Submitted my Tessa

Proud Moment

I will never forget the first day of 3rd grade. I looked around and it seemed like there were a thousand kids in my class. Sure enough, the school realized that something needed to change and selected several of us to move up to a 4th grade class. I was really excited, and happy to be with my friends in the new class until…we started working on Math. Little did I know you learn a TON of core Math skills in 3rd grade. Skills they just expected us to know right away now that we were technically 4th graders. To make matters worse it seemed like Math was the only subject we ever did in 4th grade. I worked as hard as a could, but I just wasn’t getting it and wound up with a B on my report card. I know, I know that doesn’t sound too bad, but for me it might as well have been an F. Maybe I should have stayed in 3rd grade after all. Something had to change. My parents and I got to work. Mommy and Daddy helped me practice my multiplication tables and division. I studied flash cards over and over until I was cross eyed! I even worked with one of my former teachers who helped me study. After that summer, our new teacher divided us into Math groups, and I realized she had placed me in the highest group! I couldn’t believe it. Was this a mistake? All my practice paid off, because it turned out I had the best grade in the class! My teacher even gave me an award for being the highest Math student! I try to remember this experience whenever I get discouraged. I wanted to give up so many times, trust me, but now I realize if I just keep working, great things can happen.

Submitted by Sydney

Don’t give up even when things get hard, or you are bored

Before I start, you should know that I am a perfectionist. So, when I was about 6 years old, I started taking piano lessons with a teacher named Ms. Porsha. I was really enjoying the piano, but we decided to take a break over the summer. When the next school year started, I went back to taking piano lessons. Now, I was 6 years old and did NOT have a good attention span. It was hard to pay attention for 30 minutes!  I slouched back on the bench, and I looked like I was about to fall off. Then, once the lesson was over, I told my mom that I wanted to quit. She told me to not quit yet and give it another week. The next week, I gave it another chance, and I loved it! 6 years later, I am still playing piano! Although, there have still been some struggles. Up until almost a year ago, I would get very frustrated if I made even one little mistake. I would play louder and faster. And even louder and faster! And even louder and faster until I couldn’t press harder. I feel bad for those keys. I told my mom that I wanted to quit, and once again, she said no. Soon after, I realized that I was spending too much time on these little mistakes. I talked with my parents, and we decided that if I get frustrated, I should just walk away and come back to it later. Now, I am doing so much better, even with the hard songs. So, I guess the lesson I learned was to not give up, even if things get hard or you are bored, because if you do, you may regret it in the future.

Submitted by Sophia

BFF Replacement

The first day of school always gives me butterflies in my stomach, and the first day of 6th grade was no different. I was feeling a little nervous but also excited to see my friends. My best friend Darielle was hilarious – always making up jokes and funny little sayings. Except, when I texted her about coming to my birthday party over the summer, she never responded…weird. Then I saw her at school on the first day and she acted like she didn’t even know me. My heart was broken. Why was she acting like this? Did I do something to her? I was totally confused and feeling sick to my stomach. The 3rd period bell rang, and I didn’t even want to go to lunch. Who would I even sit with? I thought “maybe I should go hide in the bathroom”, but before I knew it, I was walking right into the lunchroom. For a moment I felt like I was going to have a heart attack, but all of a sudden, I heard someone say, “Hey Sophia!” It was Sarah, a girl I knew from my elementary school. I was so relieved, I immediately sat down by her. We ate lunch together and I found out we actually had the same 4th period class. I was starting to feel a little better, and then I thought “maybe Sarah can be my new best friend”, but it’s kind of weird to ask someone to be your best friend on the first day of school…isn’t it? Then I thought about Darielle, and how rude she’d been to me earlier, for some reason that anger gave me a boost of courage, and I decided to ask her. Once we sat down and got comfortable in our next class, I just blurted it out “Sarah, do you want to be my best friend?” “Sure!” she replied. A wave of relief came over me and Sarah and I have BFF’s ever since. When I think about that first day of school, I wish I wouldn’t have been so scared, I learned that losing a best friend can make room for a new one.

Submitted by Rihanna

The Annoying Brother

Why are little brother’s sooo annoying!? My brother’s name is Jerimiah. Back in December I got a new bike for Christmas! I was so happy! I rode my bike everyday afterschool, all my neighbors oohed and ahhhhed when I rode by….I was loving it! One day I was riding my back afterschool and all of a sudden CRASH! He slams into my front wheel! I go flying off my bike and hit the ground hard. My brand-new bike was all scratched up, not to mention my knees and hands, and I was on fire! I limped home dragging my bike with me and told my Dad what happened, but all he said was “Accidents happen… I’m glad you’re okay… you have to be careful next time”. WHAT!? It’s like he didn’t even hear the part where my brother crashed into me.

