IELTS Cue Card Sample 21 – A positive change in your life

Sample  Answer:

You have asked me to think back on some change I’ve made in my life, that turned out to be one for the better! I am going to tell you what the change was and when it happened. I’ll give you a bit of detail about how things were different for me after the change and finish by describing what it means for me now, a bit later in life. The funny thing about changes is that you don’t always recognise them at the time. For me, I didn’t know when I started out that the positive change I was making would turn out to be a long term difference in my behaviour. However, it turned out to be just that. It is only looking back now that I can identify there was a definite shift in what I got up to, and I can even pinpoint a definite time, but in the midst of it all, I had no idea where that change would take me

The change was basically that I decided I needed to get a bit fitter, and the thing that helped me do so was joining up to do Parkrun. However, I’m jumping ahead. Let me explain how it came about… A couple of years ago I started to feel like I was getting old and losing my basic fitness. Although I walked quite a lot (as a form of transport, as well as to enjoy the local countryside) I wasn’t really doing anything else very much that was physical. I was never very good at sports, so I didn’t really know where to begin. However, I’ve always liked being outdoors, so on something of a whim I booked an activity holiday in Northumberland, which is a beautiful rural area in the north east of England, right by the coast. The holiday was great. We did abseiling; hill walking; body-surfing – all sorts of things. In addition, every morning began with a run along the sands of the seaside. Now I’d never run before – well only if I was trying to catch a bus, but otherwise, not at all. I wasn’t very good at it, and honestly, I didn’t even really enjoy it all that much. However, I did have to concede that it is a great form of exercise. You don’t really need any special equipment (apart from decent trainers); you can do it anywhere and it’s free! What’s more, I found out from some other holiday makers that in the UK there is a free weekly event held nationwide in parks all over the country. It is called Parkrun, and basically people gather every Saturday morning at 9.00 a.m. to run a fixed course of 5km and get a time for doing so. I wasn’t too sure if this would be achievable for me. I’d never run that far before. But I promised myself I would try it ‘just once’ to see if I could

The day after I got back from my holiday I turned up to do the Parkrun at my local park. I can tell you the exact day! It was 24th August 2013 – I know this because the whole point of Parkrun is that if you register (which is free) then the organisation records your time each week and you can access it online afterwards. The first time I went I didn’t even manage to run the whole way round, but I did finish, and I did get a great sense of achievement. Because you know your time, it is quite addictive, you find you do want to go again the next week and see if you can improve! My local parkrun is huge, with well over 500 runners taking part every week – so even though I was pretty slow, I found I wasn’t the slowest

Since that day over two years ago, I’ve found that I’ve gone to Parkrun almost every week. I have taken part in some 70 parkruns, and through doing so made new friends, maintained a certain level of fitness, and even gained the confidence to take part in some longer runs. I’ve done lots of 10km races now, a few off-road runs – including one over 24km as well as taken part in obstacle races! I would never have believed that the small change of ‘just going once’ to Parkrun to ‘give it a go’ would lead to me being such an enthusiastic member of Parkrun two years later. By the way, I haven’t really ever got any faster, but I’m definitely a lot fitter. Now I can’t imagine a Saturday morning without heading off for a run with my 500 friends at the local park! That first day I turned up nervously to join in with Parkrun was definitely the beginning of a positive change in my life