In the cold, brisk airs of China, Wei Lam Wo walks in the fields with her parents. She wears old sandals made of bamboo that are worn-out from hiking across acres of crops. Her clothes are thin and ineffective to the temperature of the season. Luckily, over these clothes she has a jacket made of cowhide to keep her warm. Her hair stands tangled like cobwebs since she did not have time to “fix herself up.” Nor did she need to, as her family was going to harvest the fields and chop some wood for the incoming season. After walking in the fields for some time, she makes it to her destination. The forest, a dark and gloomy place filled with trees to make a plentiful supply of wood for a couple of weeks. Her mom yells, “I’m going to harvest the crops” and grabs some tools and goes off to the fields. Only Wo and her father stay in the forest with an axe and a saw. Wo grabs logs pre-chopped by her father and sits them on a clean, flat field to lay the log. She wields the axe with both hands, and uses a thrusting motion toward the log. Wood chips and bark fibers fly in the air with the log splitting into two flat pieces of wood. She grabs these logs and tosses them into a little, homemade wooden wagon. Then, Ying takes another log and does the same for the rest of the day. When it’s sundown, the family hikes back home with a supple of things to last them through the winter-chilled weeks. The mother prepares a meal of bokchoy and other vegetables. For protein, they eat leftover cow from yesterday’s feast. The day is over, but another day comes with another chore to do. This is the life of Wei Lam Wo, a hard-working woman with many responsibilities but at the end she earns the rewards.
The Essay on Opening Day Stadium Back Crowd
The sun shines radiantly upon the towering stadium at the corners of Michigan and Trumbull. Spring has arrived and erased the dreary, grey weather of winter. The old dilapidated stadium will come to life in a couple of hours to mark the beginning of an anticipated season. Brringg! The bell signals the end of class and I anxiously wait for my mother to arrive. I find myself impatiently glancing at ...
