I say you yesterday
holding hands with someone
as the snow came swirling around you
and your boots
swished through the flakes
and it made me happy.
I saw you standing 
in the kitchen
the smoke swirling up into your face
like a delicate candle flame
that reminded me how much 
I missed you.
I saw you in the mirror
and you mattered the most
your hair that never falls perfectly
and the annoying random blemishs
that seem to crop up
for no particular reason
and your brown eyes
and flowing hair
I saw all of you cause you matter to me
and maybe
if I'm lucky
I matter
to you.

 

I am lucky to live in a place where there are mountains in my own backyard. Sometimes, I wish that I lived in a more populated part of the country, but it only takes one breathtaking sunrise or a refreshing afternoon hike to remind me that I could never leave the mountains. There are things here, that city folks just don’t have. For instance, if I want some peace and quiet (and a view) all I have to do, is take a walk. Being on top of a mountain is a completely individual feeling. It is a sense of accomplishment, astonishment, and serenity that isn’t found in many other places. My personal favorite time to spend in the mountains, is in the first months of winter. Something about the cold air makes every sound about 10 times more clear. One of the best feelings you can ever experience is waking up before everyone else, catching the sun rising and illuminating the mountains with various shades of pink, purple, and orange. It feels almost as if time has stopped just for you.

 

As you walk down the path your steps slowly turn into a beat.  The birds’ tweets are like the sound of flutes. The wind is a quiet saxophone whispering in your ear, there’s a soft snap, snap, snap, as the violins pluck their strings when you step on a stick.  You move to the side as you hear a bass come running by at its own, very fast beat. But you still walk to your own pace keeping the beat of your own song. You get drowned out by all the trumpets and tubas trying to run the world, but if you listen closely you can hear the continuous thump, thump, thumping, of yourself, walking down the musical path.

 

I helped my nephew, Tommy with his homework that he had for school work that he didn't finish. I did it because he looked like he wanted help. I  asked him if he wanted help and he said yes. He said that it was hard math. It took a while. He had 16 math questions. There were some easy questions and some hard questions.      

    It was very easy for me to remind him how to do it because I am good at multiplication.  I like helping Tommy with his homework. It took about 20 minutes to help him. Then he had another math worksheet, which was adding and subtracting. Tommy knew that easily, so I didn’t have to help him. Then he finished and we went and hung out for a while before I went home. Tommy looks like a normal 7 year old boy. He has dirty blonde hair. 

 

As a kid I could never go to sleep on Christmas Eve, I was always too excited for Christmas. I would go to my moms room as soon as the sun came up and tell her it was morning, so it was time for presents. My mom made hot cocoa in the morning and cookies in the evening. Christmas was always the best day in the world for me as a kid, and now I still love it because we don’t have school.  

 

     I once helped someone. It felt good and it was pretty recent. She was so nice to me so when she told me about her problem, I had to help. It had to do with sports. It was her first time doing an actual sport other than just skiing. It was winter track. She felt confused and nervous. I joined winter track once again and helped her with the basics. Running, throwing, jumping were the basics of winter track and I told her that she can choose and see whats comfortable for her. I guess she's one of my real friends. I don't have many of those. So I'm very glad that she my friend. I'm glad I helped her. Since that we've gotten closer. The reason I helped her was because she actually genuinely nice to me. So in the end I got a new awesome friend.

One day my Mom had a lot of groceries to bring into our house. She couldn’t bring the groceries in because there were too many. So, I decided to help her with them. I brought them in and helped her put them away. I put the bread in the cupboard. The bread smelled like it was freshly baked. I put the yellow bottle of mustard in the fridge on the door too. I then placed the cheese and the milk on the shelf in the fridge. The cheese was cheddar in a block and it was yellow. 

 It turned out good that I helped my mom because she gave me five dollars for helping her. I later on spent the money on buying noise putty. 

 My Mom was so proud of me. She loves it when I help her. Sometimes I still help her with cleaning and stuff like that. So, that's how I felt when I helped my Mom with groceries. She was very happy and so was I. 


    By Allison 
 

   Climate change is the most pressing issue right now. I think that solving climate change seems unachievable to lots of people because it is a huge concept that not many people bother to break down into swallowable chunks. They are scared because the task seems so daunting and they decide that if they can’t solve the whole problem overnight they might as well not do anything at all. But here’s the thing, you don’t need to start with refreezing the poler ice caps or stop everyone cutting down the Amazon Rainforest. Imagine if everyone in your town carpooled more often so instead of ten people in ten cars, it would be ten people in two cars. You might not think that would make much of a difference but it would pollute the air that much less which is getting us somewhere. Mother earth has been telling us for a while now that something needs to change and we don’t have time to look past that anymore. So let’s start listening.