Sample Narrative Essay: Group Ice Bucket Challenge
Thesis: event + meaning
Part 1: Receive challenge; learn more about ALS; buy supplies – Allison, Breanne, and I were eating lunch in the cafeteria when Simon walked up with his phone. Hey!” Simon said, pulling out his smart phone. It was obvious he wanted to show us something. We said hi back, waiting for him to pull up what he wanted us to see. “You’ve been challenged on Facebook! Are you going to do it?” Breanne looked puzzled. “Do what?” she asked. “The ice bucket challenge!” Simon replied. People sitting at tables surrounding us all looked up and at us. One shouted, “Do it!” Allison said, “Well, we’ve been challenged, so we might as well.” She and I shrugged. Simon raised his arms in victory and walked away.
Part 2: Drive home; conversation – We all struggled to pay attention during class that day. All we could think about was the ice bucket challenge. How cold would the water be? Would it hurt? Who would record us taking the challenge? Whom would we nominate to take the challenge after us? We talked about all this after school, driving in Breanne’s car to Allison’s house, a cozy ranch house off Keebler Street. Along the way, Breanne surprised us by suddenly swerving into the parking lot of our local Food Lion. Allison said, “Why are we st…” but trailed off, figuring out mid-question that Breanne was buying the ice we needed. We only bought ice. “Ice bucket challenge?” the cashier said, ringing us up. We all nodded. “We can barely keep enough ice stocked from all these people dumping ice on themselves. Seems like a waste to me.” Allison explained it was for a good cause, but the cashier could not be bothered. We left with a two pound bag of ice.
Part 3: Arrive home; set up video camera – When we got to Allison’s house, we all went to the kitchen to look for something to hold the water and ice in. The buckets we found before going to the kitchen were ones used for cleaning and mopping. “No way,” Breanne said, looking at them in the closet. In the kitchen, we settled on Pyrex mixing bowls. While Breanne started filling the bowls, Allison found a pair of scissors and snipped open the ice bag. “Wait,” I said, “we need to find out about ALS before we do the challenge. We have to talk about it in the video after all.” Allison put the ice in the freezer and Breanne left the bowls with water on the kitchen counter. We watched a few ice bucket challenge videos on YouTube and Facebook, and agreed we had enough details.
Part 4: Ice bucket challenge – We finished prepping the ice water, went outside, and got my phone ready to video. Each of us did our own video, and we took turns passing off the phone. I went first, and Allison taped me. The cold water took my breath away and my back tightened up. It felt like diving into the ocean before summer sets in. Breanne went second, and Allison went third. We laughed at each other, but shared a pride in having completed this exercise.
Part 5: Talk about challenge; change clothes; etc. – We went inside to dry off. Allison realized she forgot to get towels, and Breanne and I realized that neither of us had a change of clothes. Luckily, Allison and I are the same size, so she loaned me a pair of her dry clothes. Breanne wrapped herself in another beach towel. Breanne and I had left our cars at Allison’s house to all ride together to school, so we all watched the videos on my phone again, laughed, and said goodbye for the day.