The first time

Nicholas Brands Smit

I remember not really caring too much about New Years but then again nobody can blame me if it took place like this every single year,

7:00 wake up

8:00AM-3:00PM play Ps2

3:30-6:00 swim

7:00 eat

9:00 to sleep

1:00 WATCH FIREWORKS (my brother would hide from the noise)

Sounds pretty boring, doesn’t it? You know why? Because it was boring, for us it was just another day, except the next day the world would be in a new year, that’s all. That changed when we came to Panama.

"God I wish Evert was here” I thought. I was surrounded by strangers, and my brother the sloth head had ditched the party to sleep, the only person I knew was Alex and even he seemed uneasy, he was with a group of kids who looked around my age or a bit older but I felt too shy to move. Someone poked me in the back, I spun around to see a boy I recognized from my grade holding a lighter and a huge chain of explosives, a wide grin on his face.

“Can I watch?” I blurted out. He laughed and said sternly “no!” I was about to let out a deep sigh when he said “but you can light one.” My face lit up as he handed me the tools of destruction (AKA Lighter and fireworks).

Now if you ever catch me saying my first firework light up was a great one, I’m lying, I half threw it half dropped it as I realized I had lit it on the much shorter end. The mess caused some amusement so I was called over with Alex and the kid who gave me the chain to tell the teens and the others what happened. Turns out this was for the better because by the end of the New Years Eve we were all playing as one big group.

This changed me, I the shy boy I once had been evaporated as I was placed in a large group. After being in Brazil for so long where we had only 3 or 4 people as friends I had to change a bit. I became more social and began talking a lot more which meant I got more friends and unfortunately some enemies.