I remember the Christmas of ’02. At the time I thought it was the best Christmas ever, but at that age I thought that every event and holiday had been the best ever. I know realize how easy it is to impress a child of that age. It really doesn’t take much at all to turn an ordinary day of life into something greater that the child will remember for a very long time. With this comes also the ability to easily change a great thing for a child into something terrible for him.
For Christmas in 2002 I got from my brother what I thought was the coolest thing ever invented. A few nerf guns were all it took to change my life at the time. These small toys could provide instant joy and entertainment.
After the best Christmas ever in Jacksonville, Florida, it was time to go home to Memphis, Tennessee, where I lived at the time. While I did not want to leave the family-and by that I mean I didn’t want to leave my nerf gun targets-, I did love to fly so I awaited the trip to the airport impatiently. When it was finally time to hop into the rental car and ride to the airport, I threw the bags into the car, thinking that the rushing of the packing would make the plane come faster. It took what seemed like an eternity to get to the airport, where the lines wasted even more time. We got our tickets and got into another seemingly endless line.
But this line was by far more exiting than the last. Who doesn’t want to be forced into the removal of their shoes, belt, and any carry on bags? Going through security was to be the first highlight of my day. My turn came and I quickly slid the flip-flops off of my feet and tore the belt from my waist. When I was called through by the intimidating but kind officer, I slowly walked though the metal detector, soaking in the glory of being examined closely by government officials.
Everything went exactly as I had planned, or so I had thought. My bag was pulled to the side and they were looking through it. When they pulled out the nerf guns and threw them into another container, my world just about ended. I pleaded for the TSA officers to return my guns, but they apologetically refused. My mother had to pull me away from security to get me to calm down. Taking my guns was not something that I was just going to let go. It is not reasonable that I would be affected so greatly by the confiscation of my new toys, but there is often no reasoning with children. My mom promised to get me new nerf guns when we got back home, but it was too late.
My trip had been ruined.
I thought this was a really well written story that really depicted your emotions throughout the experience. I could feel your joy of awaiting the plane and passing through the metal detectors, which was suddenly replaced with shock and pain when you discovered you would lose your guns. One thing you could do to make the story a little better would be to elaborate on the guns and leaving for the airport. What kind of guns they were, besides nerf or what you did with them to entertain yourself. By doing this you could help the reader relate to and envision the story a little more. Other than that you used great detail to describe your journey in the airport, you focused mostly on the main event rather than the preceding info, and chose a story to which every person can relate.
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