Commonwealth Essay – Question 1: Write a story or an account starting “Now, when I was your age…”
“Grandpa! Grandpa! Tell us a story!” John, Tom and Lily yelled. My grandchildren ever so lively and playful, were the only reason I got up everyday in the morning. I would go for my morning walks and do my morning exercises and then go to my little workshop and work on my own project I had set myself a month ago to build a fishing boat just to pass the time away until my son brought my grand children to my house to visit everyday. They too enjoy visiting and never find it a bore to visit their granddad as when I was young, I had traveled around the whole world.
“Grandpa! Grandpa! Tell us a story!”. “Okay. Okay. Gather round. Now, when I was your age, my parents didn’t have enough money to put me through school.”
I spent my days working with my father in the workshop making chairs and tables. He was a carpenter and a very skilled one too. He, like me didn’t go to school and spent his days growing up in the workshop with his own father. His dream was to fish. Not only did he want to fish, he wanted to travel around the world and fish for the different fish in the oceans, lakes and rivers around the world. Since he couldn’t fulfill his dream, he wanted me to do it for him.
So, during our spare time we started building our very own fishing boat. My father had a lot of experience as his father built boats for a living. He made quite a lot of money per month, but most of it went into paying the huge debts from his days of compulsive gambling. When the boat was done, she was a beauty. We christened her the “Flying Barracuda” and as soon as she was done, I turned eighteen and we hired a fishing crew for me and I set off to see the world and catch fish wherever we dropped anchor.
And catch fish I did. Together, my crew and I braved through the toughest of storms and caught a lot of fish. Selling them at every port we stopped at to get supplies and get repairs done, I became a multi-millionaire. After ten years out at sea, my final stop was back at my home town. Going to my house, I was saddened to see that my house was no longer where it once stood. Going around and asking for information, my heart broke to find out that my parents had died in a fire that razed my entire house down.
Though I was greatly saddened, I knew life had to go on and so I got married and settled down and everything came to be as it is now.
“Grandpa! Grandpa! Tell us a story!”. “Okay. Okay. Gather round. Now, when I was your age, my parents didn’t have enough money to put me through school.”
I spent my days working with my father in the workshop making chairs and tables. He was a carpenter and a very skilled one too. He, like me didn’t go to school and spent his days growing up in the workshop with his own father. His dream was to fish. Not only did he want to fish, he wanted to travel around the world and fish for the different fish in the oceans, lakes and rivers around the world. Since he couldn’t fulfill his dream, he wanted me to do it for him.
So, during our spare time we started building our very own fishing boat. My father had a lot of experience as his father built boats for a living. He made quite a lot of money per month, but most of it went into paying the huge debts from his days of compulsive gambling. When the boat was done, she was a beauty. We christened her the “Flying Barracuda” and as soon as she was done, I turned eighteen and we hired a fishing crew for me and I set off to see the world and catch fish wherever we dropped anchor.
And catch fish I did. Together, my crew and I braved through the toughest of storms and caught a lot of fish. Selling them at every port we stopped at to get supplies and get repairs done, I became a multi-millionaire. After ten years out at sea, my final stop was back at my home town. Going to my house, I was saddened to see that my house was no longer where it once stood. Going around and asking for information, my heart broke to find out that my parents had died in a fire that razed my entire house down.
Though I was greatly saddened, I knew life had to go on and so I got married and settled down and everything came to be as it is now.
