Who would have
thought that, the weather pattern, El Nino would have inspired me to write a
journal entry that I would write about years later? I was in 6th grade at Wishon
Elementary and my main concerns were playing, friends and then school. Well, I also really liked Kris Kross and TLC
and I wore T-shirts with hoods, but I digress.
I was getting amazing grades and participating in extra curricular actives
such as; spelling bee, band, and geography bee.
I was really doing well for myself.
But something rare would inspire me more in creative writing.
During a turbulent thunder storm,
in the middle of the night, something awoke me from a deep sleep. In fact, I woke up standing up! My ears were ringing like church bells and my
eyes burning like fire. I ran to the
window to see what that loud noise was that woke me up during this thunder
storm. The tree, it was gone. We had a very tall Italian Cypress in our
backyard that was the tallest in the neighborhood that now was no where to be
seen. Where did it go? My first thought was that a twister had
touched down and taken our tree. But I
soon realized that the flash that was still inhibiting my eye site was from a
lightening bolt and I began to worry because the tree was next to our bird
aviary and we also had a litter of chow puppies. Immediately, I ran to tell my parents who
told me to go back to bed and that I was dreaming. After much convincing, they finally got up
and saw that I was not telling them a tall tale but that the tree was lying on
our patio as the rain continued to pour down in bucket loads all over
Fresno. Luckily, all of our animals were
alive and well. It looks like we have
fire wood for this coming winter thanks to El Nino and the lightening bolt.
In
the morning, I hurried to school to tell all my classmates about my crazy
night. When I got to class, our teacher,
Mr. Mehas told us to take out our journals.
We were told to write about our weekend.
Of, course I would write about the lightening bolt that knocked our tall
tree down to the ground and about how I woke up standing up. I mean, what else would I write about? I was very inspired so I began to write, what
I think, was once of my best stories.
After
completing my journal entry I handed in my journal like if I was handing over a
piece of art that I slaved over for days.
I was very proud of this work and I was excited for my teacher, that I
looked up to, to read and it give me his feedback. I watched him collect the beige journals with
a black spine and stack them in a neat pile on his desk. My hopes sank as if it were an anchor in the
ocean. When would Mr. Mehas read my
journal entry?
The
next day I was still thinking about my great story and how I had this great
line in it where I “ran through the house like a gazelle through the
forest”. I had no clue that gazelle are
mainly found in the desert at that time.
I knew my journal entry was great and finally I see my teacher take out
our journals and slowly pass them back.
It seemed like it took ages for me to finally receive my journal. I looked around at the other kids and then
started flipping through the pages to my last entry. You know, I really don’t remember what it
said but all I know is he pulled me aside and told me that he loved my story
and was going to have me read it to the other 6th grade
classes. Can you say “teachers
pet”? Oh well, my story was well written
and I was about to get my shine on. “Do
I go now? I asked.
I
walked so quickly to the class next to mine that I didn’t even get jitters
about reading in front of my peers. I
knew they would be totally annoyed with my story and how I pranced from class
to class reciting my basic journal entry and how they were not doing the
same. Would I even have friends after
this? Who would play Wagon Wheel with me
at recess? My head was growing fast and
large like a melon. It’s a wonder it
didn’t fall off and roll down the isle between the desks.
I
made my way to the next and finally classroom where the teacher was waiting for
me with candy as a reward for my stroke of genius. A jolly rancher. It was like a trophy to me. I read the story and headed back to class and
then my teacher, who stood tall and proud, asked me to read it for the
class. My class. I read them how I woke up standing up and how
my parents did not believe me when I told them the tree was gone. It was like an epic tale of survival. My classmates thought it was cool but also
kept yelling at me that day knowing my ears still hurt from the sound of the
lightening bolt.
I
jokingly call this my stoke of genius but this real life experience helped me
write a story that was fun a creative that I still remember to this day. I had always been good at reading and writing
as a youth but this was on another level and to have my teacher be so
supportive of my writing really made me feel confident. I also realized I had cool class mates that
didn’t get jealous that I got to run around the school reading my work and
getting goodies. They teased me a little
but were pretty supportive of my work also.
I think it is because I was surrounded by very intelligent kids.
Later
on that year, I wrote a speech as the campaign manager for my friend Stephanie
who ran for Vice President of our school and I also gave a speech for being the
D.A.R.E. student of the year. I was able
to give these speeches with confidence and feel secure with my writing because
I had amazing teachers along the way to help me grow and great inspiration from
a rare occurrence.
