Explain the purpose and goals of the Personal Essay assignment in English.

Explain how and WHY we enhanced the essay in WebAudio by making it a podcast.

As I walk into grocery store, my first instinct is to find the candy aisle. My quick legs shuffle rapidly as I sense the smell of sugar. The aroda of sweetness invades my nostrils and with just a whiff of it, instantly I am addicted. As I stride past the little kids, my hand immediately reaches for the candy in the container. While I grab as much of each of the candy, I push the scooper away just so I can get quicker access. However with the overload of sugar all at once, I am slowly aware of how addictive it can be. I am reminded that for me, sugar is like the taste of being alone. It is an addictive flavor that I just can't seem to resist. The cruel print of my tongue can't seem to part from the taste that it have been surviving off of many years. As the sugar starts to creep up on me, I start to see dancing stars in my head. From time to time I have become jealous of those dancing flashes that invades my eyes. The way they hold their hands and appear in groups causes me to realize how naive my head can be. Regardless of the fact that being alone is something I need, it isn't always something I want. Sometimes, I think, the invasion of personal space is exactly what I need.

 This reigned true when I had to make a hard adaptation as I was moving to a new country with a different culture. Moving from the small country of Singapore, where I only knew people of my nationality to, transition to a whole new different country was intimidating move for my fifth grade self. Suddenly, entering a big playground where kids were already familiar with each other was not an easy move to make. My first day of fifth grade was like a smudge on a book where the words became nonexistence. To this day, my brain had completely disabled and unwired my first two weeks of fifth grade. All I could remember was that each day seemed to have doubled its hours or that every second turned to minutes. While I did forget most of what happened, I do remember wandering alone and staring at the pattern of my shoes. I would accompany my wander with a Geronimo Stilton book that I was addicted to. I would sit by the cold cafeteria table where the place was like an abandoned house where no kids would enter. I would stare out to the playground and notice that there were actually quite a lot of kids who were the only extinct animals left. As a fellow extinct animal, I should have run over but I knew I was not good at the chase. As few more days would pass, the patterns of fifth grade changed for me. I was invaded by a unique girl whose boundaries were blind. Her approach was intimidating and I grew goosebumps from how uncomfortable I was. She would approach me everyday and make me play some silly elementary games that were popular at the time. Since I was weak, I followed her around and played along with her. While she didn't have a prominent friend, she knew people and by association, I got to know more people. I did stick by the girl throughout the rest of fifth grade but the proximity between her and I still got to me. However, I knew that even though she was not the “type” I would be friends with, and I cannot say that I didn't find her weird; she was the one who would regularly invade my space. I created my first set of friends in America because of her and my life with Geronimo Stilton got abandoned. While I did enjoy reading my books, life with friends was probably a better replacement. I realized that sometimes it isn't bad and I don’t hate it as much as I think when someone disturbs my taste buds with a little bit of salt.

 Unfortunately, I didn't remain friends with her after elementary school as we parted ways in middle school, however I would always remember her impact on my life. I learned several lesson from her that I don't think I would have learned without her. I discovered that being alone and to like being alone isn’t a bad thing. What people call alone is what I call independence. I prefer to live without constant support surrounding my body. Instead for my body to gain the support it needs, a time alone with myself is what keeps me from falling apart. My love and desire to be alone has always been my personal halcyon days of life. However, I also learned that it can be lonely when you don't want to be alone. I also manage to believe that sometimes when someone invades my personal space, it can give me a piece of happiness that I don't ever want them to take back.