Example Of Essay On Bitter And Sweet

Everyone’s childhood is full of memories and cherished moments spent with friends and cousins. They are a child’s best companions and close buddies in whom secrets are confided and dreams are shared. Times spent with them are the most unforgettable moments in my life and often lead me to a wave of nostalgia.
My parents belonged to a close knit family of many brothers and sisters, which endowed me with a whole military of cousins, who were my army for fighting all sorts of emotional and social battles. Therefore, I always had one of them beside me to comfort me if I cried or got hurt, to give me company to play, to be ready to take on adventure rides with me and to spend endless hours talking and listening. Isn’t that a great privilege and blessing?
Being a part of a large family of grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins, I understood the value of relationships from a very early age. I could at least feel the bonding and love when I was a young toddler, even if I didn’t understand its deep meaning and value in life. What a joy it was to have people moving around in the house, talking, busy doing chores, laughing, planning for family occasions, and partying together. It was never hard to find company and being alone was almost out of the question. Now can you imagine how a child surrounded by such love and affection would feel if she was pulled out into solitude? I’m sure it’s hard and painful to even imagine that.
Well, I had to experience the pain and difficulty of being torn apart from a large family of loving people and being pushed into an apparent world of indifference. It was at the ripe age of fourteen when my father ventured out from his native place into distant land for better job opportunities and financial growth. My mother and I obviously accompanied him in the move without much knowledge of what we were heading for. Since I was the only child of my parents, it was only three of us in the house now, instead of a noisy and merry bunch of twenty-four members. Every change and transition in life brings with it a taste of both sweet and bitter or good and bad. And my soul, over-sweetened with doting love and care of a huge family, now had to face some hard realities of life.
We settled in a neighborhood which I should actually call ‘scanty and cold’. The houses were big, but not as big as the farm house I lived in. And every house in the new neighborhood was separated by a vast space of land. So it would not be unbelievable if you actually required a bicycle to ride to reach your closest neighbor. I was overwhelmed with the number of changes speeding at me at that point of time, when I badly needed my cousins or friends, more so because I was a growing teenager. I missed talking to my cousins who were my age, missed playing with them and going on adventure trips discovering our new abilities. I always had company to walk to school and never ate alone at the table. In the new silent and lonely environment I craved for the laughters and noises which I grew up with.
My parents were finding it equally difficult and challenging to settle into a new place, without the support of the family they were so used to. Moreover my father had a new job to focus on and that kept him away from home and from us for long hours. My mother was trying to explore the vicinity and get accustomed to the new life.
My new school however was really good as the teachers were very caring, understanding and supportive. They were so full of life and skillful in teaching that I thoroughly enjoyed each and every class I attended. The school had a number of extra-curricular activities to offer which won my interest and I was greatly benefited from those. I learned making glass painting, candle making, animation and even knitting in the activity classes the school offered. This was something my old school never had, so I was in some way happy about this great benefit of my moving.
These extra-curricular activity classes not only provided me added skills and fun, but also a friend – someone I badly needed at this point in life. She was a girl one year senior to me called Sarah. Both of us attended at least three activity classes together and very often became partners in some tasks and projects. As she was senior to me in school she knew the school really well and already had a group of friends. She knew with my brief period of interacting with her that I had recently moved to the new school and place. Therefore she was very empathetic and encouraged me to join her group of friends. They were a group of four and I made it a perfect group of five by joining them. My solitude, apprehensions and new prejudices about the place and my new life, soon faded away as I learnt about these friends more every day. They not only made me feel welcome in their group but behaved as I had been with them for years. I actually got along with each one of them but felt especially close to Sarah as she was savior from my prejudices and solitude. She didn’t live too far away from my house so we often rode our bicycles in the area and went to each other’s house for sleepovers or for book clubs. I started to enjoy my new association with the new place and new friends.
I looked forward to going to school each day and evenings became busy too as Sarah and I planned activities, or read books together. Gradually our parents also got to know one another and the two families befriended each other. We celebrated festivals, birthdays and parents’ anniversaries together and even went for shopping and picnics together on weekends. It was as if we found our extended family in the new place.
Sarah and I are best friends now and though I still miss the beautiful times spent with my cousins in my hometown, I truly cherish this friendship. It has taught me that friends and companions can be found anywhere in the world. There are people around you who can change your life and give you a new perspective. Change of place led me to a new school where I learnt so many different arts and skills, which I had never had exposure to before. I was blessed with teachers who mastered their subjects and had so much knowledge to impart. I grew in my learning experience like I never did before. I discovered my love for reading as Sarah and I started a book club, and learnt so much about various genres, authors and styles of writing, that it was incredible. Since it was a huge landscape where I lived, Sarah and I got to ride long distances, something I always enjoyed as a child.