The Meandering Mind
The Creative Musings of 7th Graders
The Meandering Mind
The Creative Musings of 7th Graders
Copyright to the respective authors – 2011
Christ Our King – Stella Maris School
Mr. Trinklein’s 7th Grade English Class
Academic Year 2010-2011
All rights reserverd.
Adrian Johnson - My Adventurous Life 5
Kate Cornely - Disaster Strikes 8
Alex Howard – If the Shoe Fits, Wear It 11
Andrew Tezza 15
Bridgett Hicks 22
Cal Schaafsma 27
Carrie Hillebrand 31
Carver Brauchle - Doomicus 37
Danny Kiernan 42
Delaney Merril – Cassie and Sydney 49
Dominick Schettini - The Journey to Victory 56
Eliza Willburger – Becoming Kathryn 63
Hannah Pressler 66
Isabella Schafer 75
Jamie Wilson - One Big World 84
Joel Bunting - Road to Happiness 87
Justin Robinson - Road to State Cup 94
Katie Ryan 104
Maddy Birk - The Journey to #1 109
Madison Santi - My Moving Experience 117
Meghan McTavish 124
Olivia Kinsinger 131
Devon Lee 140
Ruby Gonzales - Dreams Do Come True 146
John Moriarty - The day the world stopped 155
Walker Voit - “Bottom to Top” 162
Alexis Butler - Road Trip 168
Ashley Brazell - Fitting In 174
Caroline Kent - The Island 179
Lucas Torlay 185
Mary Allison Crummer 192
Montana Swanson 196
Ross Miller 200
Teghan Peeples 205
Victoria Boals 208
Albert Lang - The Pros 213
Lucas Shiver - The Road to Becoming a Champion 220
Natalie Drouillard 225
Becca Lawson 231
Will Harper - Titan 235
Nick Carter – The Trinquilizer 245
Chris Nitz - The Daydreamer 252
Jessica Mellin - Dinah and Freida Go on Springbreak 257
Jake Michel 281
Ben Lynch - Swish! 284
Cole Defilippo - The Company 291
Bridget Isabelle Tunney - The Georgia Coin 296
Morgan Grant – Folklore 301
Ashley Burns 308
Peter Sterckx - S I M P L Y D R E A M I N G 315
Eduardo da Costa - *The Three Challenges: 321
Nico Ullo - THE VOYAGE OF THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE 327
The Meandering Mind 332
Adrian Johnson - My Adventurous Life
Chapter One
Have you ever wondered what it was like when you were born, or when you felt the first breath of cold air rush through your body, or your first time learning how to ride a bike, feeling grown up? This is the story that goes back to the beginning of a 12 year old girl’s life.
On August 7th, 1998, there was a girl about to be born. That girl is me. I am Adrian Johnson and I was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. I have two brothers named Simon and Evan. I also have a dog named Sadie. I moved to South Carolina when I was 2 ½ years old, so I don’t remember much about Canada during the time before we moved.
From my first time learning how to ride a bike ‘til now, there have been any happy, sad, funny, yet embarrassing times in my life…and this is only the beginning of several stories built into one.
Chapter 2
Every year my family goes to Canada. It is a fun trip because I drive up with my mom, dad, two brothers, and my dog and we stay up there for six weeks. We start off by going to my mom’s cottage, then we go to my dad’s for a week, and then back to my mom’s. When I am up there, I do miss my friends here but then I realize I am in South Carolina most of the year and in Canada for a few weeks so I should enjoy it while I am here. It is a painful car ride but an eye opening experience!
Imagine, you have been sitting in a car for hours and all of a sudden the car comes to a stop. You look out the window and see a river and cottages everywhere. Once you step out of the car you breathe in and it is the smell of pine and fresh air. That is what it is like at my mom’s cottage. Her cottage is in a small community surrounded by a lot of other cottages. It is called Norway Bay. It is located on the Ottawa River. There are many things to do up there. There is a park, a small convenience store, an ice-cream shack, a golf course, and a pier where we swim and take swimming course. One of the first things we do up there is celebrate Canada Day on July 1st. We celebrate by having a party sometimes and fireworks. During the swimming courses every morning, we learn how to save people if they are drowning, save them if they are having a stroke or heart attack in the water and out, how to remove someone from the water, how to treat a spinal victim, and A LOT more. This summer I will be taking my last course and then becoming a licensed lifeguard. After the swimming course my friends and I either go tubing or go swimming at the pier and jump off a black wall into the water and it is really fun. Everything there is a blast and I can’t wait to go next year!
