Student Writing

That Time I Walked My Cat

Thump, thump, thump. You wake up, stumbling out of bed. Thump, thump. You shake your head, tumbling back into bed. The pattering of small feet draws nearer, and a blur of orange launches itself at your face.

“Ugghh,” you groan. “I’m sleeping.” You peel the cat off of you. This cat, named Pumpkin, had decided it was a great time to destroy the house.

Sliding out of bed, you travel to the coat closet, pull your sneakers on, and grab the bright red leash and collar.

You stand feet planted, facing the thing ruining your morning. The only objects able to help, the leash and collar, were clutched in either hand. The cat takes off, feet scurrying across marble tile. You chase after it, trap- ping it in the corner behind the dying brown potted plant. Lunging at it, you somehow manage to get the cat on the leash.

“Hey, Mom!” you call. “I’m taking Pumpkin on a walk!” No reply. “Oh well.”

You decide that this is going quite well. The only noise is the thumping of sneakers and the meows of the cat dragging you around the block. And then it saw a squirrel.

The cat tugged on its end of the leash, and you feel your grip slacken. “Oh no, oh no!” you exclaim.

The cat took off after the squirrel, the leash trailing behind like a long, red tail.

You decide this walk is not going well at all. You run after the cat, so fast that you can’t even hear your sneakers hitting the ground any more. Wait a second, you think, glancing down.

You’re hovering about an inch off the ground, slowly floating higher.

“Oh my god, oh my god,” you scream, flailing in the air. You manage to grasp the leash in your hand as you float up, less worried because the cat acts like an anchor.

You reach for a tree branch, golden leaves falling off from your efforts to hold on. You realize that your hold on the leash is pulling the confused cat into the air too.

Wrapping your legs around the tree, you reach for the cat. Too far away, you think. You decide to just drop the leash, but your unstable position causes you to lose your balance.

“Uh oh.” Falling, the left sneaker gets stuck on the tree branch and slips off. As you land, pain shoots through your left shoulder, and you wrench your right sneaker off and start the trek home.

“Remind me never to wear these shoes again,” you tell Pumpkin.

“Claire, where were you?” your mom asks, standing at the front door with a foreboding expression.

“On a walk. Nothing exciting.” You feel a small smile tugging at the corners of your mouth.

My Monster

My monster’s name is Minion because he’s a robot monster that’s under my control. He lives in my basement but it’s pretty hard for him to live in my basement because my robot/monster is 7’5’’ tall and I had to get a new house for him to live in. He’s soft like a pillow and likes to spin around in circles until he’s dizzy. But since he’s a robot/monster he eats both foods, robot food and monster food, but you know what’s crazy about it? Since he’s both he has two sides, so if he eats robot food, it goes to his robot part of his body. If he eats monster food, it goes to his monster part of his body.

Every Day with Minion

So, every day I wake up and feed my monster and, since he’s half monster, half robot he eats monster food one day and then the next day he eats robot food. So, then I stay home because I don’t work because I get disability checks because I have health problems and that’s why I made Minion to help take care of me since I can’t take care of myself and I don’t have any family. Also, Minion is super awesome because he feeds me breakfast, dinner and lunch. Then when I’m sick he can get medicine from his robot part of his body! And, after the day is done, I take a shower and go to bed, but before I go to bed, I tuck Minion in bed since he takes care of me and I also read him bedtime stories. Then I go to bed and start the day all over again.

Why is Sex a Bad Word?

Sex education has become a phrase that gets passed around every May, followed by whispers, giggles, and sighs. I remember being stuffed in a classroom with 100 other fourth grade girls and watching a video about periods, giggling every time the smiley teacher on-screen said the word “vagina.” We left dazed, confused, and embarrassed, holding flowery gift bags with a pad, a mini deodorant stick, and a smiley face sticker. Nobody had any idea what the boys did in the other room, and no one was to ever speak of that day.

Starting in the third or fourth grade, we began to learn about what was “down there.” The sex-ed curriculum found in most elementary schools consisted of a fifty-minute video from the eighties and an awkward question-and-answer session where the teacher avoided giving direct responses. Miraculously, I didn’t even know the word “sex” until the end of sixth grade. While my sex-ed experience was pretty sheltered, I have to give my middle school some credit. They tried teaching us about consent and relationships, but our class couldn’t stand the awkwardness, to the point where we had to stop the program. Even now that I’m in high school, my entire grade can’t believe it when we read a book that mentions sex. The embarrassment and confusion that surrounds sex stems from a young age, whether it’s from our elementary school education, what we hear from our parents, or what we see online. This lack of clarity has to be eliminated through a team effort by both the school, to introduce a comprehensive curriculum in grades 3-6, and by parents, to answer kids’ questions honestly and openly.

Most Texas schools teach an abstinence-only curriculum, meaning that students learn that having sex will yield negative consequences and is not the morally right thing to do. Some schools teach an abstinence-plus curriculum, which not only strongly encourages abstinence but includes minimal information about contraceptives and STIs. Neither of these curriculums teach what sex is beyond biological anatomy, and instead teach the consequences. Although Texas pushes an abstinence-focused curriculum, the teen pregnancy rates are over 50% higher than in the rest of the United States. Texas doesn’t have a specific health curriculum that they mandate all schools to teach, but instead this decision is left up to the schools. The stigma surrounding sex, and all things related to sex, can be traced to schools’ lack of motivation to improve curriculum, leaving kids in the dark about the realities of sex.

