I always look forward to my summer holidays. In my opinion, there's nothing like the Russian countryside. We've got a small country house in a very picturesque place not far from Zagorsk. There's a river and a lake there. My friends and I often go swimming and boating there. I'm also fond of lying in the sun.There's a lot of fish in the lake, so I sometimes go fishing. I like to sit in silence for a while waiting for a fish to get caught and listening to the birds singing in the trees. When I happen to catch a fish I set it free at once, because I do fishing just for pleasure.When it's very hot I usually go to the forest. The air is cool there. I like to walk in the shade of the trees and pick mushrooms and berries. I've got a dog called Jack. He becomes so happy when I take him with me to the forest.Jack likes to run after butterflies or dragonflies. I sometimes play with him. I throw a stick and he brings it back to me.But last summer my parents decided to go to some other place for a change. They made up their minds to go to the Crimea. I think it was the greatest mistake they had ever made. This, in a nutshell, is what happened.To begin with, it was very difficult to find a place to stay. We rented a room in a house a long way from the sea. It was the only place we managed to get. It took us about half an hour to get to the beach. But it didn't matter, as it turned out a few days later. Suddenly our happy sunny days were over. It started to rain. It occasionally cleared up for a while but then the rain went on again. All we could do was to spend all our time in the cinema or in a cafe. It was impossible to leave because we had made reservations beforehand and we had to spend another week there. I had never seen so many films in my life. By the end of the week I got very tired of the cinema and I could only lie on the bed reading books or staring at the ceiling.
My name is Olya. I’m 15 years old and I study at the 10th form of the secondary school. My parents often ask me what I want to be when I grow or which profession I fancy. My answer is always the same. I want to be a writer. They are not happy with my choice but that’s what I want to do in my future. My father is a lawyer and he wants me to be like him. He says I’ve got all necessary traits of character to become a good lawyer. My mother is a designer and she thinks that I’ve got good taste to become a designer too. But I have always wanted to be a writer. As far as I remember I started writing when I was only 8. I wrote my first short poem then. When I was 10, our class teacher set us a special homework for summertime. We had to keep a summer diary and write in it what happened every day. Not everybody in the class was happy with this assignment. However, I really liked it. My diary was full of interesting events and it was chosen to be the best in the class. It was the time when I understood that I want to be a writer. After that summer I wrote many other diaries about my school life, my family and friends, my travels and picnics. At the moment I write articles for our school newspaper. Sometimes teachers ask me to write a poem or a script for school performances and my schoolmates ask me to help them with essays. People say I have an interesting style of writing and I don’t want to lose it. That’s why I think that I should be a writer. After graduating from school I’m going to study at the philological faculty of the local university. I’m sure higher education will be useful for me. There are also a lot of engaging workshops for writers. I’d like to attend one of them someday.
