My name is Miage Yuna. I am an only child of the Miage family. I have a father and a mother who love me so much and treat me dearly and lovingly. When I was 3 years old, my mom gave birth to my little sister. Her name was Miage Yuki.

  At age four, I've already helped my mom take care of my baby sister. She was so happy cause I was such a good older sister for Yuki.

  At age five, I learned to cook. I simply made two fried eggs in a pan. My mom and dad were very proud of me. They bought me a chocolate cake as a celebration. I share my chocolate cake with Yuki, and my parents compliment me for that as well.

  The four of us would also go on trips during long vacations. One time we went to a beach and played volleyball in the shallow sea, but only with my dad because my mom had to take care of and keep watching Yuki because she was too young to be left alone. I also ride on a banana boat with my dad. I love every second of it. The two of us also went paragliding high in the air, although there was a guide with us, it was one of the most unforgettable moments in my early life.

  At age six, I drew my first drawing. I drew myself, Yuki, mom, and dad. Together we are a happy family. I showed my drawing to my parents. They were surprised at how good the drawing was, given how young I was. They bought me chocolate pancakes as a reward.

  There was a day when we went to a themed park with video game characters as the theme. My dad told me he was quite a gamer back in his day, and played a lot of retro games. Although the themed park we went to was mostly about video games of my time, I still had fun with my family.

  There were so many unique rides in the park to mimic some stuff from their respective video games. We went to a rollercoaster one, but it's all in VR. It was such a weird but fun experience. We went to a shooting simulator, where we were led to a closed, wide room. And then we would wear VR goggles again while holding a game controller shaped like a gun. We were tasked to kill zombies and survive as long as we could. It was one of the best times of my life with my family. Although Mom and Yuki didn't play with us because, again, Yuki was too young for this.

  At age seven, I rode a bike for the first time at a nearby public park. My dad rented the bike and said he'll buy me a bike if I can ride it properly. I showed my dad that I successfully learned to ride a bike. Afterwards, he bought me a bike of my choice. It was a yellow bike because yellow is my favorite color. I love my dad so much.

  There was a whole week when we went to a private island that my dad rented. It was one of the most unforgettable moments in my life. On the island, there are guides for us as they instruct us in any activity on the island for a whole week.

  Now that Yuki is old enough, I also have fun with her. We would play at the beach near the small hotel where we stayed. The hotel was so small that it could only be occupied by 5 families at max, but at the time, there were no other guests but us.

  Yuki and I would build sand castles, and we would ask Mom and Dad to rate which one was the better sand castles. Mom voted for me, but Dad voted for Yuki, so it was a draw.

  The four of us would play simple beach volleyball, where all we have to do is pass the ball to someone else as long as we can without the ball ever touching the sand. We didn't use a real volleyball as that would be dangerous to me and Yuki, so the staff swapped it out with a balloon filled with enough water so it won't fly high if we hit it hard, yet it won't fall fast either, so we don't harm our hands hitting it. We have so much fun passing the ball for 12 minutes consecutively that the only reason we fall is because I slip and fall on the sand.

  And then we would ride a private boat towards the middle of the ocean, but not too far from the island we were staying on. We were equipped with swimwear and a simple underwater mask and goggles because the next activity was snorkeling in shallow water, only about 4 meters deep.

  I dived in together with Yuki and we saw the most beautiful coral reefs of our lives with small and pretty colored fishes swimming in between those corals. We were in awe of the natural beauty of the ocean. My dad and mom dived in as well and joined us.

  The four of us went sightseeing a little bit below the water surface. We saw a group of small turtles swim right by the four of us. We would stay still as they all swam around all of us, and it was the most adorable and precious experience ever in my life.

  We saw a giant manta ray approaching us, and we were terrified at first, but the guide and staff told us that it is completely harmless to humans. It seems like we mixed up manta rays with sting rays, the species with actual venomous stingers on their tails. We would stay still under the water while the giant manta ray swam past near all of us with no incident whatsoever. Afterwards, we were so grateful for the experience because the guide told us that it is so rare to see a manta ray swim so close to humans.

  We climbed back to the boat and the boat took us to another location, this time to a shark-infested water. My mom and I were a little bit scared, but the guide calmed us down that this type of shark is small and it would not view human beings as food because we are so much bigger than them. We all jumped down towards the water at the same time. It didn't take long until we were all surrounded by sharks. The guides were correct; they were all smaller than Mom and Dad, and some of the sharks were even smaller than Yuki. The sharks swam around us while we also kept swimming under the surface of the water. It was such a magical experience to be able to swim amongst sharks that I never would have dreamed of before.

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  Afterwards, the guide led us back to the boat, and it was time to return to our hotel. On the way back, the guide told us that they took photos of us while underwater. We all looked at how the photos turned out, and they were all amazing. But then, all of a sudden, the guide interrupted us to inform us that there is a whale quite a distance from our boat. We all looked very carefully after squinting hard, and we finally noticed the whale with its upper body barely surfacing on the water. That was yet another amazing moment in my life. This whole trip quickly became one of my favorite moments of my entire life. And this is only the first day.