After we stay in Norway Bay for a couple weeks, we leave and go to my dad’s cottage for a week. His is the opposite of my mom’s. His is in a quiet area called Fifth Depot, located on Lake Ontario. The cottages are far apart and separated so it isn’t as social with friends but it is a good time to spend time with family. When we are there we rent a boat for a week and we attached a surf board to the back and sit on it while we r getting pulled by the boat. It is a really fun thing to do. Also you can canoe, kayak, swim around, fish, and look around in the woods, but my favorite thing to do is go cliff diving. If the weather is right, we will take the boat, kayaks, and canoe over to the cliffs and jump off. It is really fun! When the week is over I am sad to leave because there are so many childhood memories there but I just get ready to go back to my mom’s cottage for the last few weeks.
Childhood is a promise that is never kept.
~Ken Hill~
Chapter 3
It is 6:30 in the morning; everyone is running to get out the door into the car. We all get in and are on our way to the airport. Once we got there our family went through security and customs then we boarded the plane. After an hour or so all of us got off and we were in Atlanta, Georgia. After rushing through the whole airport, we found our next plane and waited a few minutes then all of us boarded. We were on the plane for about three hours. I listened to my i-pod and slept the whole way, and then I felt someone pushing on my arm. They told me to look out the window. All I saw was light blue water that reminded me of a paintbrush with a sparkly blue on it, and a bit of white softly moving against a silky piece of paper. I turned to my aunt and asked “Are we here?” She responded “Yes, we have arrived.” Finally we were here, after all the hustling and non-stop planning we got here. We were now in Cancun, Mexico.
Last Christmas my family and everyone on my dad’s side of the family left their homes to enjoy the hot weather of Cancun, Mexico. It was a smart idea to go there because most of my family lives in the north. People in the family were flying in from Belgium, Europe and mostly Canada. My family was the first family to arrive at the resort. We went to the front desk and the nice lady said to us “Hola, welcome to the Moon Palace golf & spa resort. May I offer you some drinks?” We said yes and thanked her then asked if we could have our room keys so we could get organized and relax, b
ut the women there said we weren’t allowed in until 3:30. Right then it was 11:30 and we were tired from rushing everywhere. She told us if we wanted, we were allowed to sit by the pools and beach. We liked that idea so we got our bags and went in the bathrooms and changed into our bathing suits. Then all of us left our bags with the front desk and went to the pool. I thought it was going to be just a normal size pool, but I was wrong. When I got outside, my mouth dropped and I was speechless. This pool was no regular pool, there were multiple pools connected making one. It was probably the size of four football fields and also it was shaped differently. It wasn’t straight, it was curving and in circles. It was known as the largest pool in Mexico. It had bridges going across it and swim-up bars. This was only one of the pools at the resort! The resort was separated into four sections. The first section was the calm, relaxing and quiet spot. The fourth was the loud partying section, which we stayed at. We walked around to try to find a spot. As we were walking, I look over the edge and see a beautiful sandy beach. I walked down and felt the sand and it was soft and hot. I looked over my shoulder and saw two beach volleyball courts. (That is where we spent most of our time) I walked back towards the pool and we went to the bar. It was in the shape if a hut. There were swings as the seats! I got a virgin pina colada, which tasted amazing. Finally we were allowed into our rooms and my parents stayed in a room, my brothers stayed in a room with my cousin Charles, and I stayed in a room with my cousin Grace. Every day we did something new and exciting. We played mini golf, beach volleyball; we went on a crazy boat ride called the twister, and much more. My ultimate favorite thing there was going jet skiing. I went with my cousin Eric. He is 21 and he is a pro wrestler, also he loves crazy rides. I got thrown off the Jet Ski ore then six times. After that I had a terrible headache. I had so much fun at that resort and hopefully all the families will go again soon. It was an amazing adventure and we learned many Spanish words and made many friends. I will never forget that trip ever.
