Stories Worth Telling

Last Term, Year 9 English students embarked on a memoir writing journey through the unit Stories Worth Telling. Their challenge was to uncover and craft a compelling narrative about someone who has left a meaningful mark on their lives.

The English Department was impressed with the calibre of the stories across the cohort. These memoirs are a testament to the power of personal narrative and the creative potential of our students.

We are proud to feature a short excerpt from Victor Zuo’s story worth telling, The Other Sun She Saw:

In the vast, restless city of Shanghai, I, a little girl, learned a lesson that would stay with me long after childhood faded into memory.

My parents weren’t with me when I was growing up, occupied with work in the various cities of China, so they left me in the capable arms of my grandmother. I called her “外婆” (grandma/ ā-bú (Shanghainese)). The person who raised me.

Every day, I rode my rusted bike through the packed corridors of my neighbourhood, dodging fresh fruit, vegetables on the floor, laid out on carpets for the passersby, as hawkers called out their prices in hoarse voices, worn from years of bargaining. The air thick with sizzling oil and sweet roasted chestnuts, the noise of the city a constant hum in the background. I was just another grain of sand in the great, unyielding desert of life in Shanghai.

Coming back from school, (a tiring Wednesday), my uniform damp with sweat, my schoolbag heavy with the weight of expectations, the sun felt like a burden on my body. I felt as though I was about to crash like a lonesome wave collapses onto the shore, powerless after a relentless journey across the ocean.

I stepped through our small wooden door, but as I stepped through, like a portal, I saw her,  外婆, sitting on her chair on the grass, with her hands moving in a steady rhythm, knitting under the golden embrace of the late afternoon sun, a different sun than I had seen that day. Light traced the soft lines of her face, her silver hair glowing amidst gold. She looked so peaceful, so familiar, so everlasting, as if she’d always belonged to that exact spot, as if time itself would never dare move her.

Ms Zoe Doutreband
English Teacher