9901_臺北市英語演講比賽_周詠絮
An Unforgettable Event
Parents always know what’s best for the kids, right? I know that now. But when I was in the eighth grade, I was a pretty typical teenager, who managed to get into a full-blown fight with my mother every few days. We were always disagreeing on something and ended up bickering.
Last year, I began being obsessed about pop music. There was one album I wanted more than anything in the world, the latest one by Bon Jovi. But my mom was worried about my final exam, which was only two weeks away. She refused to buy me one and wanted me to be completely focused on schoolwork. “What about Chinese homework? Are you sure you finished revising everything?” “Don’t you have enough music CDs already?” I felt like screaming every time when I heard those lines. Didn’t she know that it is unbelievably tough to be a junior high school student in Taipei? Overloaded schoolwork. Endless assignments. And tons of tests every day! Just a little piece of music can help me so much. So I told her: “I won’t listen to it all day. I just want to take a rest once in a while!” But she said in reply: “Everybody else is working hard. Why should you be resting?” And she stormed out of my room angrily.
After the severe quarrel, we started World War Three, a cold war that muted all the happiness in our family. I refused to talk to her, and Mom pretended that I were invisible. I had no one to confide in, and no one to share jokes with. And I was the one to blame. I turned my home into a battlefield. So I raised the white flag and gave in. “I should say sorry to my mom,” I thought grimly. It was nighttime, and the apartment was silent. I slowly walked to Mom’s room, thinking, “should I apologize? Would she accept it? What if I just forget about the whole thing and wait until she makes the first move?” But by then, my hand was already on the doorknob. Without my pushing, the door suddenly swung open. My mom was in the doorway. Shock was written all over her face, seeing me standing in front of her. My eyes zeroed in on the package in her hand. It was something square and flat… Wow! Is that a CD? Bon Jovi was on the front! That CD was definitely for me! I hugged Mom as hard as I could. In turn, she apologized and told me how she felt. She actually went on telling me that she knew I had a sense of responsibility, and she should have had more confidence in me. She knew I would never neglect my duty as a student, and that’s why she decided to trust me in the end.
It has already been more than a year since then. But every time I glance at the CD, I feel obliged to work harder to live up to mom’s confidence in me. I put in more patience and effort to deal with schoolwork. It’s very interesting how a CD, which was meant to help me loosen up, pushed me to gear up at the end. It truly is an unforgettable event.