Kate Cornely - Disaster Strikes
Chapter 1
It all started on a normal day in Charleston, South Carolina. I woke up thinking it was just going to be another day, but I didn’t know that the events of that day would change my life forever. I woke up and did everything like I normally would. Around 11:30 in the morning I headed over to my friend Ashley’s house in Snee Farm. I was over at Ashley’s house with Morgan my other friend. We hung out with some other people from our school. We got back to Ashley’s house around 8 at night. We were all staying there that night. We ate dinner and had some dessert too. Until we fell asleep we watched TV and played a lot of games like Wii, board games, and lots of others. We got in bed around 1 in the morning, but did not fall asleep until around 2. As usual I fell asleep last. No one expected to just get 2 hours of sleep, but we didn’t know what was ahead of us. After I had been asleep for about 2 hours Ashley woke up and told me she felt a shake. I then turned over and woke up Morgan and told her what Ashley said. We all thought Ashley was joking, but little did we know that she was telling the truth. We were all trying to fall back asleep when all of the sudden the whole house started to shake. Suddenly we realized that an earthquake was happening. We all were running and screaming trying to get to safety. We were getting knocked off are feet every second. When we got to safety Ashley’s whole family was in there and so we all got close together and tried to stay safe.
Chapter 2
We all sat and waited until we heard the last shake. It seemed like the earthquake was never going to end, but eventually it ended and we asked to go look at the damage. Ashley’s mom went to check and make sure it was safe to come out. She came back and told us it was safe, but to be careful. The first thing I did was look at all the damage done. I then thought about my family and how worried they must be so I called them and my mom said everybody was safe and not to worry. Then everybody started to clean up anything broken or anything that has fallen over. There was so much damage we knew it would take weeks even months for the town to be running again. It was only a couple hours later when we heard that a tsunami had hit the town and was on its way to Snee Farm. We all frantically ran and got everything we would need to stay safe, but we didn’t have enough time to get everything. I was first to see the water coming and I ran and screamed to warn the others. We all went into safety and waited anxiously. Everybody knew it was going to be terrible. All I could think about was my family’s safety. I thought what if they died, what if our house was ruined, and what if I loose contact with them forever. I knew thinking about everything that could happen to my family would only make it worse. I finally turned to Ashley and said what’s going to happen to my family? She told me not to worry and that everything would be okay, but how could I not worry my family was in danger. When the waves would hit the house it felt like the house was being carried away. I suddenly started to cry which only made it worse because it made everyone start to cry.
Chapter 3
I thought the tsunami would never end. The worse thing about it was that I knew when it was over that we couldn’t just call our moms and they would come pick us up I knew my life would never be the same again. When we knew the last wave had hit Mrs. Brazell went out first to see if it was safe. Once she told us we could come out I was scared at first because I knew I wouldn’t be able to stand the damage. At first when I walked out I was shocked and speech less. Immediately after I saw just the littlest part of damage I fell to the ground, sat against the wall, and cried. Ashley and Morgan started to cry after they knew how bad this really was. All I wanted was to see my family again. I started to blame everything on myself because I knew if I had stayed home then I would have known if my family was safe or not. I soon started thinking of all the good times with my family. I thought about all the times I had talked back to my parents and been mean to my brothers and sister. Then all I wanted was to go back in time and change everything the tsunami and earthquake, every time I talked back to my parents, and every time I was mean to my brothers and sister. I decided that sitting here and crying wasn’t going to help so I stood up and tried to pick up broken glass and other stuff. I then saw that almost all the windows were broken. Then I went to one of the windows and looked outside. I couldn’t believe my eyes all around there were: collapsed houses, floating and badly damaged cars, but worst of all dead and terribly hurt people. I felt so lucky to be alive and not that badly hurt.
