Explain/Describe a Significant Experience you Have Had

How does one handle leaving everything that they are used to? One day it is all there but in seconds it seems to disappear. I never imagined myself living in a “rental” never the less spending Christmas at one. A rental is something that is temporary right? What about the emotions that something temporary brings- do they always stay with you? The first Christmas my family and I celebrated when we moved from New York to the Jersey Shore was spent in a winter rental home. Never would I have thought that Christmas at our rental would change my life and open my eyes to what was truly important in life.

I thought it was selfish of my parents to “force us” to move to small town USA and resented the fact that I really had no say in the matter. To top it all off, our first Christmas away from “home” was being spent in a rental! Located at 564 Salmon Avenue in Manasquan, New Jersey, the winter rental was my home for seven months. But it was in that rental that I first realized how much I truly needed my family. Christmas in our “old” house was celebrated very traditionally. Each year the totes of decorations which had been passed down for generations

were unwrapped and carefully put out on display while it was almost an honor to be the one to set my grandparents’ Nativity set.

As the morning continued the bonds we shared as a whole became more evident. “Smile for the camera” was still the familiar saying my dad used while filming my brother and me with the video camera. Another tradition that was carried on that morning was the “scavenger hunt” which was a fun way for my parents to send my brother and me on a challenging hunt around the house to search for our larger and more expensive gifts. I had to admit that I did find myself laughing while I searched the laundry room for my Tiffany’s bracelet, but deep down inside I was happy that my parents continued such a heartfelt ritual. Laughter was also heard throughout the rental as we casually joked about the condition of our “Charlie Brown” tree and commented on the cheap fuzzy stockings hanging over the fireplace that Mom had bought on sale from Eckerd the night before. (Our “real” stockings were in storage of course, and Mom refused to buy expensive ones to replace them). As we all sat around the torn wrapping paper and broken boxes spread across the floor, it was in that moment that I learned a valuable life lesson-

Some topics in this essay:
Christmas Seeing, Moreover Christmas, Manasquan Jersey, Jersey Shore, , rental home, christmas rental, throughout rental, winter rental home, winter rental,