Alunos do Ensino Médio foram convidados a refletir sobre algumas situações e a escrever um artigo em inglês sobre os seguintes temas: “O que você salvaria, caso sua casa estivesse em chamas?”, “Como seria minha vida sem o celular?” e “Um lugar inesquecível”.

Autoria: Andréa Antonieta Cotrim Silva, professora de Inglês do Ensino Médio do Colégio Santa Maria

Mickey is not on fire (Felipe Gomes)

Have you ever thought about which thing of yours would you grab for first if your house was burning down? Most people, when thinking about a situation like this, tend to affirm they would be worried about their family and their lives, because we can buy another cellphone, for instance, but a life we cannot. However, what if you had the opportunity to save just a thing or an object from your house, what would you choose? Last night, I spent an hour thinking about that, and even though my willing would be to grab a lot of things, I realized that the first object that I would pick would be my Mickey teddy bear.

At a first sight, it can seem like just a big cute Mickey teddy bear, wearing yellowish shoes, red shorts, and white gloves, beyond having big ears and eyes, and obviously such an impressive giant nose. It’s just as every single Mickey Mouse cartoon looks like, something a kid would love, but a teenager would not give a vast value. Nevertheless, my teddy bear has such a huge emotional meaning for me.

However, you might be asking yourself why a simple Mickey teddy bear has this importance for me. I’ve had it since I was something around six, it was a gift my mom gave to me when we first went to Disney World in 2012. Therefore, probably due to the fact that those 16 days of the trip were the best days of my life so far, and the teddy bear being a reminder to me of those two extremely happy weeks, moments of happiness among my parents and brother, and also the huge experience that has been traveling to another country, it remains with a giant emotional luggage and importance for me.

To sum up, God forbid and keep me away from this, but if someday I had to choose something to save from my house in a fire, I’d certainly grab my Mickey teddy bear. Losing it would feel like losing a memory, a reminder to me of the best few days of my life and getting the pictures of my parents’ smiles at the parks — when our dream was coming true — faded.

A nice holiday in… (Laura Rufino Fernandes Roberto)

Three years ago at Carnival, my father and I went to Florianópolis, it’s a famous city because the whole city is on an island, which makes it extremely fun, but also dangerous when there’s rain.

We went in his car, and it was amazing, ‘cause all the way we chatted, played music, sang and had some chips. When we got there, it was a sunny and hot day, there were lots of trees and not many clouds. We stayed at his small apartment, there was only one bedroom, one bathroom, a sofa and television connected to the kitchen.

When we first got there, we went grocering and then shopping. After all that busy day we just slept until the next morning to go to a beach called “cacupé”, there are lots of glass shards there, not recommended for walking. Later, still at the beach, it got windy, almost like a hurricane was on its way to get us, so we just ran to the car and got to the first kiosk we found and waited ‘till the wind passed.

A few days later it started to rain, but it rained for almost 4 days in a row!! Can you believe it?? But we didn’t let it ruin our trip, he decided to teach me how to play cards! He was good at it, but I became better, I beat him in lots of plays, and that was my first time playing it. I know, I know, I’m awesome at cards, am I not? And one day we visited his friend, who was really good at cards (like, nobody could beat her), and GUESS WHAT?? I WON, I was 12 by the time and felt so powerful, like I was a god at cards. On our way back to his house, we just laughed so hard about it.

Almost forgot to say, on our last day on the island, we had a tour in his car for me to meet everything, even raining, and we were talking about crocodiles that go up there when it rains, and we saw A FREAKING LIZARD, which we thought was a crocodile because it was HUGE. Then we laughed for the coincidence.

Anyways, that’s all for now, I’ll forever remember this trip as the best trip I’ve ever had in my entire life. The thing is, what matters the most, is the company, not the place, you don’t have to go thousands of miles away to have fun, just having who you love by your side, is more than enough.

Saving memories (Chiara Moraes Pereira)

One of the most terrifying things that can happen to you is the home that you bought with the money you worked so hard for, burning up in flames. Just the thought of that accident happening causes discomfort and fear in many people around the world, and it is a very relevant fear, since around 358,500 homes experience a fire every year and, only in the USA, 3,000 people die each year. But, the age old question is: If your house was on fire, what would you save?

Most people would probably answer that they would save important documents, like passports, birth certificates, wills and testaments, but i don’t think that would be the first thing i would save. Obviously, I understand the reason for saving documents, however I don’t really even know where my documents are located, so I’d probably save other things.

In the panic of having to escape my burning house, I’d save three things, and they are: my phone, my bunny plushie and lastly, and most importantly, my grandfather’s coin collection.

Starting off with my phone, I feel like I’d save it since it is a very useful device and tool, but also a very big source for my entertainment, since I can talk with my friends, watch funny videos, and most importantly, I can listen to music. And this last fact is very important to me since music helps me in lots of different ways, for example, by making me focus more when I’m doing homework, by making me feel less stressed or bored, but also by cheering me up when I’m feeling blue.

The second thing I’d save would be my bunny plushie, and although it seems like a insignificant item, it actually has a lot of sentimental value to me, since it was a present I got when i was really young (around four years old) and it has stuck with me through all these years, and to many people this will sound stupid, but I used to feel like my plushie was a sort of guardian of mine, protecting me from the monsters who lived in my closet.

Lastly, I would without a doubt save my grandfather’s coin collection, since it has great significance to me, because it was one of his favorite possessions and when he passed away he made sure that me and my brother would continue to collect coins, and to this day we always make sure to collect all special coins like the Rio 2016 Olympics ones and coins from countries all around the world, and just the thought of losing it is devastating, since I feel like I would be losing my memories of my grandfather.

And those are the objects and the reasons why I would save those determined things in my house fire.