Ms. Shimizu's Writing Portfolio

Current Publishing

“Flight 823, to Busan, Korea is at Gate 23.” I could barely hear this announcement over the intercom because there were so many people selling things outside of the airport. They were selling bags, magnets, art, and even dried mangos. I love mangos, but usually, they are so expensive in the store (like $5 for a small bag) that I only buy them on special occasions. But as we were going into the airport the mango stand caught my eye. The vendor was selling mangos for $5 for a HUGE bag. He said, "These dried mangos are delicious, fresh, and made with mangos from my own family's mango orchard." Always looking for a good deal, I said the the vendor “I’ll take two.” He put them into a plastic bag, I handed him $10, and I proceeded to go into the airport. But now, we had two gigantic bags of mangos and we had to figure out a way to get them home. I threw the contents of my suitcase out on to the airport floor and flung it open my bathing suits and sunhats were exploding out of the bag, but I was determined to make room for these mangos. So I put them into my suitcase, closed it, and sat on top, and squeezed the zipper together to make sure it would close. “ZZZZZZZip!” Finally, the whole bag was resealed with my beloved mangos inside. The next day was spent traveling. A few hours on a crowded plane, then a crowded bus, then a crowded taxi, until we made it back to our front door. I was so exhausted all I wanted was to relax in front of the tv and eat some of those delicious mangos. I laid on the couch, turned on my apple TV to get ready to watch Bake off while eating my favorite snack, but when I went to take a bite I was not met with the sweet juicy flavor of a mango, but the rubbery flavor of bad candy. “It must just be that piece” I thought to myself. So I tried another and another and they all tasted horrible. I stood up in a panic and turned on the light to inspect these mangos and that’s when I realized, these were not real dried mangos, they were fake! All the pieces looked exactly the same like they were made by a machine, not like they were cut from a fresh piece of fruit. That day I really learned that some things are too good to be true.

Previous Publishing

Tuxedo T-Shirt

I was so mad. It was my birthday and I was lugging 2 huge bags of groceries up 3 flights of stairs. “Chris should be doing this,” I thought to myself. When I got inside, Chris was just sitting there like he was a baby, incapable of helping me with the groceries. Still annoyed, I went to the kitchen and started hurling the cans into the cupboard, making as much noise as I could so Chris would understand how mad I was. To my surprise, this was not working. He was still just sitting there, watching me. After a few minutes, when I finished putting all the vegetables and fruits into the refrigerator, Chris said, “Can you sit down?”

“What?” I said. “Are you serious? I just went to the store, bought groceries, and put them away, and you are telling me what to do?”

“Yeah, sit down I have your birthday present for you,” he said nervously.

Arms crossed, I sat down on the couch and Chris put a bunch of presents in front of me. I started to open them, and they were not the most exciting gifts in the world. He got me socks and a magnet. Needless to say, I was still annoyed. “Maybe I should break up with him” I thought to myself. “He didn’t help me with the groceries and now he gives me awful gifts.”

As all of this was running through my mind, Chris had gone to the other room and when he came out he hand changed into a Tuxedo T-shirt. Normally, I would have thought he looked cute, but I was too irritated. Then, all of the sudden, I saw him get down on one knee. For the first time, my mind went blank and from then I didn’t hear anything he said. All I remember is him opening up a box with an engagement ring and saying, “Will you marry me?”

A few weeks later, we got married, and we have been putting groceries away together ever since.