Then there was the time I was missing $10.00 dollars from my room, I looked everywhere; under my bed, in my drawers, in my closets, even in the bathroom. I remember I had one $5 dollar bill and five $1 dollar bills, I KNOW EXACTLY HOW MUCH I HAD! I went to my brother’s room and banged on his door. He didn’t answer, so I pushed open the door and walked right in, just in time to see him diving under his bed with my money in hand! Caught in the ACT! RED HANDED! I marched down the hall to tell my Dad, “He stole my money Dad, he has it in his room right now!” My dad made Jerimiah return my money and apologize, but I was still mad. After about 20 minutes Jerimiah came in my room and asked if I wanted to play with his Nerf guns, I could tell by his body language he was really sorry. Even though I was mad, I did want to play with him, so I grabbed the other Nerf gun and chased him outside. I figured, If you love someone you should forgive them…and sometimes annoying people can be the most fun.

 

 

Submitted by Reagan

Beach Vacation

BRRRR! How cold! It was December 2020.  We always go on a family vacation every Christmas.  Because of Covid, I did not know if we would have a vacation.  On Christmas morning my mom and dad surprised us and said, “We ARE STILL going on vacation!”  This vacation was in Destin at the beach.  Most everything was outside so we felt safe.  I was not scared. My grandma came with us.  She is my favorite.  We went swimming at the indoor and outdoor pool.  We went to a restaurant that has live alligators. I had so much fun on the big sailboat with my brother Grey.  My sister and I got to jump on a bungee trampoline.  One morning we woke up and it was a little cold.  My mom said, “Do you want to take a boat and go to the beach?”  It was so much fun, even if it was cold.

Christmas was not the way it normally is.  We had to wear masks.  We had to socially distance.  There were not a lot of people around. But the best part was that my family was together.  I learned that family is important because they take care of you and that as long as you are with your family, everything will be fine.

 

 

Submitted by Lyric

Lyric – Mistake

I always liked mysteries, but I never thought I would get to be a detective in real life! Until 2nd grade when I was asked to solve the “Mystery of the Glitter”. It seemed like a normal day until one by one my whole class realized we were covered in glitter! On our faces, our clothes, it seemed like it was everywhere. No one could figure out where it had come from. My teacher assigned my friend Nala and I to figure it out. We searched the classroom and couldn’t find the source of the glitter. We knew it hadn’t been there the day before so we decided to talk to anyone that might have been in our classroom after school. We interviewed all the teachers in the classrooms nearby – turns out the teacher right next door had come in after school to borrow some supplies and accidentally knocked some glitter on the floor. She called for a custodian to come help clean up, and they did the best they could to sweep all the sparkles away. Mystery solved! Well kinda… We still needed to determine how the glitter had made it’s way all over the classroom and on to us. We searched again and found a faint footprint of glitter. This was a great clue! We had everyone come over one by one and compare their shoe to the footprint. No one matched though, and we were stumped all over again. Until I realized we hadn’t tested our own. Nala wasn’t a match, but when I took off my shoe to compare, I couldn’t believe my eyes. My shoe matched perfectly. Turns out I was the one to track the glitter all over the room and managed to coat my classroom and classmates in the process! I definitely learned not to jump to conclusions before considering every possibility.

Submitted by Lydia

Injury Story

Do you remember Hide N Seek? It can get pretty intense! One December afternoon my family and I were visiting our friends and all the kids were playing a high stakes round of Hide N Seek. I was IT and had managed to find all but 2 kids, and there were a lot of us! We searched and searched for the rest of our group and finally found them hiding in a closet. I remember thinking it was actually a really good hiding spot. Just as I was about to open the closet door, I realized it wasn’t attached. The doors were just leaning against the wall. I knew right away this was dangerous, so I rushed to get the kids out of the closet. I was the oldest and it was my job to take care of everyone. Just as I got them out, the closet door fell…on my foot. It was so painful I screamed at the top of my lungs! My foot blew up like a balloon and turned all kinds of gross colors. Purple, green, blue and even orange! We all thought for sure it was broken. We rushed to the ER and after the X-ray it turned out I had broken my pinky toe in three places! They wrapped up my foot super tight and then I waited for my cast. It was super itchy and super uncomfortable. I spent Christmas morning with my foot propped up watching everyone open their gifts. I was definitely bummed out, but realized that it was a small price to pay since the door could have fallen on one of the younger, smaller kids and hurt them way more. To this day I’m a little nervous around closet doors, but I truly believe you should always just jump in and help someone in need!