  On the next days until the trip is over, we were bombarded with so many surprises and one-of-a-kind experiences non-stop that we were all overloaded with joy and gratitude. We will never forget this trip for the rest of our lives.

  And then I entered elementary school. When we had our first test, I got an 8 on my school tests. I showed it to my mom, and her reaction was so happy and joyous, even more so than when we were on that private island trip. She even baked me a black forest chocolate cake during dinner to celebrate because of how happy she was. This moment has determined me to always get good grades and has made my mother happy. Because I love my mother so much, I always wanted to see her smile.

  I also showed my test score to my dad, and he also made the same happy smile as my mom. I love my dad, and I hope I can always make him smile with my school grades. I kept showing my test scores to my mom and dad throughout my school years. Their smiles motivated me to always do my best in school.

  And then Yuki went to elementary school as well when I was in grade 3.

  When Yuki had her first school test, she aced it and got a perfect score. She showed it to my mom, and she complimented her on how smart she is, even surpassing me. Yuki loves the compliment that from that day she has always given her best on exams and tests. I felt motivated because I felt like I had a rival. I also want to keep making Mom and Dad happy with my exam scores.

  In grade 6, on my final exams, I got 7 as my final score. I showed it to my mom and told her that I will try better next time. My mom only smiled at me and said, "Good job!". Her smile looked different than usual. It's a bit off from the smiles I usually get.

  But then my sister showed her class advancement exams, and she got a 9. My mom was so happy that she told Dad to take us to an aquarium on the weekend. Yuki and I were so happy experiencing our aquarium visits for the first time.

  We went to the river's water sections first. We saw so many different fish that it reminded us of our time back at the private island. But when we went to the ocean fish sections, we were astonished at how different and colorful a lot of saltwater fish are. The blue ones, the yellow ones, the orange ones, the red ones, the green ones, the black ones, and the white ones, they were all so pretty and complemented each other on top of the fact that the aquarium was designed to mimic the ocean floor. It was so mesmerizing, it felt like we were swimming on the ocean floor.

  When we went to the deep water sections, there were so many weird and unusual fish that I asked my dad if these were real fish or handmade. My dad points to the information display located on each water tank that contains all of the information about all the fish and the environment surrounding them in each tank. I was half convinced that they are all real fish because they just look so different, like they're aliens.

  Yuki saw one of the deep-sea fish and fell in love with the one named 'blobfish'. But the fish wasn't in any of the tanks; it was simply available in one of the information displays. It was a cute, slimy, pink fish with a big nose and big, frowning lips with a cute and tiny pair of eyes. But not even five minutes later, she found out that the specific image of the blobfish she saw was a deformed version as a result of being pulled so fast from its habitat in deep waters to the shallow waters on the surface. The difference in water pressure transformed blobfish into the slimy pink creature that Yuki fell in love with. And with that, Yuki has her first heartbreak because the cute slimy pink 'blobfish' was never a real fish.

  And then we enjoyed the rest of the aquarium, and we also realized that we as a family really love aquatic creatures. We would all laugh and be joyous about our similarity. We end the day by eating seafood as dinner. We also realized that even though we love seeing aquatic creatures, eating them is equally our favorite. We laughed again at our contradictory love towards aquatic creatures.

  I will always love my family. My dad, my mom, and my little sister, I love them all.

  But then things slowly changed as I grew older. When I was in middle school, I got a 5 on my test. I was feeling so down because of it. Then I showed it to my mom, and for the first time in my life, my mom shouted at me.

  "WHAT ARE YOU DOING, YUNA? YOU SHOULD STUDY MORE! THIS SCORE IS UNACCEPTABLE!!"

  I felt so scared for the first time in my life towards my own mother. I ran into my room the moment she shouted at me with my test score crumpled in my hands.

  Who was that? I don't know who that was. My mom never shouted at me. When I made mistakes, she was always so gentle and properly scolded me so I could learn from it. But there's nothing that I could gain from what she said to me.

  Should I study more? But I did. The test was just too hard for me. I couldn't grasp what the questions wanted me to do. I did study a lot. I never slack off on my studies. Because I still felt the same way, I wanted to always see my mom smile with my test scores. Her shout changes something in me. It was something I didn't want to acknowledge. It was something that kept growing little by little, yet constantly, for years to come.

  I locked myself in my room for a while until my mom's anger faded away. Two hours later, I came out of my room and I apologized to my mother about my score test. But then she showed me Yuki's score test with a 9 score. "This is how my daughter's scores are supposed to be!" is what she said. And then she turned away and didn't say anything anymore to me.

  I felt a sting in my heart. Like a really thin needle just went through my chest. I felt down, but at the same time, I wanna keep myself motivated. I will study more and more. I will never forget the feeling of seeing my mother's smile with my test scores.

  I went to my room and I straightened my failed exam score. I tried to analyze every answer I got wrong. I also study topics that will be discussed in school tomorrow. I wanna change how I do things at school.