Thoughts

They’re everywhere, all around

In the fire, water, air and ground

Born in an instant, growing fast

Concerning present, future, and past

Some grow slowly, sapling to tree

Their roots forever stay within me

Some simply come on command

Others need more than one’s demand

At times they stay in their rightful places

Orderly, like yearbook faces

At others they come surging, blurry and rushing

From different directions, converging and crashing

It’s hard to find the broken-winged key

In the mass of others that only confuse me

At the touch of the broom

The others suddenly begin to zoom

Reeling everywhere, getting in the way

To catch the one I want takes all day

All of a sudden, all grows still

The room is a bare window sill

Searching from basement to loft

Nothing’s there; they have all left

Eventually they do return

Like the phoenix, they rise after a burn

They always return, for they’re never truly gone

They’ll exist until all life is done

The First Day

 “Mommy, why do you have to go?” Jenny looked up at her mother, her little four-year-old eyes as wide as she could make them, pleading her to stay. “I don’t want to be alone!”

Jenny’s mother knelt down next to her daughter and put a hand on the little girl’s back. “You’re a big girl now, Jenny,” she said. “You have to go to kindergarten by yourself. Besides, you won’t be alone. There are fourteen other kids your age that you can play with!” She gave a comforting smile and gave Jenny a hug. “Mommy will be back at 2:30.” With that, she turned around and headed towards the front door of the school, waving once more before turning out of sight.  

  Jenny felt a tear build up in the corner of her eye. She had never been away from her mother for more than a few hours. As Jenny trudged up the carpeted ramp to Room 17, she tried to think how long it would be before she saw her mother again. 9, 10, 11, 12… 2:30 seemed so far away.

The door to Room 17 was held open by a young woman with short brown hair and a friendly smile. She introduced herself to Jenny as Ms. Hill, the kindergarten teacher. After Jenny told Ms. Hill her name, she was given an apple-shaped name tag with a piece of tape on the back and told to find a desk to claim as her own.

There weren’t very many other children in the classroom when Jenny went in. There was a little boy sitting in a desk in the back, eyes glued to the screen of a game boy. Another two girls in the middle of the classroom sat together, giggling. Jenny picked a desk on the far side of the classroom, next to a bookshelf and the window. She plopped her yellow Magic School Bus backpack down onto the floor and stuck the name tag to the front of her desk. Jenny scanned the bookshelf beside her, and then picked out a storybook that said, “Max and His Cat.” It was a story about a boy named Max and all the adventures he had with his cat, George.  Even though she had read the story before, Jenny wanted to do something to make the time pass quicker. The other books on the shelf looked too hard to read, anyway.

Other kids trickled into the classroom, but Jenny didn’t pay them much attention. She kept on reading the book, sometimes pausing to think for a while when she had forgotten what a word meant. After a few pages, Jenny noticed someone sit down at the desk beside her. She kept reading, but the feeling of being watched continually grew stronger. Finally, she put down the book and turned.

A dark-haired boy with glasses that almost took up his entire face was leaning over the side of his desk, staring at her with his arms crossed and resting on the edge of her desk.

“Hi,” he said loudly.

“Hi,” Jenny replied a little uncertainly.

“What’s your name?”

“Jenny”

“Have I seen you before?”

“No.”

The boy frowned and pulled back onto his own desk. “I though I’ve seen you somewhere before,” he said. “Oh well. I’m Jack. What’s your name again?”

Jenny told him.  

“That’s cool. My name starts with a J too. How old are you?”

And so the two continued on until everyone else had arrived, Jack talking almost incessantly, only pausing long enough for Jenny to give a one-word answer to his questions. Jenny found it fascinating how someone could talk for so long without stopping. Eventually, the teacher called for everyone to turn their attention to the front of the room for a while.

“D’you want to play with me later, Jenny?” asked Jack.  Jenny nodded. Jack smiled and turned around in his seat.

Jenny shifted her attention to the teacher as well. I made a new friend, she thought to herself. Maybe school wouldn’t be so bad after all. 