Submitted by Lillian

My Friend Ian

Ring!!!!! That’s the sound of sweet freedom! It’s not that I don’t like Math but the way Mrs. Vincent explains things is so confusing! Luckily, I get to hang with my friend Ian at lunch. Ian is a great friend because he always knows what to say when I’m feeling down. He doesn’t just help me, but he helps my other friend Mia, (we call her Chicken). Once Chicken was feeling really depressed because she submitted her art for a contest at school and she didn’t win. Ian told her he would pay her for her art because it was going to be worth lots of money one day, Chicken felt so much better. So basically, Ian is like our group counselor. One day at school I noticed Ian sitting out on the playground by himself, so I started walking towards him. When I finally got to where he was sitting, I noticed his eyes were red and he’d been crying.

“Oh my god, I couldn’t wait for this day to be over!” I was trying to change the subject to something light, but it didn’t work. “What’s wrong Ian?”

“I hate myself, I hate this body, and I hate the way people look at me!” “I wish I would just die!”

I couldn’t believe it. My best friend and support system was crashing! I was so scared; I didn’t know what to say. I said the first thing that came to mind “You are beautiful in your own way, you’re my best friend, how can you hate something that means the world to me?” When I said that I realized it was true, he really did mean the world to me.

You see Ian is transgender and recently changed his name from Mackenzie to Ian, so he was dealing with lots of changes, but I told him “the next time that nasty voice comes to mind remind yourself that you are beautiful”. I learned that even our strongest support systems sometime need reinforcement, so tell people how you feel about them because they need to hear it.

Submitted by Leilani

Tennessee Trip

Do you remember the first time you saw snow? As a Florida girl, I will never forget. It was a gentle mist, almost like a light rain. Not really enough to play in, but so cool nonetheless. I was on a family trip in Tennessee for Thanksgiving, and while the snow was beautiful, what made the trip so special was the quality time I spent with my Mom.

When I heard we were going to road trip to Tennessee I was so excited. I love spending time with my family. I was in 3rd grade, and since I was officially the oldest cousin on the trip, I got my choice of seat in the van AND my own bed. The little kids had to share. We drove super late into the night, and I loved keeping my Mom company and chatting while she drove. She told me not to worry about her and get some sleep, but I took being her co-pilot very seriously.

Thanksgiving was great. We gathered around the table to stuff ourselves silly with the feast my Grandma Joanne prepared. I know everyone thinks their Grandma is the best cook in the world, but trust me when I tell you mine is just FABULOUS.

The rest of the trip was spent exploring the town and playing with my cousins. We toured these amazing underground caverns – I’d never seen anything like it. One night when everyone else was sleeping my Mom crept into my room and asked if I wanted to go get candy. Ummm…yes please! It was such a special night because it was just her and I. We rarely got to have one on one time. Between school and work and my little sister, there just wasn’t a lot of time to spare to just hang out with each other. Especially spur of the moment and unscheduled, like our secret candy date. We got to the shop and it turned out there were no nut-free options, but no matter…we just sat outside and talked and it was still so fun. This trip helped me realize how precious time is with the people we love, and how sometimes the most special moments come when you least suspect them.

Submitted by Kitarra

Stay Calm

One day I’m standing outside of school, waiting for my brother Xavier to meet me. We always walk home together. It was a really beautiful day, the sun was shining and there wasn’t a single cloud in the sky, but that was all about to change. All of a sudden I hear Tat-tat-tat, it was so loud I was terrified! Gun shots rang out as students began running in all directions. My teacher Mrs. Kelly ushered me back in to the school along with a dozen other students, all the teachers were doing the same. We quickly walked into a nearby classroom, and the teachers all look terrified. I could feel my breath becoming shorter, I started to panic! Our principal came over the intercom “Please stay calm, the gun shots you heard came from a nearby neighborhood, and the police have secured the premises, please follow your teacher’s directions.” Mrs. Kelly said they were going to walk students home to ensure their safety.

As we were walking all I could think about was never seeing my parents again, what if we hadn’t made it?! my brother… what if they had been in the area of the shooting?! I began to cry, but as we got closer to my house I saw my Father’s car parked in front of our house, and a flood of relief came over me. I was sooo happy to see his face when I walked in the door. I learned a lot that day. I learned how much my parents really meant to me. I also realized how important it is to stay calm and follow directions in an emergency…it can save your life.