Month: December 2022

This week I read the book Birdie and Me by J. M. M. Nuanzes. This book is about 2 siblings – Jack and Birdie adapting to a life without parents. They never had a dad, and their mom died in a car crash due to ice. They first live with Uncle Carl, a sweat and nice, but irresponsible guardian. They then live with Uncle Patrick, who doesn’t really show emotions, or smile. They have to live with Patrick, who they don’t really want to live with.

I loved the plot of the book, it’s very logical. I can see them trying to go to Uncle Carl’s and supporting him, while also trying to avoid and get along with Uncle Patrick. My favorite character is uncle Patrick, I like how he feels uncomfortable with adapting to living with people, and it’s so natural. He also gets way too much disrespect by the kids, and I sympathize with him. One of his character traits is bottled up. He finally releases his anger, “Just like Carl now-that fire should not have happened. He screws up and now there are pieces to pick up, problems to fix. Neither of them ever seemed to care that I’m the one who has to deal with it.” (251) He bottled up his anger, and remained calm, even though he has to help and fix everyone’s problems. He helped Rosie, and helped Carl by taken them in.

My favorite quote is, “Hey Uncle Carl. You have a plan for your next proposal to Rosie?” (145) This quote seems very absurd to me out of context, and that’s why I like it. It’s weird that Uncle Carl tries proposing to Rosie each week, but also kinda sweet at the same time.

I have been told I am to be the principal of my school for the day. The first order of business is to cancel classes. I wouldn’t cancel school, because some kids would have no way home due to living far, being picked up by parents or other things. By canceling classes for the day, it would pretty much be a break day. People could play games in the PE area, do homework, or even play games on the iPads. The 2nd thing I’d do is to start trying to get lockers back. I personally think we don’t really need lockers that much, but we should try it for a semester, or at least a quarter. If it seems like we don’t need them then afterwards we could remove the locker system. I would then extend break by five minutes. I feel like break feels short some days. You might have to give something to a different teacher across the school, and it gives time to people who eat at snack. I notice a lot of trash after break, and I believe that after finishing the snack, more people throw it away. After that I would extend lunch and passing periods. An extended lunch period also would leave more periods for clubs. I also feel uncomfortable peeing in passing periods because you have to run to your next class. So I feel like five minutes is perfect. My final act as principal is to make two days for tutorial. I would have the last thirty minutes of Tuesday and Thursday to be tutorial. Sometimes you can miss two tests in one day, and it would give time to go to two classes, meaning you can retake two tests. You also could have shorter assemblies in one tutorial. I feel like having 2 smaller tutorial periods would be better than 1 longer period.

The autumn wind blew into my face, a sign to migrate south. I am a pigeon, named vanilla for my poop color. In New York City, there is so much to poop and eat! Although normal pigeons don’t migrate, I don’t really like the cold winters in the north east. So I use “migration,” as an excuse to travel south. This year, I decided to travel to Atlanta. I stretched my wings, and as the wind started, I flew with the wind. As colorful leaves soared through the air, I did the best to dodge them. As a bird, you can get blinded by one if you get hit perfectly. Some of my friends have died because of this, tragedies. Today my goal was to get to Washington DC. Since I can go 600 miles a day, I can get there within 8 hours. This long fight feels good, going with the wind. But I caught a weather broadcast in New York. The winds would switch making this easy journey, hard and dangerous. As I neared Philadelphia, the wind roared, I decided to stop here, as going against the wind would tire me. I flew down to land, as I saw leaves in the wind, I tried to go faster, but I was too late. The autumn leaves soared through the wind, one piercing my beak and covering my eyes. I fluttered my wings in panic, terrified at falling. I span around in the air, not knowing which direction I was going, most likely down. I did a flurry of flaps, screaming for my life. I closed my eyes, I couldn’t see anything behind the leaf. I wiggled my head up and down trying to see anything. I saw that I was nearing the ground, I froze for a second, bracing for death. I saw my friends in my situation, flailing helplessly. I did the same, flapping around. I closed my eyes for impact, and landed. The luck of the draw. I tried to get the leaf off in disbelief of this landing. I landed on my feet on top of a bench. I looked up, somehow surviving.