Genre Portfolio I--2 Pages from the Diary of an Only Child

I. Blog/Diary
2 Pages from the Diary of an Only Child
http://anna9.sulekha.com/blog/post/2007/10/2-pages-from-the-dairy-of-an-only-child.htm

This diary talked about some of her feelings of being a “lone chicken”—the only child in a family. I am a “lone chicken” also, so my situation is similar to the author’s; however, due to the policies in China, most of my peers are “lone chickens”, so my story is a little bit different from hers. In this diary, the author talked a lot about how the others, the adults and the peers, treated her and her feelings about that special kind of treatment. 

After reading this diary, I could not help compare the author and myself. The author is quite clear about the advantages of being the only child. She expressed her opinion through her father’s words. It is true that being the only child, we get all the resources, attention and love our parents can offer. We have parents around us at home and we have friends outside, we are not alone actually. What is even greater, we can get a quiet room whenever we want, need not to worry about an annoying brother or sister. 

It is not hard to find the advantages of being the only child, but most of my friends including me, would choose to have several brothers and sisters if we could. The author did not feel like to be sympathized by the others because of being the only child and felt confused about whether the attention a boy showered on her was because of love or sympathy. It is a totally different story in China, nobody will sympathize you because you are the only child. We do not have the author’s problems, but we have our own annoyance. Brought up by parents or grandparents, we are used to getting whatever we want without difficulties; so when we grow up, most people are somewhat selfish and do not know how to take care of the others. Many of my friends have complained about not having a sibling to share some secrets that can only be shared with those who can understand as they were you and will never betray you. Friendship cannot replace sib ship sometimes. No matter how close you are to a friend; you will never know exactly how close he or she is to you. So we feel lonely even when we are not alone. Another disadvantage of being the “lone chicken” is having much responsibility to parents and relatives. Having only one child, giving the child all they have, the parents naturally think that their child should be the best; but the truth is, there must be most ordinary ones. I am living my own life as well as my parents’. 

Though there are many disadvantages of being the only child, we did work out our special way of growing up safely and soundly.