Kids are over 50 percent less likely to experiences STIs and teenage pregnancies if they’ve had a comprehensive sex education. Like I mentioned, sex ed has to be a partnership between schools and parents. And yet, many schools don’t teach sex ed because they believe that it is the parents’ responsibility to handle it in whatever way they think is best for their kids. However, most parents don’t talk about consent, sexual health, and other important topics. Yes, talking about sex can be an awkward topic, but it doesn’t have to be. Sex is a natural thing, and as parents typically want the best for their children, they shouldn’t shy away from the topic. Parents should be a safe space where kids can ask questions.

Many parents don’t talk to their kids about sex because they’re concerned about maintaining their child’s innocence. Not only is this misguided (does childhood innocence even exist anymore?), but information that isn’t learned at home or in school can leave TV and the internet to fill in those gaps. The portrayal of sex online is often distorted and confusing, leaving kids with unrealistic information about what sex and relationships are. The worst part about being internet-educated, in my experience, is that teens don’t know whether their peers think or know the same things about sex, causing sex to become a taboo subject, and one that is never discussed. If teens can’t discuss sex, we will never be able to develop important opinions and boundaries that help us decide what we feel comfortable talking about and doing.

While our school curriculum was less than great, the next wave of youth might have a chance. My school district, Austin ISD, has recently taken steps to change the sex education curriculum for third through eighth grade to include topics like dating and sexual violence, consent, LGBT relationships, and more. While I commend AISD for finally updating their curriculum, fourth graders all over Texas are still giggling through grainy puberty videos in a tiny classroom. If this kind of abstinence-only, discussion-discouraged curriculum continues, kids all over Texas will be in danger.

Things I learned when I moved

When I moved,

I learned that life is uncertain,

Life is fickle,

Life is either the sinking boat or the turbulent waters that drown it.

When I moved,

I learned how to say goodbye, how to not look back before getting on the plane before leaving home.

I learned to hold back tears, to give tight hugs, and to kiss with the heart before stepping out of the house.

When I moved,

I learned to get over my fears,

how to not vomit during takeoff, and that a bag of chips might pop because of the high pressure.

I learned to pack only the necessary things, but really all I need is a picture of my abuelas, tias y tios, primos y primas, and the dazzling pink orchid that grew that day in the backyard.

I learned to walk around the Granma airport without getting lost, the foods you should eat, like the chicken taquito rolls at the “El Viajero” food stand, and the ones you should not, like Doña Maria’s empanadas, to avoid excess sodium in your blood pressure.

I learned how beautiful the view is when you are in the skies, like a floating paradise made of fleeting, silvery clouds. But if there are turbulence and stormy skies, pray to heaven you stay safe.

When I moved,

a part of who I used to be changed irrevocably. I learned how it feels to be hated and rejected for your race or ethnicity, or how it feels to be lost among a huge crowd.

I learned that some people will refer to you as an immigrant, and they only use this word out of courtesy or fear that their inner and direct thoughts would be uncovered, exposed, “wetbacks.”

It feels as if your world has been changed into something so strange and unusual that it makes you not want to be part of it, makes you not want to exist in such type of world, or not exist in any world at all.

When I moved,

I learned that the mighty sun and the sapphire skies are the same everywhere I stand, yet there is no other place that can compare its elegance to that of my country.

I learned that tacos are so absurdly delicious, but nothing tastes better than my grandma’s 3 p.m. pan con café.

I learned the words to “Mexicanos, al Grito de Guerra”, and also the Texas pledge to The Lone Star Flag.

I learned English and Spanglish, and from such a complex world, for once, I felt distinguished.

I learned Latino pride, I learned Black Pride.

I learned to be myself among the overwhelmingly vain and condescending world in which I now lived.

When I moved,

I learned to love from afar.

I learned to live with nostalgia.

I learned how to start from zero.

I learned how to be alone.

I learned to embrace my process of growth and transformation, like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly.

When I moved,

I learned exactly what I needed to become who I am.

I learned, along the trajectory, to move forward and have no fears,

I learned to enjoy where I am and let time wipe away my tears.

Soccer Rules!

I was sweating. I had just scored my first goal this season. Everyone was cheering for me. I was so happy.

I first started playing when I was about four years old. I was born in Mexico, so that’s where I learned to play. My grandpa used to play, he inspired me to play. My dad would play with us. We would play at the back of my tia’s house. It would be the adults versus the little kids. The adults would score the most goals,but one time me and my cousin had scored a goal. I like soccer because it represents my country.

I still like soccer because I am good at it and I like being midfielder. My favorite player is Giovani Dos Santos. He has scored 57 goals this year. I hope I will get better throughout the years.

The Travel Bus

One chilly December afternoon I walked out of my school and saw a bus, but it was not just any bus… It was a travel bus and I went to it and it turned into dust and I got shocked and ran away and the bus was back to real life and I ran really fast to the bus. Really fast! It didn’t go away. I hit myself on accident on the bus because the door closed just before I could get on. It opened and it was cool on the inside. I saw pillows, a bench, desks with papers and pencils. The bus flew to Mexico and I was happy because my aunt lived there so I went and visited her and I stayed there. I played Minecraft with my uncle just like I used to do when I lived there from 2014 to 2015. Then I went to sleep when it got dark and woke up and my aunt was there. The travel bus took her here and I screamed really excited and I hugged her and I ran outside and saw my uncle and I played Minecraft again and let my aunt get a try and I was happy she came because when I came back I was sad because she lives in Mexico.

Student Writing

Footer