A trip down memory lane

While looking around on Windows Explorer, I came across some pieces of writing that I did a long time ago. These two pieces made me laugh... I honestly can't remember writing either of these. But anyhow, here is a story and a poem I wrote, unedited, in the far-back year of 2006 :)

Pepper

When we first got him, he looked like a rat.

But now that he’s older, I think he’s a cat!

He ate all his food in a blink of an eye,

And once I had watched him, my response was, “Oh, My!”

He can catch flies and things,

And eats them up too,

He goes on the carpet,

He thinks it’s the loo.

The reason why I

Think he is a cat

Is because one day he

Jumped on the table mat

But of course that would never, ever please me!

But Pepper’s a pup,

A sweet little one too,

He just has some drawbacks

You’d love Pepper too. 

Pepper as a tiny little puppy... now he's older and much, much bigger

An Everlasting Friendship 

“Hurry up!” laughed Alexandra as Kayla ran faster as she tried to catch up to her friend. They were in Kayla’s neighbourhood, in Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada. Kayla lived on an acreage. When Kayla caught up, Alex slowed down to a walk. Talking and laughing together, they walked and ran back to Kayla’s house.

It was interesting how the two had only known each other for about two years. Their friendship seemed like it had lasted for a lifetime. The two had met in grade five, at a school called Tempo. It was a private school in Edmonton, Alberta. They had both been the “new kids”. Two other girls, Jessica Redmond and Juliet Verbeke had showed them around the school. That was how they got to know each other. Their friendship developed quickly, and they were best friends in no time. In grade six, while discussing how they became friends, Kayla brought up the fact that she had thought Alex looked funny when she first saw her. Alex laughed and told Kayla that she still looked funny.J They had similar interests, for both loved to read and write. They also owned pets, Kayla a rabbit and Alex a dog. They loved all animals and wanted to become vets when they grew up. They made plans of going to school together all the way up until high school, then going to the same university and finally work in the same office. Both Kayla and Alex also loved being silly and doing cartwheels until they fell down. They were both smart and got pretty good grades, except Kayla didn’t like to study sometimes.J They ate lunch together and spent every possible moment together. Since Kayla lived a half an hour’s drive away from Alex, they didn’t go to each other’s houses that much. However, then Alex’s mom had to go out on a one day business trip to British Columbia, and her dad was in California, Alex called up Kayla and arranged a sleepover.J When Alex got a new dog, a mini schnauzer puppy whom she called Pepper, Kayla was the first person she called to come over and see the new puppy.

Around the beginning of the second half of grade six, Alex found out that she was moving to California. Alex’s dad was in California working for Google, and so Alex and her mom were going to join him. It would only be for two years, and then the whole family would move back to Edmonton. Kayla was still devastated. What if Alex’s family didn’t move back? What if they stayed there? Their plans would be ruined.

A few weeks before the movers started coming, Alex made Kayla a card that said, ”No matter where you are, or where I am, you’ll always be my best friend”. 

The two of us when I went back to visit Edmonton the Christmas of the year I left

If I had a Time Turner

If a working time turner I now had

I would be so so very glad

I’d turn back time and then go hide

(For the rules of time travel I still must abide)

And find one of those bright and lighted nooks

To sit and read a whole bunch of books

That book that’s called “On Writing Well”

On the shelf over there – the name rings a bell

I’d read some fiction, both in English and in French

And the SAT vocab novel on that bench

The calc book sitting on the bed

And of course dear Bailey would fill my head

I would write a number of things there, too

With unlimited time, there’re so many things I can do

When at last the hours are all used and done

What time has passed? The answer is “none”

If I had a time turner, if I had my way

I’d be able to do all the things I want to in a day

But unfortunately I don’t go to Hogwarts

I’m at Monta Vista, with a whole lotta works

So I have to rely on these “time management” skills

Writing this wasn’t the greatest idea, for time it kills

Imma go back to APUSH reading now :)