Chapter 6
It had been a week since the tsunami and earthquake, but nothing ad changed. The damage was still bad, the death toll was going up and up and up, and we still had little food. The little girl named lily was in good health, but still always cried. Ashley’s leg was much better and all we were trying to do is help those who need the most help. Morgan was sick and couldn’t do much to help. Ashley and I still took a wagon around and gave out water. Now the little girl also came around to pass out water with us. A lot of people we went to one day weren’t there the next day. One day when we were giving out water we saw Montana and Tolly our friends and both of them wanted to help so now all of us were helping. Montana had a broken arm, but it had healed so she was ready to help. Tolly had been sick, but she regained her strength and also thought she should help. One day we were passing out water and I wanted to head to my neighborhood. When we got there we walked down the street to my house. When we got there I was so happy to see that my family was ok. I told my mom I would come to visit, but I needed to stay at Ashley’s because it was closest to all the neighborhoods. She understood, but was still upset. We all headed homes and I told Mrs. Brazell what had happened and she was very happy.
Chapter 7
I guess you could say that in the end it started to get some what better. The death toll wasn’t rising that much anymore and more people were helping out. Even if all people could do was comfort others, we still needed the help. My parents came to help a lot because we had so much work to be done. We now
had found more food and water so we were helping a lot more people. My family was such a big help along with the Brazells. Everybody I helped always said that I was making such a big difference. I had never really thought about me being such a big help. All I was thinking about was helping others; I wasn’t really worried about what I would get in return or what they would think of me. I just wanted to make a difference. I was surprised at how grateful people were when Ashley, Tolly, Montana, and I brought them water and sometimes food. It seemed like the tsunami and earthquake were just a few days ago, but really it had been 2 months since the disaster had hit. Next thing I knew it had been 4 months, then 7, then 8, then 9, and then soon it had been 11 months. It was so shocking to think that it had almost been a year since the tragedy. Tolly, Ashley, Montana, and I were still bringing water to people and occasionally food. Lily, the little girl we found, was now 3 years old and was very funny. My family had now moved into the house next to Ashley’s house because it was closer to me and it had been abandoned. Morgan’s whole family had died except surprisingly when we went there her dogs were still alive. Morgan’s family died because their house is right on the beach where the tsunami hit. Everybody in my family had survived even my dogs. I may have helped many people, but I didn’t want anything in return. I guess you could say that in this story it really shows that “The littlest Things can make a big difference,” is true no matter who is making the difference. Young or old, it doesn’t matter what age you are the only thing that matters is the difference you make.
Alex Howard – If the Shoe Fits, Wear It
Chapter 1
It was summer of 1994, and the girls were shopping together. Mia, the smart one of the group, was 18 years old, had dark black hair that was long and extra shiny. Her eyes were as blue as sapphires, and her skin had a beautiful tan that gave her a special glow every time she was in the sunlight. She happened to be excited to be shopping and catching up with her friends. “I heard there’s a new clothing store nearby. Is anyone interested in stopping by, and looking around?” Scarlett was a very petit 18 year old girl, and had thin blonde hair that wasn’t too long and wasn’t too short. Scarlett was the most fullest of herself and tallest of the group, she replied,” I have to be at my dad’s house at 5 o’clock, but I guess we can look around for a little bit. I hope this store has some shoes because I need some shoes that won’t hurt my feet and look good with almost everything. I mean- they have to be perfect.” “Oh gosh,” says Mia, “I hate to break it to you, but that’s going to be kind of hard to find the perfect shoes.” “Yeah Scarlett, I’m sure you don’t need the most perfect shoes ever. In fact, why do you even need more shoes? You have a shoe closet the size of my room!” Mia and Scarlett look over to see their friend, Gemma, talking a lot for the first time that day. Gemma was gorgeous. She looked different compared to Scarlett and Mia. Gemma had long, curly dirty-blonde hair and big brown eyes. She was shortest of them all, and she certainly wasn’t plump. She wasn’t the oldest or brightest one of the group, but she was the funniest. Though Mia and Gemma said they were not going to let Scarlett get another pair of shoes, they just might give in for a special reason.