’re in a relationship, you tend to notice the smaller things. Your glossy reflective smile which contained a single rouge blood vessel that your friends would jokingly say would pop when we first kissed, the way your eyes scrunched up when joy and laughter filled your expression, and those absolutely adorable, yet perfectly placed freckles I would tease you about, but appreciated more than I can explain. Me being the awkward and dorky teen I was, I made you a poster asking to be my girlfriend. Cliché right? Not to me. Seeing your face light up with emotion when I presented that poster was something I strived to get you to do all the time. Every date was an adventure with you, getting to enjoy the littlest things with the person who was always on my mind. There was never a dull moment. Going to the movies and making fun of our former dean of students for looking as wrinkly as Killer Croc, to going to our favorite bands concert as we held hands, your head resting on mine. Large poofy curly hair, like a lion’s mane, sometimes getting in the way of my vision and somehow ending up in my mouth, there was a reason your contact name in my phone was Mufasa. Lets not forget watching Netflix on my best friend’s birthday and getting caught kissing as he was bringing me a piece of his chocolate cake. What were my parents thinking letting him in without warning? Most importantly, the date in which had always been your favorite. Just enjoying each others presence as we stared down the riverfront downtown, your head in the nook of my shoulder as we listened to the chatter of voices and the current of the swift river on that bright day. This was the day I realized how much I truly loved you.
We went to homecoming, wanting to make it special and us being the band nerds we were, I arranged a song for you that we both loved. I had our band mates play it, and bought you roses to commemorate the special moment we would later share. We were silly kids who didn't realize that corsages and boutonnieres weren’t only for prom. It was a good laughing moment as we took homecoming pictures. Pictures I still cherish to this day. Life was fantastic. I was living it with quite possibly a person I could call my best friend at the time. My grades were rising; I went from being a kid who could care less about getting a D on his most recent history test to someone who wanted to be the best person they could be, not for myself, but for the girl who I considered being the smartest and prettiest girl in the world. Life went by, enjoying each other's company through the depths of high school. Life was so amazing with you in it. What happened?
Everything fell downhill from there: arguments broke loose, nights where one of us would go to bed angry. Did you not remember the things I did for you to make you feel wanted? What happened to that? As the weeks went by, the conversations would die down, feelings weren’t as strong as they once were. Was it something I said? Something I did? I’m sorry. I know I may not be the best boyfriend but I’m trying. I didn’t mean to make you cry, again and again and again, but you’re definitely not the only one getting upset. We make up, and it starts all over again, and again, and again. Exams were starting to make their way to the place we dreaded the most: high-school. Everyone was thinking about summer, including you. I know you were planning a couple of trips and I was excited to hear about them when you get back. That is, if we made it that far. You walked up to me, as I’m studying math I heard those dreaded words every person in a relationship never wants to hear, “We need to talk.” We walk to the outside of the band room, the very place I asked you to be my girlfriend. A place in which held my greatest memory was also about to hold my worst. Anxiety raced through my heart. After a brief silence, you said the words I never wanted you to say. I just sit there, tears in my eyes, wondering what I did wrong. I was thinking about all the awful things you said and did to me, oblivious to the things I did to you to get you to finally cut the chain. After all the threats of, “if you are so unhappy, why don’t you just break up with me?” you finally did it. You were on my mind, all throughout those exams. I want you to know I failed almost every single one of them not being able to even focus on the questions. For weeks, I would spend the majority of the mornings hunched over a toilet in my bathroom feeling worse and worse as the days go by, and I wish I could say our story ended there, but it only got worse.
You’re living your best life, you’ve found someone who’s made you happy. I want to say im sorry, but it seems to have worked out for the best. Me? I’m doing pretty well. Performing with the Million Dollar Band, being in front of tens of thousands of people, doing the thing I love the most. Something we both used to do, but you had lost interest in it the year I became first in command. Meeting tons of people, studying what I love, and living a good life, I’ll be okay, and I’m sure you will too, it always ends up okay, Although you’re still in my prayers and I only wish you the best.
Personal Narrative Reflection
Writing about something that hurt you really gets the emotions out of you. When I was writing my narrative I didn't want to write about something happy, cause usually people write about the best experiences of their life. I wanted to write about something that really has affected my life and made me the person I am. What better to write about the breakup? Throughout the writing I just wrote what came to mind, in chronological order: The best memories, the worst memories. Remembering all that happened really hurt, and definitely got me all emotional, but that’s what brings out the best writer in all of us. If you’re not writing something from the heart, are you really writing at all? That’s what I mainly thought of writing this narrative. I could’ve gone on and on and on but due the word constraint and wanting to have mercy on my fellow classmates from reading the worst parts of my relationships, I kept it simple. Now, if I were to be asked to write a book about the relationship, man would I have a story to tell. Really, it isn’t hard to write about something you’re passionate about. It brings the flow out of us and makes us phenomenal writers. I know this from experience, after tons of writing of stupid passages about short stories, my greatest work came from stuff I actually enjoy writing. All you have to do is write what you think is right. I could’ve sincerly written something stupid and funny cause I have tons of stories, but I think this story could have really brought the writer out in me, and it is probably the most proud paper I’ve written, especially since it gave me a sense of releif that things were finally getting better. It always ends up being better.