Boua Thor

I was born in Thailand and immigrated to America at around the age of 2. I came to Minneapolis, not knowing any English. This was challenging, especially when it came to school. Pretty soon, my family and I moved to St. Paul, and I like it here better. But, learning English was still hard for me. It wasn't until the 1st grade that I began to understand English.

Over the years, I found out some interesting things about myself while the other half, as for the other talents, I had to develop them. I never really did like reading much. Every book that I came across was either downright boring or just plain pathetic (in my point of view). I don't remember the book that got me interested in reading, but I've been reading ever since. Today, I like to read the books that actually interest me.

Another skill that came along with reading was writing. I never liked writing. But I loved writing stories. I loved making them up and choosing the ending. However, the reason why I never liked writing is because my elementary teachers gave me such dumb writing assignments that bored me to death (besides, it was a waste of my time). But I figured it out today that it was to enhance my writing skills.
My middle school teacher, Mr. Thompson, was a different story though. He encouraged us to keep writing. We did this by writing in our journals every day. One of the reasons was to improve our writing skills. The others-well I've never really figured it out. I guess he just wanted read our thoughts. But I loved his class the best for two reasons: one because it was the easiest class you will ever have, and two, it opened my mind up even more. I was able to come up with stories and mix it with my imagination.

I can still remember when Mr. Thompson assigned us a short story assignment. The minimum was one page. I was so excited that I started on it right way. Of course, I was a slow typist at the time and I never finished it. It turned out that the small computer couldn't hold any more memory and we had to put in on a Macintosh. To my surprise, it was nearly ten pages! I didn't think I had typed that much. Well, I turned it in unfinished anyhow and got an A+ on it. It surprised me how I could get an A for an unfinished work. But, my teacher loved it, so I didn't say anything.
You could say that my artwork is beautiful, but I wouldn't agree. In my opinion, it's not how I would want it to look, but it's the best that I can do. It took me nearly thirteen years to finally draw things the way I want them to be. I could draw anything from cartoons to animation, to nature, to almost anything. And I would say that those thirteen years were worth it. Today, I'm still trying to get my artwork to look the way I want it to.

Every summer, I have always looked forward to summer school (now, summer programs). I wanted to go to summer school because I didn't want to stay home. It was boring and I had chores to do. But, I also wanted to go to summer school because I wanted to continue learning and make new friends. Now, I chose to go to summer programs because there are no more summer schools for me, but I get to choose a field of my interests, and I can take opportunities that will help me on my way to college. I would have to say that MACCESS was probably one of the most rewarding summer programs that I've ever been to. It's quite different from other programs that would go on for only about two weeks. But here, I gotten the answers that I have been so anxious about.

So today, I still want to learn more about myself and the world as much as I can because, you can never learn enough in one lifetime.