The Abandoned Wal-Mart
Growing up in Crystal Lake, Illinois is a peculiar thing. There’s just not a whole lot to do especially before you or one of your friends gets a driver’s license, and even when that happens, the most exciting thing to do is to leave town. The summers had a tendency of being both great and boring at the same time. Great because you didn’t have school and boring because now you have all the time in the world and nothing to do with it. When my friends and I were young, we would always ride around on our bikes looking for something to do. On occasion we would hit up a fast food joint and hang out there for way too long because what else was there to do? Well, one fateful day, that question got answered.
Luckily for me, almost all of my friends lived in my neighborhood. I’ve been friends with the same group of guys since the years that my Mom was our Tee ball coach for the neighborhoods little league team. These friends of mine are Matt, Brandon, and Loco. Loco got this nickname by being crazy in all best ways. These three were like brothers to me. We hung out almost every day so our bond as a group was very strong. As we grew older, this group expanded. Middle School brought us our two new friends Zach and Falan. Shortly after this friendship was made, I realized that these two had a knack for finding fun, whether it was safe or not.
From sixth grade on, these were my people. We hung out all the time and we had a big influence on each other’s lives. No matter the circumstances, we were almost always able to scheme up something fun to do even in the half boring Crystal Lake summers. Our stupid and pre-pubescent brains could always come up with a solution to our boredom. So, when the summer going into 8th grade came around, we were once again tasked with the problem of solving our boredom for the next three months. It was a bright and sunny afternoon when I got a text from Matt who was always trying to get people together.
Matt: “Yo r u free?”
Thomas: “Yeah whats up”
Matt: “Me and brandon are chillin at my house come over”
Thomas: “Sounds good”
I hopped on my bike and rode a block down the street, took a right turn and there I was. I laid my bike down gently in the grass next to Brandon’s because my kick stand was broken and rang the doorbell. I was greeted by Matt and we went down to his basement where we played some video games for a while. He then informed us that Zach and Falan were on their way over. Probably about half an hour later, Zach and Falan hustled down the basement steps with incredible news to share.
“You guys aren’t gonna believe this.” Zach and Falan said.
“What is it?” We asked.
“We were biking around earlier, and we came across that old Wal-Mart by GameStop on Route 14” Falan said with a devilish grin.
“Yeah and?” Matt asked.
“Guys, it’s totally abandoned and guess what?” Falan implored.
“What?” We asked with anticipation.
“If you go around to the side, there’s a door you can walk in and it’s so cool! There’s all this spooky graffiti and there’s broken glass everywhere. You can even get on the roof!” Falan said with joy.
“Yeah okay guys ha ha funny joke,” Brandon said sarcastically.
“No we’re for real!” They assured.
“Wait isn’t that like trespassing? You could get in trouble for that…” I asked.
“No one’s gonna see us bro. Y’all gotta see it, it’s awesome.” Zach assured me.
The next day came around, and after filling in Loco who agreed without a second thought, it was time to bike over to the abandoned Wal-Mart and see what the big deal was. We met up at the park in our neighborhood and biked on over. I was shaking with nervousness because my parents were strict and I wanted no business being in trouble with them, however my curiosity prevailed. When we arrived, I was constantly looking over my shoulder for any pedestrians who would maybe call the cops on us, but we were in the clear. We quickly tried to hide our bikes in a bush and Zach and Falan led the way inside. We entered into a narrow hallway and had to maneuver over assorted debris and avoid stepping on broken glass. At the end of the hallway, there was the main open room of the once glorious Wal-Mart. It was almost pitch black with nothing but the natural light coming in from the boarded-up glass doors up front and our phones flashlights. I looked towards Matt bright blue kicks and my eyes were met with a massive blood red pentagram. I was dumb founded. This was the coolest, scariest and most dangerous thing I had ever done in my short life. After carefully walking around for a while, I convinced the group that it was time to head out because I was awfully scared of both getting in trouble and being met with some unwanted company. I didn’t want to be around if the makers of that pentagram came back. They were hesitant, but eventually agreed with my reasoning, and we headed home. However, the boredom hit again the next day. We were out and about on our bikes yet again when Zach, Matt, and Loco pleaded that we go back to the abandoned Wal-Mart. Brandon, Falan, and I were heavily against that idea because we figured a third time in a row was a little too risky. “The third times the charm and not in a good way” Brandon joked. However, we couldn’t convince them. The boredom got the best of them and they decided to go. Before they left, we told them to meet back with us at Wendy’s. About an hour later, the three of us were hanging out in Wendy’s when suddenly, my phone buzzed.
