Eugenia Flores
Professor Gimaraes
English 1A February 10, 2014
Most important place that you enjoy as a child Everything changes, but memories lasts. As a child I also had my favorite place and was my home, the home that I left behind when we moved to this country. My home is located in El Salvador a peaceful quiet place where every afternoon at 4 pm was all noise because of my sisters and I and other kids from our neighborhood. The house was white and burgundy, it had two windows one on each side, the house looked like a face to me, because the windows were the eyes and in the center the door which to me was the mouth of the house. Even though I no longer live there I miss the backyard, it is small but we owned a small garden with red roses and violets, there is the place where I used to play along with dolls and sisters. Also I miss my bedroom which I called our heaven because is the place where my sisters and I shared happiness, tears, and even secrets. I miss going to the park in front of our house, we will always see a grown man sitting on a bench. Whenever we went to the park we would played as much until night came. Most of my memories were created in that house and neighborhood.

Whenever I need to calm down my minds travels back to the house I lived as a child. The house with the small garden, our garden was located in the back of our house a garden that was composed with red roses their ordor was fresh as can feel the sweatness of the rose, the sweatness it gave me anxiety to want to try it also we had violets their color was a beauty and for some reason they are very delicate because of us they never lasted long enough because whenever we played cooking the petals were part of our food, my backyard was our play field, the moment we got home from school there was no other place to be rather than our garden in our backyard there was the lavadero in Spanish just by opening the water from the know and hearing the water fall, makes you think how a waterfall would fall, whenever mom washed the cloth there was always a pond of water around the lavadero, but we would make a river out it just because in order to get inside the house we had to cross over the river, also there was a restroom in the backyard, at nights I was scared of going outside by myself. When my dad used to visit me the backyard was my favorite place at night because with him the night was just perfect him and I in a hammock looking up to the sky full of stars and talking about things related to my school and things related to what he does whenever he did not come to visit me. The backyard also is the place where I used to run to in order to recalled his presence, I wanted to see him but he was not there and just by thinking of him it made me wanted to be in the hammock and swinging it until I felt like flying up to him. Whenever I had a project from school my classmates would which house we will be meeting I always offered my house because I enjoyed being in my house mostly my backyard, when we were done with our project first thing we did was to play, laugh, and enjoy our time together before they returned to their houses. If I could go back and relieve some of these memories, I would choose those nights I spent with my father. Regardless I am away from home it always will be in my heart, no matter time passes the place is the most memorable and embraceful of my life.

My bedroom is my sanctuary because it was the only place we can truly escape from reality. In that house another place I can think of is my bedroom; it is the heaven where I grew up, the place that my sisters and I shared happiness, joy, even tears. Anyone was not able to see the unique that the bedroom was to me, all they could see was the bed topped with a blanket and a soft and comfy pillow, a small sofa a box filled with a lot of dolls. Even so, thinking of my bedroom brings back good and bad memories, I still can smell the camomile scent that my mother used to put in our room, on days I feel depressed I go to my bed closed my eyes and travel back to my used to be bedroom and it brings me memories. I remember those days where I felt down with no energy and did not wanted to play in my beloved backyar, I just run to my bed throwing myself into it and putting my covers up to my face and my only comfor was my pillow, my pillow was the one wiping out my tears without getting annoyed, that pillow that knew every secret of mine since the day I went to live with my mom. Since that pillow became mine it was it and my bed that were the one that felt that I could trust of the most. I loved to sit in between those four walls to think whatever came to my mind, either it was something sad or happy I just enjoyed being there until my playful sisters, who enjoyed to played or even annoyed whenever I felt the way or knew that I was missing my dad, all they did was just do whatever like telling every joke they knew just to cheer me up. Prior to them being present in my bedroom, our bedroom did nothing but to build up more unforgettable memories that took place there in my bedroom and in that house. Even if visitors might not consider my room as a special place that is because they have not being in there, but to me my bedroom was my utopia, the place where I could laugh and cry. The cave that holds most of my memories it always be part of favorite places.

Parque Jardines de Sosonate is located in front of the house where I grew up, so I could see the park from our living room window. Every noon at 4 pm my sisters and friends spent time there and honestly I liked the park, because it had the fresh smell, when the guy in charge of watering the park finished the smell of wet ground was just good. I enjoyed to watch high school students who were playing soccer almost every day, parents with their toddlers, other with their dogs hanging around. Going to the park it was also part of our routine, it was as well for a grown man that visited that park every day, he would never missed a day going to the park. He would come and sit in the same bench at the same time just to see the kids play his nickname was “Don Chilo”, his real name I do not know, but he was gentle and we see him as our grandpa, whenerver he got there we would run up to him screaming “abuelo” you are here. He did not have family that is why he spent the time in the park, he said he felt that his family never left him, because with us around he had his family, “el abuelo” is one of the persons I miss the most besides my father, whenever my father was not there, days were he did not come and visit me “el abuelo” was there, he knew that is something was wrong he will do anything as if he was my real grandpa. The days I hated the sometimes were rainy days, because those days we were not able to go neither to the park nor to the backyard, I was not able to see him. Even though I enjoyed spending time in my bedroom, I wanted to go out and did have fun playing outside with our friends. It was not a place where only my sisters, friends and I had fun, but also the place where my mom used to get together with her friends to have a nice afternoon chatting on anything it came to discussion. The park had soccer field, swings, slides; it was surrounded by many small trees, walk ways, benches, I could describe it as greenish and colorful because of its playground. I played many things in the park. My friends and I gathered together and played hide and seek or tag, tag was my least favorite game because I was a slow runner, and always got tagged on. On the other hand hide and seek was my favorite of all because there were many places to hide, usually I was the last one to be found and because of that my price was a candy, which was bought in the store near the park, adventurous days we had on that park, sometimes I wonder is it still the same, do they enjoy going to the park spent some time with friends. People had stands where we used to buy fruits for example mangoes, coconut, or other kind of fruit. When it was getting dark we started living one by one depending on how strict mothers were, even though staying late in the night was just perfect because is one of the places where you can enjoy the view of the moon, looking at the stars laying on a bench and just enjoy the beauty of the sky at night. While my friends were living my sisters and I stayed a little longer because our house was just crossing the street. The park is one of the reasons why my house and my neighborhood are so memorable to me. Places can be meaningless to others but not to the one who lived and enjoyed the unforgetable place.

To sum up, the garden, my heaven and the park in front of our house is the most important place I enjoyed in my childhood, it may not be as meaninful to other but it is to me. My mind is the one who needs to work on the most, because is the one traveling to my past, the past that had so many joyful memories and now in days we only can recall it without turning back. If I had an opportunity to go back in time I would choose my childhood, because those were the days were I had so much fun, the days that I used to see my dad every other day and I no longer see, days were I spent time with friends and “el abuelo” were the most precious days to me. Distance is in between my homeland and I, but as in my heart and in my mind it was like I never left it behind.