With my eyes forcefully stretched open, I walk for miles waiting for the sun to come up. I look out in near the distance and notice an exploding hazy cloud of dirt puffed out close to a pond. What is that? Did someone fall? Who could be up this early? I jogged to the pond and looked around. I noticed some footprints, but no one was there. The footprints seemed to match my shoes exactly but were much smaller, almost half in size. I noticed that the footprints lead directly into the pond so I walked close to the edge. The water was dirty, murky and black. I took my shoes off and splashed a little bit with the bottoms of my feet to test the warmth. It seemed okay so I walked a bit deeper to feel the depth. Suddenly, I sunk deep! My feet were stuck and the weight of the sand grasped around every inch of my legs preventing me from moving. The depth of the mud soon measured to my waist, and I struggled to climb out but the more weight I pushed into the hole, the deeper and more quickly my body sunk. I stopped moving and felt around with my arms above the water. Immediately, I felt a root in the ground near the shore to pull up on. Finally after pulling myself out, I laid on the ground covered with mud and dirt. “Why did I step in there? I didn’t know how deep these waters were. How could I, it was full of mud making it impossible to see? I guess I was curious to see why these footprints lead here. I took my shoes off and with muddy feet, I tried to wash the mud off using the water from the lake. Of course, the more I tried to wash my feet off using the muddy water, the more dirty it got. I’ve got to get out of here and wash off.

I woke up early, but my eyes were half open. I went on a walk to wait for the sunlight, but followed a cloud of dirt. I arrived at a pond with shoes matching my exact prints, but the size of my feet from years ago. I could not see the depth of the muddy waters, but decided to step in anyway and test the temperature. I woke up to accomplish a goal, but did everything opposite to achieve it, all because of curiosity and distraction. When I got stuck, I thought pushing deeper into the sand would lift me out, but it only sunk me deeper. After lifting my arms above the mud, I finally found strong root to pull me out. I tried to wash my feet with mud, but got even dirtier.

After washing off completely, I realized something new. You can’t wake up too early and expect a sunshine immediately, it takes time, you have to wait — and a time only everything above has control over. During this time, if you are too impatient to wait, you can get distracted by simple curiosities. The temperature may seem warm on the outside, but you can never know the depth of muddy waters — it is too unclear, don’t step in. You cannot put your burden or weight on that element which holds you down and expect it to lift you out, for it only forms a deeper hole and drags you down further, making it even more difficult to lift out. The only support that can lift you out are those that rise above muddy waters, with strong roots. You can never expect to wash off your feet using more mud, the source contradicts itself. Nothing can clean dirty feet accept pure waters. Dirt cannot clean dirt, and clean feet never needs washing. Whether your feet have grown bigger and stronger, never follow past footprints into dirty waters, it always ends up in the same place.

The End.

There was a little guy that used to get made fun of everyday in elementary. Everyone used to call him “freckle face”, especially this one blonde haired girl. Whenever he’d walk in, she’d yell “freckle face! Freckle face!” He immediately masked his reaction with a forced smile and looked away downward at the floor so he didn’t have to see if anyone was laughing. When he went home, he came into the house and his brother asked, “hey, what’s the matter?” “Oh, nothing, just the freckle face again,” he replied. His brother said, “Ya know, different is good!” So he went back to school the next day and walked in the classroom. “Freckle face! Freckle face!” This time he thought ‘different is good’ and put a smile on his face again. He went to sit down at his desk.

A new little girl walked into the room. She had short brown hair, walked like a little bear who was looking for the right person to make her feel important. She looked at the little guy and thought, he’s the one, he’ll make me feel like a million bucks, and sat right next to him. He looked over slightly and noticed she was staring at him. Immediately, his face turned bright red. He looked over at the class and everyone started laughing! “Is there food on my face?!” A classmate next to him said, “No dummy, there’s snot on your nose and your face is bright red!” “Oh no, not right now, why did this have to happen right when she was looking at me!” The teacher said, “Now, now, everyone quiet down, that’s not nice.” The class soon stopped whispering. Then the little girl leaned over to the little guy and whispered, “Hey, I think it’s cute. I don’t mind the snot. And by the way, I love your freckles! Not a lot of boys have them, I guess different is good.” He was shocked! Looking over that this beautiful angel, he never heard such words come from something so beautiful. As he replied, he swallowed a big gulp and said hesitantly, “Th-th-thank you, you’re the first person that’s said that to me.” She replied, “really? Thats a shock, well what’s your name?” Little boy said, “My name is Andrew, but you can call me Drew if you want, whats your’s? “Oh, I’m Romina, but you can call me Romi, but I prefer Romina.” The two seemed to understand each other. She knew there was something different about this little boy the moment she walked in, which is why she knew he’d make her feel like a million dollars, even when everyone else thought the least of him. Different is good, she thought, and that’s why I chose to sit next to him. Everyone else is all the same. She looked too good for him when he saw her walk in, but somehow knew she’d eventually back him up when the whole class was against him and laughing. She didn’t just make him feel like a million dollars, she made him feel like a million dollars was nothing, and that he was priceless.

The End.