Loco: “We’re fucked”
Thomas: “Why what happened???”
No response. I tried calling all three of them. No response. We were scared for them but at the same time we had a pinch of that “I told you so” feeling. After waiting for about half an hour before I decided that we should just go home and hopefully they would fill us in. That night, they told us about how scared they were when they saw the flashlights and heard the voices of the two middle aged men. They trembled as they heard the footsteps echo off the walls of a run-down establishment that once bustled with life. It was at this point that Loco had frantically sent me the text. Who was behind those voices? Were my friends in danger? No. It was the cops. Luckily, they weren’t in much trouble with the police, but boy, am I glad that I avoided that grounding from my parents because I don’t think I would have been able to hang out with them again. This taught me to always know my limits and to not let boredom get the best of me. Six years later, we can all laugh and reminisce over those three crazy days where half of our little squad almost got arrested.
Reflection
For this assignment, we had to write a story about something that we experienced in our lives. My writing process for this essay was interesting. I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to write my story about until about two hours before the first rough draft was due. Then it hit me, and I just typed the entire thing without any real purpose in mind except to get that story into writing. The student conference was a big help for me, it really pointed me in the right direction. The first revision is always a big one for me and this essay was no exception. I hadn't written an actual story in a long time so I had a lot to do. I got rid of any unnecessary details that weren't important to the story while also adding important details where they needed to be. Then I worked on the structure a little to try and make sure it was cohesive. After that, I read it out loud to myself to get rid of sloppy and awkward sentences. For the second revision, I went back and tried to add more descriptive and sensory language in an attempt to show the audience rather than tell them. After peer revisions, I used their feedback to clean up little grammar things and to add in more descriptive language which was very helpful. Overall, this essay showed me a lot about myself as a writer. It proved to me that I can get in a groove when it comes to writing. I never thought that I would be able to have the patience to sit down and type over a thousand words in a few hours for a rough draft. This was actually super helpful because I had the whole story in front of me and I could just tweak things from there instead of worrying about finishing the story.
Growing up in Crystal Lake, Illinois is a peculiar thing. There’s just not a whole lot to do especially before you or one of your friends gets a driver’s license, and even when that happens, the most exciting thing to do is to leave town. The summers had a tendency of being both great and boring at the same time. Great because you didn’t have school and boring because now you have all the time in the world and nothing to do with it. When my friends and I were young, we would always ride around on our bikes looking for something to do. On occasion we would hit up a fast food joint and hang out there for way too long because what else was there to do? Well, one fateful day, that question got answered.
Luckily for me, almost all of my friends lived in my neighborhood. I’ve been friends with the same group of guys since the years that my Mom was our Tee ball coach for the neighborhoods little league team. These friends of mine are Matt, Brandon, and Loco. Loco got this nickname by being crazy in all best ways. These three were like brothers to me. We hung out almost every day so our bond as a group was very strong. As we grew older, this group expanded. Middle School brought us our two new friends Zach and Falan. Shortly after this friendship was made, I realized that these two had a knack for finding fun, whether it was safe or not.
From sixth grade on, these were my people. We hung out all the time and we had a big influence on each other’s lives. No matter the circumstances, we were almost always able to scheme up something fun to do even in the half boring Crystal Lake summers. Our stupid and pre-pubescent brains could always come up with a solution to our boredom. So, when the summer going into 8th grade came around, we were once again tasked with the problem of solving our boredom for the next three months. It was a bright and sunny afternoon when I got a text from Matt who was always trying to get people together.
Matt: “Yo r u free?”
Thomas: “Yeah whats up”
Matt: “Me and brandon are chillin at my house come over”
Thomas: “Sounds good”
I hopped on my bike and rode a block down the street, took a right turn and there I was. I laid my bike down gently in the grass next to Brandon’s because my kick stand was broken and rang the doorbell. I was greeted by Matt and we went down to his basement where we played some video games for a while. He then informed us that Zach and Falan were on their way over. Probably about half an hour later, Zach and Falan hustled down the basement steps with incredible news to share.
“You guys aren’t gonna believe this.” Zach and Falan said.
“What is it?” We asked.
