What is the assignment? The assignment is to write an 1000-1250 word descriptive essay using your five senses.
Essay:
Kaylee Roche English 101 Lacee Nisbett 5 October, 2019 Crossing Into A New World It was a beautiful, breezy, and perfectly warm summer afternoon in San Diego. Joy, pride, and relief immediately filled the summer air. It’s now been a week since graduation. My friends and I have been anticipating this day for the past year; the day we go on our graduation trip together. Looking out the window, I see the beautiful houses and tall mountains surrounding us with an amazing ocean view in the distance. Being from here, it’s nothing new to us. I wish I didn’t take San Diego’s beauty for granted. I wish I didn’t take all of the blessings I have for granted. In just an hour I would be in shock from what I had discovered on the other side of the fence, making me forever cherish the beauty and blessings around me. We were almost to the border to cross into Tijuana, Mexico to get to our final destination, Ensenada, Mexico. I didn’t know that I was about to see something so eye opening and life changing. We don’t always see how good we have it because we are used to it. Don’t take what you have for granted because many people don’t have it as well as you may have it. Be grateful for what you have and count your blessings. Before I knew it, I saw extremely tall fences with spikes for miles, blocking Mexicans from coming to America. I say this because I noticed while crossing the border was how easy it was for Americans to get into Mexico, but not vice versa. It takes a few hours to get into America from Mexico, but only took us less than 5 minutes to get into Mexico from America. I hate that it is like this. In California, there is a lot of controversy about the borders. Many believe that Mexicans bring in a lot of trouble with drugs and living tax free. I personally believe that if they made it a little easier for them to come here, they wouldn’t need to come illegally. They want a better life for themselves and their family just like many of us would want as well. Drugs are everywhere and it’s not right to put the blame on Mexicans or treat them differently. It was a sad, heartbreaking reality that I saw right in front of me and there was nothing I could do about it. Finally, we crossed the border. A strong, disgusting, unclean odor suddenly filled my nostrils. It smelled like a sewer for miles. Right before my eyes, I saw abandoned and run down houses everywhere crumbling like a cookie. The windows were shattered and the rotten wood was hanging like a monkey on a tree. I saw homeless people on the side of the road and hundreds of vendors selling things on the streets for extra money. The water is dirty and undrinkable. You could get sick from even rinsing your mouth with the water. I felt as if I crossed into a different world. Everything was so different. I didn’t expect such a drastic change to occur just on the other side of a fence. The beautiful part about all of this is that even though they live in these bad conditions, I couldn’t help but notice a smile always plastered on everyone’s face. Everyone is very sweet and seems to make the best out of what they have. This made me feel so happy inside. My heart was full.
We continued on our journey to Ensenada. The air seemed to clear up while driving along the coast. The fresh, salty ocean air began to reemerge. I rolled down my window and watched and listened to the waves crash onto the soft sands and then roll back. The houses around me began to look more beautiful as we got farther into Mexico. I remember my math teacher (who is from Mexico) telling me that the deeper you get into Mexico, the more beautiful it gets. Now I know what he is talking about. I see large, white mansions on the sand of the beaches while going through Rosarito, Mexico. The area is gorgeous and so tropical. The sand looks as soft as a pillow and the water is as blue as the as the sky parallel to it. I couldn’t wait to get to Ensenada and lay out on the beach in the warm sand with the sun beating on my skin, giving me bad tan lines that are totally worth it. Two hours went by and now we are entering the city of Ensenada. While in traffic I noticed that a lot of cars have California license plates. The only conclusion I could come up with for this was because they travel to work in California everyday and come back to live here in Mexico. Let’s also just take into consideration that we are now about three hours deep into Mexico from the border. The living expenses are much more reasonable in Mexico than in California, but the pay is better in California. The wages in Mexico are very little. The workers at a resort I’ve stayed at in the past only make the equivalent to $10 for one eight hour day of work. This is less than two dollars an hour. Seeing this made me realize all of the great opportunities that America has to offer, opportunities that people would do whatever they can to get. We were just born in America and get the privilege to have all of these amazing opportunities right at the tip of our fingers but many of us fail to realize how good we truly have it.
There is a beautiful and not so beautiful aspect of everything on earth but it is important to realize what you have and to count your blessings because many people would die to have it as good as you whether you know it or not. Take a moment out of your day to just look around you and cherish all the beautiful things the world has offered you.
Reflection: My trip to Mexico was a time a can really remember all the details and senses really well so that's why I chose to write about this. I didn't really know what my message was going to be at first but as I started writing it came to me. I didn't do any planning. I just started writing my first draft from scratch. I really enjoyed writing this essay because I got to reminisce about my trip to Mexico and really go back and think about it in detail. I started off the essay with a hook describing the setting. I kept the intro the same through my writing process. I set the intro with some background info in my first draft. I took out some sentences that were unnecessary and didn't go with the message of my story. I also added the message in the end of the intro to make it more clear. In my first draft I didn't have transitions, so I added transitions to each paragraph to make sure it flows. I also added some more details to the imagery of the essay. I went back and put some of my feelings and thoughts in the essay mostly my thoughts on how I felt about the border and how the Mexicans were being treated. I added some similes in there and replaced some words with more descriptive words. What really helped me was the feedback from the conference. It helped me organize my work much better and use the right tenses. I also added more detail to the climax after the conference. The peer review also helped me think of better words to replace my original words with to add more flavor and imagery. In the end, I wrapped up my essay by restating my message in a different way.