ELI student's essay: Finding My First Love

ELI student: Gina Herrera  

Student from Colombia

                                            

Finding My First Love

It was September 15, 2012 the day that I found my first dog on the street. I had been walking by that park around 20 minutes while I waited for my friend, and in the pasture the smallest dog cropped up right in from of me. I glanced around the park, and nobody was around. Immediately I thought that I had to bring him with me because he was drenched, alone, really dirty and in need of rescue by someone.

I arrived at home and I realized that was a female dog, my first dog. The next day I named her Lola and I was so happy because I felt the placidity of rescuing someone’s life, this small life. For many people she could be an insignificant life, but I have been loving animals (especially dogs) since I was very little, so it was a feeling that you cannot even name; you feel the happiness and satisfaction going into your body, crossing everywhere. Feeling her body in my arms, small, furry and soft as cotton, with a white spot on her chest. Those big dark green eyes looking at me with all the tenderness and love that nobody can imagine, her little wet nose in the shape of a heart and her tail moving from side to side. I figured out that every place that I would visit with Lola will always be my favorite.

 A couple of weeks after that day, I went to a park in Bogota called Simon Bolivar to play with her. Seated there seeing in the shadows of those big trees in the lake, feeling the warm and soft wind on my face, my adorable Lola trying to run everywhere with her small paws, hearing the laugh of the children playing, the ducks swimming in the lake with a blue and immense sky on everything, I could feel like I was in an igloo. Immediately I thought that this sky was the most amazing part of that view and that against the indelible blue sky with white clouds, everybody and everything is small and insignificant.

 With that picture in front, I thought that day that that small spot on the grass under that incredible sky, in front of that amazing view, would be my favorite place ever. However, through time I found out that it doesn’t matter how beautiful and peaceful a place is, the feeling of the perfect and favorite place is only going to be if we have a dog next to us.  

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The students' essays are entirely prepared by ELI students during the semester term they spend studying at the English Language Institute (ELI) at the College of Staten Island/CUNY.

They prepare this academic work while having classes of grammar, reading and writing, communications, and TOEFL preparation workshops, with the supervision of their ELI teachers. Topics are chosen by ELI students and they reflect personal points of view of the topics selected and facts and information researched by them.

ELI students dedicate time to make the best articles and carefully prepare their essays in and outside class. All ELI students participate, from beginning to advanced level. ELI wants to show their work considering their English level in order to become an academic tool for future English-learning students.

Most of all, ELI wants to show content related to topics students may have experienced while studying English in New York, an important topic in their home country, a current issue, or any other topic they decided to write about.

ELI is very proud of the academic work that represents the outcomes of each student, who not only learns English as a language but also is capable of expressing meaningful content-based language.

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English Language Institute

College of Staten Island
elistudy@csi.cuny.edu

www.csi.cuny.edu/campus-life/student-services/center-global-engagement/english-language-institute