Ilsa Donte Personal Narrative

Ilsa Dontes. My fellow co- founder of our very exclusive bouncy ball club, packed up her quarters with me as we set out to the local hardware store- home of the only bouncy ball machine in town. This is how a typical club meeting would begin. Afterwards, we would go back to my house and pull out the official handbook, carefully designed using computer paper, staples, and colored pencils. This handbook consisted of any bouncy ball related topic one could think of, such as the history, care, club contract, activities, club rules, and game rules. The one game we would spend hours with followed the same rules as the game marbles, but bouncy balls were used.
One summer night l awaited either relieving or heartbreaking news from llsa. She would either be moving to Texas or
The summer leading into eighth grade, Ilsa would be moving to Texas. My heart dropped. The person I depended on to be just a block away if either of us needed a friend, or just someone to run errands with, would be gone.
It got worse. Six weeks before eighth grade ended, my family and I packed up and moved to Colorado. For three weeks my five- person family lived in a hotel room. Due to the housing market being unbelievably successful our rental house would not be immediately available. This caused there to be a forty-five minute drive to my middle school that was ten times bigger and ten times more intimidating than I had anticipated. On the first day I was put in the wrong math level and for the life of the class they could not answer the question, "What do you call something on a straight line?" Tentatively raising my hand I replied, "linear." The class broke out into a mocking applause. I immediately blushed and regretted participating.
Life reverting back to the way it was nine months prior was the only way I could see my situation improving, but this childish solution was not an option. I slowly stitched my life