Student+writing+samples+06-07

Submitted 2/21/07 A Colorful Gift

J.M. period 5

Lorena was worshiped for her outer and inner beauty, kindness, and most of all, tremendous color. Lorena was draped from head to toe in beautiful garments, each of which holding every color known to man. She had striking deep blue eyes, and her long, green, profuse hair flowed in the wind. It mesmerized each and every eye that glanced at her with its shocking color, for Lorena was the goddess of color; she is why no one lives in black and white today. Lorena lived amongst the plants and animals inhabiting the forest. She was a pleasant soul and cherished nature, mostly the sun and rain. Apollo was one of Lorena’s superb friends and she much enjoyed spending time with him.

Unfortunately, a great flood had taken place recently, and Apollo had gone away to hid. Lorena could find him nowhere, for he did not like the water very much, and it took him a long time to appear in the sky after any precipitation had fallen to the earth. But, even though remorseful and contrite, Lorena was a determined goddess and would not stop until she reached her goal. She longed to find a way to merge the sun and rain, so her two favorites could appear at the same time. But what Lorena found difficult was that the sun and rain did not mix well together at all. In fact, they were enemies.

Lorena was dismayed by this; she knew there must be a way to figure out her problem. Since Lorena was positive she would not find Apollo any time in the near future, she went out in search for the rain to help her. When she found it, Lorena started asking some important questions.

“Hi, Rain. I know that you and Apollo are not close friends, but I think that you could be if you tried. This is really important to me, because you and Apollo are my favorites.” Lorena begged it desperately.

“I know that we are not friends,” the Rain replied with a saddened look, “ But I am afraid there is nothing I can do. Apollo is afraid of me, and he runs away when I come near.”

Lorena was not at all surprised when she heard this. “If you talk to Apollo, maybe he will loosen up. I think he might be scared only because you are wet, and water destroys fire. Therefore, when you are around, he may think that you could make him disappear.”

“I will try to talk to him, Lorena. But I will definitely need your help.” The rain said this in a tone which warmed Lorena’s heart, but at the same time, worried her that the rain and Apollo might become even bigger enemies if they tried to get along.

Lorena and the rain set off on an endless journey to try and find the missing Apollo. Unfortunately, they could find him nowhere, and had to seek the help of Zeus, the king of all gods. Zeus was more than happy to help look for Apollo, as he too longed for some warmth from the sun.

Of course, with his almighty powers, Zeus uncovered Apollo in less than one day. Lorena rejoiced and thanked Zeus for his amazing skills and helping her discover Apollo. Apollo was scared though, and did not want to face the rain. Zeus promised him that the rain would not hurt him and Apollo became a bit braver.

“Apollo,” the rain began to explain, “I will not hurt you; I am here to become your friend. Do not be scared of me, because I will do nothing but help you and get along with you.”

“O-o-okay.” Apollo stuttered and forced the words out of his fiery mouth. “I know you have done nothing to hurt me in the past, but I have always had the hunch that if you could make me disappear you would. I guess my thinking was wrong.”

When Lorena heard these marvelous words spoken from Apollo’s mouth, she jumped for joy. Lorena had never been so excited in her life! “The rain and Apollo are actually getting along! Possibly they could become good enough friends and appear in the sky at once!” Lorena accidentally thought out loud.

When Apollo heard this idea, he was a bit startled. But e was also intrigued, and made the rain a deal. As long as the rain was soft and quiet and was not powerful enough to make Apollo disappear, the rain was allowed to make precipitation whenever it desired. This made the rain quite happy, but not as happy as Lorena was. She danced, sang, and said hello to every god she saw. Lorena was so overjoyed that she even laughed in her sleep.

Because of the summer weather, the trees were stuffed with leaves that were a brighter green than Lorena’s beautiful hair. Apollo was shining in the sky, brightening up the darker rain clouds surrounding him. Lorena wished that there would be a rain shower. She wanted with all her heart for it to rain! Lorena flew up into the sky and gave Apollo a pleading look symbolizing her desire for wet drops to fall from the dark gray clouds.

Suddenly, Lorena got her wish. At first, she wasn’t sure if it was tears that hit her face, but when they landed on her hands, feet, and back too, she was sure that they had to be drops of rain. All around people were smiling, laughing, and playing in the puddles. Of course, the mortals down below had always loved rain. But not as much as Lorena: she was ecstatic! Lorena was fluttering happily, not even sure what to do with herself. She was so rapturous and delighted that the glorious colors on Lorena began to fly off of her, crating a beautiful arch of color in the sky.

All of the mortals standing on the ground stopped playing their games, stopped their conversations, and stopped any other activities taking place. All of their eyes were glued to the arch, and the magnificent colors all around. Lorena decided she would call it a rainbow.

To this day, Lorena still creates rainbows whenever the sun is shining and the clouds are raining due to her splendid attitude. Sometimes, if people believe, they will find a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. But, to find a pot of gold, they must believe in themselves and believe in the rainbow, truly.

K. E. Sep. 27 Period 1 and 2

Millie

One sunny Sunday morning, my family and I went to a pet shop on a country road not far from our house to buy a rabbit as a pet for my sister and me. Quickly walking into the pet shop, we were greeted with the aroma of wet dog and a mix of different animal foods. There were large wire cages all around the room from wall to wall, and there were even some in the center that were back to back. All of these cages held different animals like guinea pigs, dogs and cats and, of course, rabbits. My hands shook in anticipation that I was very soon going to have my own rabbit. All around me I heard the squeaking of guinea pigs and the barking of dogs because they could sense that I was in the shop and they wanted me to take them home. A rabbit was what I had come to the store for.

