My 13th Birthday

My 13th Birthday(Adrienne Nguyen) Adrienne Nguyen
Mrs. Ham
Essay Final Draft
May 30, 2013



My 13th Birthday

Thirteenth birthday. Sounds fun right? It is finally your first year of being a teen. Well, for me, not exactly as planned. About a month before my thirteenth birthday, I was planning what I was going to do for my birthday. I wanted my birthday to start out like a regular day, and, at night, I would go to my favorite band, Big Time Rush’s, concert and I was extremely excited because Big Time Rush had a concert in San Jose on the night of my birthday. During the time I was planning everything out; my parents were planning where to go for summer vacation. I told them I wanted to have my birthday at home because Big Time Rush was having a concert. They said okay, but obviously, they weren’t listening to me. About two weeks later, my parents told my sister, my brother, and me that we were going on a cruise. I was all excited because I was going to be on the biggest cruise ship in the world. It was called the Oasis of the Seas. After looking at videos and pictures, I was even more excited. I was going to go with my family, my grandmas, my aunt, and her two kids. Finally, the bad news came. I asked my parents when we were going on the cruise. They said from July 21 to July 28. I told them I didn’t want to go because I already had plans for my birthday, which was going to the Big Time Rush concert. Obviously, I couldn’t stay home myself for a week. I completely lost interest on the trip. I was devastated that I couldn’t go to Big Time Rush’s concert. I knew my birthday was going to be completely messed up.

When the day arrived, when we arrived at the airport, I wasn’t as mad that I couldn’t go to my concert, but I was still sad that I couldn’t have my birthday back in San Jose where I could enjoy my night at a Big Time Rush concert. We arrived on the cruise dock at about noon. When I saw the boat, I was so amazed by its size. It was the biggest boat I have ever seen in my life. I was then kind of excited. At that moment, I forgot about my birthday and was happy to be on the cruise. Then, the cruise left the dock at about five o clock. At about six, there was an emergency code red drill that we had to do and it took about an hour.

The first day on the cruise was really exciting, but also confusing because I kept getting lost. That night, I was enjoying myself down at the café. I was counting down the minutes until the clock struck twelve because, once it did, I would officially be a teenager. My family, cousins, and aunt sang “Happy Birthday” and then we all headed upstairs to go to sleep. That morning was when I got sad again because I realized that Big Time Rush was playing that night back in San Jose. First, we ate breakfast at the Marketplace/Windjammer Buffet. Then we went to watch a parade on the Boardwalk. For the rest of the day, we walked around the Boardwalk and lobby, ate lunch, swam, and had fun. At night, we ate dinner at the My Time Dining. The restaurant was delicious, although we ate there every night for seven days straight. When we finished dinner, the workers of the dinner place surprised my sister and me with a chocolate cake. They sang me “Happy Birthday” and my parent’s got me some presents from the boat. I ate the cake and opened my presents. I said thank you. We had to leave the dinner place early because we had to go watch a show on the cruise. The show was a Broadway musical of Hairspray. When we entered the theatre, we sat down and enjoyed ourselves for about twenty minutes until the show started. It seemed that when the play ended, my sister and I were the only people who enjoyed the show because my cousins, aunt, parent’s, brother, and grandmas were half asleep and annoyed. I loved the show because the songs were catchy, the actors were good, and the show plot was extremely interesting. Then, we went upstairs to our rooms and were about to go to sleep. I shared a room with my brother and sister. My parents were in a room a few doors away from ours. I changed into my pajamas because I thought we were going to sleep but when my parents came to my room, they said we were going to go downstairs and walk around. I was exhausted but decided to go anyways. I changed out of my pajamas and went downstairs. We went to a café and ate pizza and sandwiches. My sister, cousin, and I went late night swimming and played mini golf. It was fun. Finally, we went back upstairs to go to sleep. When I laid down in my bed, I thought of my actual plans for my birthday. I turned extremely sad. I thought of watching Big Time Rush performing on stage and me in the front row cheering for them.

By the end of the cruise, I realized that I had a lot of fun on the boat spending time with my family and relatives. I really enjoyed being on the biggest cruise ship in the world and I had so much that I realized this was the best vacation I had ever been on. I would love to go there again sometime. Although I would have much preferred being back in San Jose watching Big Time Rush perform on stage, front row, I had a lot of fun on the cruise ship. This was the story of when my 13th birthday started out miserable but ended up being the best vacation I have ever experienced.