My Life by Christian Lucas, Essay Example

Chapter One: My Name

The name Christian Lucas has always had a special ring to it for me. Maybe I’m biased, but I feel like it is a name that belongs in lights. I can see Christian Lucas the producer, Christian Lucas the stuntman, or even Christian Lucas, illusionist. Not that I aspire to any of the before mentioned careers. I have heard that the name Christian is Greek for “the anointed”. So perhaps my moniker would lend itself to a career as an illusionist after all. Of course, the name is also English for “follower of Christ”. The possibility of becoming a minister is still up in air…way up in air.

Chapter Two: My Neighborhood

My neighborhood is a fairly average neighborhood. There are houses and there are streets, sidewalks, yards, and mailboxes. One of my neighbors has turned her front yard into a flower basket goldmine. She has at least fifty of them, hanging on the porch, hanging on poles, lining the house, and just sitting in circles on the lawn. At almost any time morning or evening she can be found outside watering her flowers. Most of the families in my neighborhood are middle-aged with children and dogs. There are lots of dogs. When they are all outside at the same time their barking blocks out all other noises.

Chapter Three: Toys from My Childhood

I have had many favorite toys throughout my childhood. My mother says I carried around a stuffed lizard when I was two. I do not remember the lizard, but I must have been pretty attached. Mom claims I cried for two solid days when it came up missing. The first favorite toys that I do remember are my cars. Sometime by my fourth or fifth birthday I had already began to amass quite a collection of matchbox cars. I would carry them with me wherever I went, stuffing them into my pockets and pulling them out to play with in grocery stores.

Chapter Four: A Time I Got in Trouble

This particular reminiscence revolves around those very matchbox cars. I had taken them with me, as usual, on a trip to play at a friend’s house. I was six years old and the friend’s name was Daniel. He had the whole setup, the gas station, the garage, the town, and a couple of racetracks. I had taken my cars out of my pockets to play with and they were all mixed up with Daniel’s cars. You can probably guess what happened. It came time to pick up and a fight erupted over ownership of the cars. I got a bloody lip from Daniel and a sore butt from my mother, but I limped out of there with my cars.

Chapter Five: A Time I Saw Someone Else Get in Trouble

I do not remember how old I was, but I know I was very young. The memory of my fear and awe at seeing another little person, like I was, punished is very strong in my mind. We must have been at one of my mother’s friend’s houses. The little girl that lived there was in the middle of a temper tantrum. After failing to get whatever response she was after, the little girl (we must have both been two or three years old) decided to take drastic measures. She very deliberately pushed a glass vase off of a table. No sooner had it shattered on the floor than her mother snatched her up, pulled off her pants, and spanked her bottom. I was very quiet for at least an hour.

Chapter Six: Advice from an Adult

I think the best advice I have gotten from an adult is this: “Do what I say, not what I do.” That saying gets a lot of criticism, but if you think about it, it is true in most cases with most people. As a teenager it is easy to want to throw my parents’ pasts up at them and say, “You did it, why can’t I?” And of course, there is no reason why I can’t do whatever action is in question. I am free to make my own mistakes and get in my own trouble. But really, if I stop to think about it, why should I?

Chapter Seven: A Special Family Member

My grandfather has always been very special to me. We used to fish all the time. He taught me everything, how to bait a line, string a pole, and cast. He even taught me how to fillet a fish. In fact, my grandfather gave me my first knife. It was an old fillet knife that he told me he had since he was a boy. I still have it at home, in my tackle box. My grandfather was a great one for the “do as I say, not as I do” speech. He smoked, drank, and spent all his time fishing.

Chapter Eight: A Happy Time for Me

I have been lucky to have had many happy times growing up. So many that it is hard to pinpoint just one. I was always happy when fishing with my grandfather, I was happy alone in my room playing with my cars, and I was happy the first time I asked a girl out and she said yes. My palms were sweaty, I stumbled over my words, and when she accepted I was so relieved and that I almost ran off without setting a date and time. I don’t even really remember the date, we went to a movie, but that first victory was definitely a happy time for me.

Chapter Nine: A Special Holiday

Easter Sunday when I was twelve was a special holiday for me. Not so much for the Easter holiday itself, that was the same as any other year. That particular Easter, was the year that I found the twenty dollar egg in the family egg hunt. My family has a big egg hunt every year at Easter. And every year, they hide a twenty dollar bill inside one of the plastic eggs. I had never been the one to find the twenty dollar egg until the year I was twelve. It was hidden in the basket of an Easter bunny decoration.

Chapter Ten: A Special Birthday

When I was ten years old I received the best birthday present a boy could get. I got a souped up go-kart. It was painted blue and red and had a giant roll cage. I’m talking gasoline and gas pedals. I may have been happy with presents before that, but I cannot recall a better one. I tore up the neighborhood in that go-kart. The neighbors complained because I raced down the sidewalks and chased their dogs. All the other boys were jealous and all the girls learned my name. Now that I think about it, maybe I should add Christian Lucas, racecar driver, to my list of possible careers.