My Childhood Stories

My Childhood SHAZA’S STORY Shaza Hamed MRS. DOUNAS | YEAR 9 ENGLISH 0

For my parents, whom I would like to show how grateful and appreciative I am, of having such a wonderful childhood, thanks to them. 1

Intro My name is Shaza Hamed, I was born into an African- Australian family in the city of Melbourne. I have 3 brothers and three sisters, and we all live happily under the same roof. At this point in time, I am a 14-year-old year 9 student and I’m currently studying at Iqra college. I moved from Melbourne to Adelaide in 2013 and have been living here, since. 2

Chapter 1 The beginning This was the year that I felt like I can do anything. I was just starting school, in my little five-year-old head, I just graduated to being on top of the world. life was a breeze, I had no responsibilities, if I was ever in a difficult situation, I knew that I would always have my brother and cousins there by my side, ready for combat. Literally everything was on the upside. One day when I was in the school yard, some random girl in my class came up to me and pulled my hijab off, to my little self this was funny, and I cracked up laughing, even though I thought she was quite uneducated. Later in the day, my brother found out and went to tell my cousins. They went up to the girl and gave her a long lecture while educating her a little bit. I could see she was just sitting feeling intimidated with tears in her eyes, almost about to explode. 3

Chapter 2 First day jitters During the second term of year 2, I moved schools before I arrived at school my mother informed me of my teachers name and that I can't say Ms., Mr. or Mrs. I'd known that my teacher's name was Alexandra, but I was terrified of getting her name wrong and call her alexander all day throughout school. The more nervous I was, the worse it got. My mum had put my hair into pigtail then tied a ribbon around and I remember walking along with my mum to school on the first day, trying to remember the woman`s name. I remember going into the canteen for school lunches. The sorghum sisters would give you a piece of meat pie on a plate and you would have to help yourself to potatoes from this pot in the middle of the table when you sat down. the children were passing it around and I saw it coming towards me. I was very nervous and didn't want to draw any attention to myself. I remember balancing a potato on my spoon, and watching it wobble because I was shaking so much because of how nervous I was. Then somebody jolted my arm and the potato went flying across the table and landed in a one of boy’s lunch. The sauce splattered all over his nice striped top and he was so upset that he screamed his head off. He opened his mouth so wide like something out of a cartoon, I remember being able to see his tonsils. After this incident I was expelled, literally, on the first day of school. I had to deal with the whole nervousness thing all over again, when I moved schools once again. 4

Chapter 3 Busted! Probably the first time I had gotten in any trouble during my whole schooling time was in year 5. It started off by our teacher going to grab something from the printer, while she was outside the classroom this boy threw a pencil at one of my best friends. And some girl and I, being defensive friends, decided that it would be smart to throw pencils back at him. It went back and forth until a quiet, shy girl got hit in the eye. One of the boys went and reported this little incident to the teacher and she came back furious. I sat there quietly imagining steam coming out of her ears and her nose. She told us we were all going to get a reflection. I was petrified of my parents finding out. She handed us all a small, red piece of paper and said it had to be signed by our parents and that the next day, during both recess and lunch we would sit for reflection in Mr. Ali`s room. Mr. Ali was one of the meanest, scariest and most horrific teachers at this K – Year 12 school. A couple days past after I sat the reflection and whilst my dad was folding the clean washing, he found the red slip inside the pocket of my PE pants. He recognized the note because my older brother was a troublemaker and had plenty of those. Being in an African household, I got the biggest beating of my life. After he finished beating me, he said it’s not because he is angry, but because he doesn’t want me to bring shame upon the family or have people say that my parents didn’t raise me well. He also said that when I get a beat its usually out of love and that he is meaning to give me a reality check, trying to tell me that what I had done was so stupid and immature.to every action there is a consequence, whether good or bad. 5

Chapter 4 MasterChef day Back when I was in year 4 my school was holding its annual Master-chef Day fundraiser to help the school make money for more equipment, whilst having fun. The way it worked, was by 5-6 students from the year 6 classes baking something and selling it at school. Every team got bonus points for the way they set up their stalls and decoration and presentation of the product sold. My cousin, who was in year 6 at the time, had all her friends come over to my grandma's house to bake, the night before. They all crammed into the kitchen and in about four hours they had finished baking. They whipped up 12 batches of a dozen donuts and decorated them with either Disney princess or marvel superheroes to please the students and work as advertising that is easy to differentiate. They looked amazing. The next day, when we were at school the fundraiser began. The aim of it was, whoever made the most money would win. The winning team would get rewarded an extra supply of brand-new stationary. My cousin and her friends decided to go with a two-faced look for their stall they painted half of it marvel themed and the other half with a more girly, Disney princess look. When the time came to vote in our favourite team, we, my cousins and I, had already planned who we were going to vote for, obvious sly our older cousin. And with no doubt, they won. Although they didn’t care about the prize. 6

Chapter 5 Fake friends Earlier this year we had a chemistry assignment and my best friend since primary school wanted to work with one of the other girls. Even though we have always done everything together, I didn’t think much of it. I just let it pass. I started thinking that something fishy is going on when she started drifting away from me and hanging out with them during recess and lunch. After spending a whole entire 2 days without any form of communication she decided to come and talk to me as if nothing happened. I didn’t know whether to feel happy or sad. Later that day when I went home, I chose to get lost in google by researching what classifies a friend and doing a bunch of friendship quizzes. And according to the results I was apparently being used. I figured that the best way to settle this ordeal was to confront her. I sent her a text asking if we could talk behind the boy’s toilet block at lunch, via messenger and she declined because according to her she was too busy. I then made up a little fib and told her that it was important and had to do with a rumour going on about her. And she, being the gullible person, I have known all my life, believed it. I was quite nervous but thank god I was able to settle it then and there. As we were talking i could see she wasn’t looking at me and she was making up all these lies, while I was trying to be straightforward with her. I told her that I’d much rather no friends than total traitors. And then it was done. 7

Acknowledgements I would like to say thank you to my parents for giving me this childhood, to my siblings and cousins who’ve been making great memories with me, to my friends who’ve been there with me every step of the way, to my teachers who’ve taught me great lessons and to everyone else who has been in my life so far, stranger or not, in the good times or the bad. Thank You. The End 8