Homeless Kid Hoping Teacher Doesn’t Ask For ‘How I Spent My Summer Holiday’ Essay
ALTHOUGH Dublin pupil Will Keelan is delighted to be heading back to school after a long summer of wandering around during the day because he’s not allowed stay in the hotel room, he does have some concerns over how he’ll tackle the dreaded ‘how I spent my summer holiday’ essay.
“It’s great to have somewhere to go during the day, to be able to say okay, I’m going to be here from 8.30am until 3.30am,” said Will, “instead of just ambling around town killing time until the hotel opens again. But that’s where the good times at school end; what am I going to write on my holiday essay? ‘Oh, this summer me and my family got kicked out of our flat after the landlord told us he needed to let his brother who had just come home from Australia stay in it, and that was us pretty much fucked’?”.
Like all his classmates, Keelan has other concerns about the new school year, but his mostly revolve around how long his family will be waiting on the housing list to get a place they can stay that isn’t just a hotel room that doubles as a kitchen and launderette, as well as a fear that his classmates will notice that he’s wearing the same shoes he was wearing before the summer.
“I think the thing to do is maybe just lie,” mused Will, barely concentrating on his copybook.
“So say that everything is fine, we didn’t get priced out of the rental market and dumped into the social housing system and forgotten… yeah, we actually went to Tramore for two weeks in the summer. It was lovely. The weather was nice. Mam smiled all the time and I didn’t have to listen to her crying at night at the other end of the bed. We have a garden. I didn’t have to get three busses to get here because our hotel is on the far side of the city. I don’t have to get up at 6 every morning. It was a good holiday. I wish it could have lasted forever”.
UPDATE: Will has made it through the day without having to write an essay, but has stated that being given ‘homework’ is just taking the piss.