Count Your Blessings

by Adrianna Haidar, Ninth Grade

 

Under the bright and burning sun she sat, basking in its pleasant warmth, distracting herself with the feeling of safety and security. Distracting herself from the fact that she was cursed to stay half-embedded in the ground for all of eternity. No one ever noticed her; after all, she was quite a plain and simple thing to behold, with a gentle, unextraordinary beige coloring blending with light hues of gray. If she was honest with herself, she was filthy, encrusted with dirt and grimy particles of infinitesimal decaying organisms. And of course, she was stuck in the earth. Nothing, not even the beautiful glowing ball of fire in the sky, could make her forget that.

A loud thunderclap sounded overhead, interrupting her lamenting, and rain began pouring down from the heavens. The cool liquid seeped into the very ground she was stuck in, and the dirt around her softened its unrelenting grip on her. Little by little, the water swept away the dirt until—until . . . It took her awhile to understand what had just happened, and when she finally did, her heart completely stopped. She had no words to describe the pure bliss she experienced when she realized she was free. An eternity, she had thought before. The rain had saved her; she could—. As the rain abated, so did her joy when she finally discovered that she still could not move. Sorrow and despair washed over her. Why did God make her like this, some unmoving, insignificant object? All she wanted to do was travel and the world.

Suddenly, something wiggled underneath her. Disgust wormed through her. It was probably some bug wasting the time of its short life hiding underneath her when it could be out exploring. What a waste of life. Beside her, by a small tree, was a horde of ants. Motionless ants. Dead ants. The rain had killed them.

Below her, she could see the ant squirming out from under her, fighting to swim through the puddles of water the shower of rain had left behind and reach the horde of drowned ants. When it saw its dead companions, an almost silent cry of anguish emitted from it. She felt a wave of sympathy for the poor ant, its cry breaking her heart, and she concluded that maybe is was better she was what she was. Perhaps next time those insects, any insects, could take shelter under her. A new sense of hope and purpose swarmed her emotions. Yes, she was important. And she could never let herself forget that again.

Students were given an object which they had to describe and personify but could not reveal the object directly in their writing. Did you guess this mystery object?

A Rock 

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