Shortlisted for the High School Category of the 2019 Melbourne Writers Festival's storytelling competition 'Love & Melbourne' .
An amazing experience in Melbourne
By Jingyi Wang
Last August, I arrived in Melbourne and the first impression that the city gave me was its coldness and blue sky. I was supposed to go back to China to finish high school; however, I decided to stay in Melbourne for the last three years.
Now, I have already been in Melbourne for almost a year. During this year, I have received friendship, a part-time job and assisted lots of students during school activities. I was chosen to be a step leader, student ambassador, house captain and tutorial captain in 2019. This amazing experience happened the night after finishing my shift at McDonald’s.
Melbourne is one of the most meaningful cities to me from all around the world. The most beautiful and lovely thing about it is its people. Recently, I got a part-time job at McDonald’s so I could work after school, but after finishing my shift, I have to wait for the bus in order to get home. Sometimes it is hard to know if the bus will arrive at the stop on time however, I can check the bus’s arrival time on my phone.
Once, on a Friday night when I finished my shift, it was already nine o’clock at night. I went to the bus stop and waited for my bus for over 30 minutes. I saw a bus coming, but it was not my bus. Then I let it pass by; however, the bus changed its number to my bus after the moment that I refused it. I was so distressed and I did not know if there would be any bus coming after ten o’clock at night. I was totally freaked out at that time. Things began change when a local couple saw how upset I was. They went to my side and asked me ‘Are you okay, do you need some help?’. After discovering what was going on, they offered to give me a ride home and I had to give my address to them. While I was very glad and grateful to see that they were trying to help me, I was concerned that my situation could be dangerous while I went to their car. Eventually, I chose to refuse their help and they left. After a few seconds, the couple shook their hands to a taxi driver and walked to me. Then they said they would pay for the taxi to take me back home. I was so happy and felt extremely grateful for their behaviour. The sentence that impressed me the most was that the man said, ‘I do not want you to have any bad memories about this city’.
I love Melbourne, especially the people from Melbourne who made me feel extremely welcomed. I fell in love with Melbourne. Melbourne has the kindest people I have ever seen, and they try to help you whenever you are in trouble.
