When I was in second grade, I played baseball with a kid named Damon. Damon was a good kid in a bad situation. He was a year older than me but still in my grade so I looked up to him. The following year I found out that he was going to be in my class and I was so excited that I had another friend in my class and someone as cool as Damon. But what I didn’t realize until many years later was that even though Damon had a good heart, it didn’t mean he made good decisions. Damon’s home life was rough and he would often act out at school to get the attention that he wasn’t getting at home. And even though I knew I shouldn’t be doing it with him, I looked up to him and I wanted to be like him so I would oftentimes find myself helping him do what I knew he shouldn’t be doing. It wasn’t until he started asking me to get in trouble for him that I realized what I needed to do. He had just asked me to steal the answers to the test and I knew that if I got caught I would be in so much trouble. But he told me that if I didn’t do it then I was a terrible friend and that he wouldn’t be my friend anymore. So I had a choice to make. Was being cool to him really worth

Recently on Netflix I started rewatching the show “The Flash”. As I was reading these chapters and I came up with the first two themes, I realized how much these themes were represented in the TV show. In this show, the Flash’s mother was killed as a kid and his father was framed for the murder. After being orphaned he was forced to grow up faster than a normal kid and figure things out on his own. Eventually, as an adult, he was struck by lightning and became the Flash. After his father was also killed, he ran back in time and saved his parents but everything was different. That’s when he realized that everything that happened in his life, made him the man he was. And without every single one of these situations that had occurred, he wouldn’t be the same person. And although this TV show is completely fictional, the lessons and themes in it are very real.

Writing Response: I layed awake staring at the darkness spread across the ceiling listening to the hum of my ceiling fan. I couldn’t fall asleep thinking about the scary conversation I just had. One of my closest childhood friends had just texted me in tears, while confessing her recent struggles with depression and the extreme measures she had tried to take to prevent it. I knew I wanted to help. Of course, I wanted to help. How could I not? But I had my own problems going on. Finals were coming up and I hadn’t even had a thought about studying. I tried my best to support her but it was difficult to be there for her while simultaneously being there for my schoolwork and studying. Her problems started to get worse and I began to feel more and more scared. I tried to convince her to go to therapy but she wouldn’t listen and I didn’t know what to do. I was fighting with myself. I knew she needed help but I didn’t know how to do that. Telling an adult seemed like the best thing to do but it was still very scary. My friend had made it clear that I couldn’t tell anyone and I felt like by telling an adult I would be betraying her and she would hate me for it. I felt like I was failing her as a friend. She had trusted me to help her and I was trapped. I was helpless. I felt like “there is nothing I can do.”

Day 10: Writing Response

I still remember sitting across from my teacher in second grade trying to explain that it wasn’t me and that me and my friend were in the wrong place at the wrong time. But getting in trouble isn’t what I wanted to write about. Instead, I want to write about the situation that I falsely got accused of. Me and my friend had just finished playing soccer at lunch and we walked past a group of kids chasing a boy. We were interested so we turned around and watched to see what happened. We were shocked when 2 kids tackled the little boy and pinned his arms to the ground while another girl kissed him. Thinking back about this moment I’m now realizing how terrible of a thing this was. I remember not understanding why this was so serious and why my teacher was especially stern. I just thought it was just kids messing around and it wasn’t a very big deal.

You don’t have to have an important title or a lot of money to make a difference in the community. Over covid, a lot of people were struggling to maintain jobs and be able to afford food for their families. My church noticed this and started a food drive that gave food to families in need. I’ve always wanted to help out the community but as a middle schooler, it was difficult to find ways to do that. When I showed up to church that Sunday and saw people delivering food to the church and saw people taking it inside and preparing it to take to the shelters, I immediately knew I wanted to be a part of that. So I talked to my pastor and I asked what I could do to be a part of this and how I could help. The following Sunday, I woke up early to my alarm, got ready quietly so I didn’t wake my family, and rode the short mile to church. As I approached the room with all the food in it I was surprised to hear familiar voices coming from the room. A lot of my friends had the same idea as me and now I was not only helping out the community but I was also having fun with my friends doing it.