“We were biking around earlier, and we came across that old Wal-Mart by GameStop on Route 14” Falan said with a devilish grin.
“Yeah and?” Matt asked.
“Guys, it’s totally abandoned and guess what?” Falan implored.
“What?” We asked with anticipation.
“If you go around to the side, there’s a door you can walk in and it’s so cool! There’s all this spooky graffiti and there’s broken glass everywhere. You can even get on the roof!” Falan said with joy.
“Yeah okay guys ha ha funny joke,” Brandon said sarcastically.
“No we’re for real!” They assured.
“Wait isn’t that like trespassing? You could get in trouble for that…” I asked.
“No one’s gonna see us bro. Y’all gotta see it, it’s awesome.” Zach assured me.
The next day came around, and after filling in Loco who agreed without a second thought, it was time to bike over to the abandoned Wal-Mart and see what the big deal was. We met up at the park in our neighborhood and biked on over. I was shaking with nervousness because my parents were strict and I wanted no business being in trouble with them, however my curiosity prevailed. When we arrived, I was constantly looking over my shoulder for any pedestrians who would maybe call the cops on us, but we were in the clear. We quickly tried to hide our bikes in a bush and Zach and Falan led the way inside. We entered into a narrow hallway and had to maneuver over assorted debris and avoid stepping on broken glass. At the end of the hallway, there was the main open room of the once glorious Wal-Mart. It was almost pitch black with nothing but the natural light coming in from the boarded-up glass doors up front and our phones flashlights. I looked towards Matt bright blue kicks and my eyes were met with a massive blood red pentagram. I was dumb founded. This was the coolest, scariest and most dangerous thing I had ever done in my short life. After carefully walking around for a while, I convinced the group that it was time to head out because I was awfully scared of both getting in trouble and being met with some unwanted company. I didn’t want to be around if the makers of that pentagram came back. They were hesitant, but eventually agreed with my reasoning, and we headed home. However, the boredom hit again the next day. We were out and about on our bikes yet again when Zach, Matt, and Loco pleaded that we go back to the abandoned Wal-Mart. Brandon, Falan, and I were heavily against that idea because we figured a third time in a row was a little too risky. “The third times the charm and not in a good way” Brandon joked. However, we couldn’t convince them. The boredom got the best of them and they decided to go. Before they left, we told them to meet back with us at Wendy’s. About an hour later, the three of us were hanging out in Wendy’s when suddenly, my phone buzzed.
Loco: “We’re fucked”
Thomas: “Why what happened???”
No response. I tried calling all three of them. No response. We were scared for them but at the same time we had a pinch of that “I told you so” feeling. After waiting for about half an hour before I decided that we should just go home and hopefully they would fill us in. That night, they told us about how scared they were when they saw the flashlights and heard the voices of the two middle aged men. They trembled as they heard the footsteps echo off the walls of a run-down establishment that once bustled with life. It was at this point that Loco had frantically sent me the text. Who was behind those voices? Were my friends in danger? No. It was the cops. Luckily, they weren’t in much trouble with the police, but boy, am I glad that I avoided that grounding from my parents because I don’t think I would have been able to hang out with them again. This taught me to always know my limits and to not let boredom get the best of me. Six years later, we can all laugh and reminisce over those three crazy days where half of our little squad almost got arrested.
Reflection
For this assignment, we had to write a story about something that we experienced in our lives. My writing process for this essay was interesting. I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to write my story about until about two hours before the first rough draft was due. Then it hit me, and I just typed the entire thing without any real purpose in mind except to get that story into writing. The student conference was a big help for me, it really pointed me in the right direction. The first revision is always a big one for me and this essay was no exception. I hadn't written an actual story in a long time so I had a lot to do. I got rid of any unnecessary details that weren't important to the story while also adding important details where they needed to be. Then I worked on the structure a little to try and make sure it was cohesive. After that, I read it out loud to myself to get rid of sloppy and awkward sentences. For the second revision, I went back and tried to add more descriptive and sensory language in an attempt to show the audience rather than tell them. After peer revisions, I used their feedback to clean up little grammar things and to add in more descriptive language which was very helpful. Overall, this essay showed me a lot about myself as a writer. It proved to me that I can get in a groove when it comes to writing. I never thought that I would be able to have the patience to sit down and type over a thousand words in a few hours for a rough draft. This was actually super helpful because I had the whole story in front of me and I could just tweak things from there instead of worrying about finishing the story.