{"id":5120,"date":"2018-06-14T12:14:29","date_gmt":"2018-06-14T12:14:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/teachersandwritersmagazine.org\/?p=5120"},"modified":"2023-02-22T15:47:37","modified_gmt":"2023-02-22T19:47:37","slug":"5120","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teachersandwritersmagazine.org\/5120\/","title":{"rendered":"Unexpected Greatness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Click the image to read the full anthology!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I am from the Bronx. I grew up about 15 mins away from Van Nest Academy in the Pelham Parkway. When I was in 7th grade, college to me was only a dream. I didn\u2019t know how realistic of an option it was at that time, but I held that thought dear to my heart as I uncovered my true passion of writing and poetry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No matter how much I love writing, I still know it\u2019s not an easy craft. But like with anything it\u2019s about practice. Find what you love. Then practice. Then practice some more. Life is all about our passions, our dreams, our ambitions and the dedication it takes to persevere. It\u2019s about the behind the scenes work we hardly get to see. It\u2019s about unlocking your imagination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

College is just that. Practice for life. Practice for dealing with situations, developing relationships, establishing goals and routines, becoming professional. But most of college is about opportunity. The opportunity to discover yourself and stretch your imagination.
In our sessions, we did exactly that. We challenged our own perspective of when to think about college. We wrote about college. We imagined our futures through career poems. We responded to our own passions to create essays that show the sheer talent, ambition and drive of what makes each and every single one of you talented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You are already amazing but have the potential to let the world know it as well. Take advantage of your own talents by maximizing your efforts. Master your crafts and continue to think about college.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Love,
Jay Howard
T&W Writer and Poet<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Featured Writing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Bats in the Belfry<\/strong>
by Jayden (7th grade)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have always wondered what it feels like when you die. What channels it? I have been thinking about this ever since my mother died on April 3, 2013. Yet, I have faced worse challenges than this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Welcome, take a seat while I talk to you about my dysfunctional life. First off, question. Do you know what it feels like to have ADHD? Actually don\u2019t answer that, it\u2019s a rhetorical question. I have ADHD which if you didn\u2019t already know it stands for Attention-Deficit\/Hyperactive disorder. A lot of people don\u2019t know how it feels to have ADHD. They say, \u201cOh, you can control it.\u201d Well that\u2019s easy for you to say. I have ADHD and it is frustrating. Half of the time I don\u2019t even realize I am doing something wrong until someone yells at me. I take medicine but that doesn\u2019t stop me from blurting something out. Did I tell you that I\u2019m adopted, No? Oh well I\u2019m adopted and if you don\u2019t know what that means then I\u2019m not actually going to tell you. That is why we have the INTERNET. Anyway if you think I got adopted when my mother died then uh ho ho, you\u2019re so wrong. Don\u2019t assume, it’s rude. I was sent to a foster home right after birth. Now, don\u2019t expect me to tell you why I was sent there because that is another story for a different time. But don\u2019t you worry just yet, I was adopted by my aunt or whatever but I still get to see my sister from another mother who is also adopted. Also known as my foster sister. (Oh, I am I going to use \u201calso\u201d a lot) If you knew me you would know that I\u2019m super shy and awkward. What makes it worse is that I have a high pitch voice. Now don\u2019t get me wrong, I do use it to test other\u2019s patience, I take my  Elmo\/squeaker reputation very VERY seriously. People judge and I just say \u201cThanks captain obvious, now maybe if you were to shut up then maybe I\u2019ll be quiet if you find my voice so incessant.\u201d Now I am most certainly the odd one out. Everyone either talks about basketball or Fortnite. I mean literally that is the only thing they ever talk about in my school every day. I guess the challenge I face is just trying to fit in. Which is every day. Mind you I have mood swings like every five minutes so you know, I never have anything to talk about so they either say one thing and walk away or I start talking and they walk away and after 5 minutes I finally realize I\u2019m talking to myself. Whoops. Yea I\u2019m weird. But that is expected and everybody who knows me well takes initiative on that. Well that just about wraps up my life issues. But as you know everything has an end (well except for this constant urge to listen to Pumped Up kicks, oh wait\u2014I just had a mood swing, now I want to sit in a corner and contemplate what I\u2019m still doing here.) So if you sat through this and read it all the way through, cool! However if you didn\u2019t then let me give you a quick rundown of what happened… umm I just told you all the challenges I face in my daily life.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An anthology of student writing. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":5134,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","featured_image_focal_point":[],"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"2292,5240,5361,3183,3755,1278","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[85,20],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachersandwritersmagazine.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5120"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachersandwritersmagazine.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachersandwritersmagazine.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachersandwritersmagazine.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachersandwritersmagazine.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5120"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/teachersandwritersmagazine.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12203,"href":"https:\/\/teachersandwritersmagazine.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5120\/revisions\/12203"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachersandwritersmagazine.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachersandwritersmagazine.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachersandwritersmagazine.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachersandwritersmagazine.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}