In the corner of the store, in the back of her cage I saw a lively bunny. I was s enticed by her liveliness. “This is the one I want,” I told my parents. She hopped around and twitched her nose and I knew right then that this was the rabbit I wanted. The rabbit had short brown hair that felt softer than snow, with small patches of grey and black. My mum and dad paid for Millie, as the family named her. She was brought home in a cardboard box filled with hay.

When we got home we put Millie into her hutch that had two areas. The front of the right side was solid wood and this was where Millie slept. On the left side, the front was covered with chicken wire so that Millie could see us and we could see Millie. We fed Millie with rabbit food and as a special treat we gave her lettuce and carrots.

We had a run built for Millie that was a rectangle covered in chicken wire. Every day, we would place Millie in the run and she would run around energetically. She would run as fast as lightning. You could tell she loved the freedom she had in her run. In the afternoon, we would pick Millie up and cuddle her and that would calm her. She knew that we loved her.

One spring day we let Millie run around in the enclosed garden. The garden was mostly covered in grass, but in the corner, we had a pergola, which is a wooden frame with plants growing up it. Under the pergola we had a bench to sit on and a water fountain to watch. The garden border was filled with flowers of all colors. We had swings and a slide in the garden and one day I was on the swing and Millie sprinted underneath me. When she did this, I was up high so I didn’t hurt her at all. That was the only day we let her out of the run.

One day Millie got sick. Her eye was very red and was watering all the time. We were all worried so we took her to the vet in the next town. The vet told us that Millie was sick because she had an eye infection and she would need to have surgery on her eye to stop it getting worse. The next day, we took Millie to the vet for her surgery. We gave her a cuddle and said goodbye.

“Is Millie going to be okay?” we asked the vet.

“She will need to have an anesthetic so we can do the surgery,” he told us.

Unfortunately, rabbits do not do well with anesthetic and it was dubious that Millie would recover from her operation. Millie died in her sleep. That morning two days later, my father came to us and said, “I am sorry, but Millie died last night.”

We were very sad to have lost Millie because we loved her very much. Even though dealing with a loss is a hard thing to do you have to go on. The theme of the story is life goes on, you have to go along with it. You should only get a pet if you are ready to let it go when the time comes and you can be nostalgic about the time you spent with him or her.

S.F. September 29, 2006 Class period 1&2

A Test to Remember

“Gulp,” I swallowed down dry air as my instructor announced my final board breaking kick-the round house. In front of all of my peers, family, and friends I couldn’t mess this up. I could feel sweat pumping down my cheeks and streaming down my neck. I wasn’t bad at the round house kick, but when you are trying to break a board with it one tiny miscalculation can cause the board to break your foot. The Black belt instructor began to set up the solid wood board and asked if I felt ready. The white painted mirror sided room seemed to go black as I responded. “Yes,” I answered even though I felt like the last kid on the dodge ball court, about to be bombarded with balls. I took a deep breath, squared in on my target and narrowed my eyes, and with my leg shaking from fatigue, I summoned the last of my strength and lashed out my leg. “Sir I must have practiced this kick 500 times” “Good, practice 500 more,” quipped my master. “Hhhaaagghh,” I exhaled deeply. I had two more days of grueling training to go before it all, hopefully, paid off at my black belt test. Getting my black belt would be like discovering a new breed of shark to a marine biologist. The journey to get to my test hadn’t and still won’t be easy. I had to get into excellent shape because my test would be a few hours long. I was practicing my round house kick on a paddle that seemed to snicker and sneer at me every time it bounced back. That made me want to kick it even harder the next time. “Why do I have to practice this kick so many times?” I pondered out loud. “When the time is right you will know,” my master retorted softly over my shoulder. “Tonight is my night, tonight is my time to be the star,” I pumped myself up. With my white freshly ironed dobok I stepped through the glass paned door and into the foam padded room of my Dogan. My test was scheduled to start in ten minutes, so I started to warm up and stretch out. Suddenly and unexpectedly my instructor told us to get into our spots and begin the ceremonies. Ten minutes really flies by fast when you’re excited! Therefore, my test had commenced. The first thing I had to do was to go over all of my kicks and blocks that I had been taught. The next segment of my test was my forms. This part of the test was not hard only physically but mentally, as well, because I had to assimilate all of the actions of the forms in sequence. Then the final leg of my test was the board breaking. Most of the breaks were not demanding because I had practiced them extensively. Then came the last two breaks. The first was a break of my choice. I chose a brake that I had done before and that I new that I could do. It was called a palm heal strike, in which you thrust your hand, palm first, through a board; but one board wasn’t enough for me. I decided to break two boards back to back with one strike. The first attempt I tried I didn’t have enough force but the second time I tried I put my whole body into it and ripped the boards in two. “Clap, clap, clap,” everyone cheered vigorously. I announced my next technique which happened to be the round house kick. This kick is a very dangerous board breaking technique because you could break your foot if you do it erroneously. I gave the board to the instructor to set up and I got into position. This was my big moment; it was the culmination of many years of training. At that moment I knew what my master had meant when he said “When the time is right you will know,” and my foot blasted through the board with rocket powered strength and shattered it as if it were a glass vase being blasted by a cannon. I have been a black belt now in Tae Kwon Do for five years and I’m now pursuing a second black belt in Tang Su Do. Through all of those years and for the rest of my life I will follow my goals because if you do, you can accomplish anything.