running a race

I am a 16-year-old high school sophomore. I think I am a very creative person, and I find the opinion of my teacher, Mr. Gonet, to be very important to me. I am thinking a lot about my future, which I hope will include my hobby of video production. I recently got some great equipment through MakeAWish Foundation. I have a life threatening illness, but don’t think about it much. I did run cross-country in the fall. I do not have a girlfriend currently, but have dated a bit. Here is my dream:

The day began as any other day, my house seeming like any other house, until I came upon my front door. From the outside I never would have guessed anything out of the ordinary to the average eye. Upon opening, but not to my surprise or suspicion, I found my home ten times larger and incredibly forested, like that of the deepest, darkest jungles.

As my unusual dream progressed I found myself walking about my house as if nothing extraordinary had occurred. As I proceeded, I came across a herd of giraffe, and thus immediately began chatting with them about any oddity we could produce. Not long after making acquaintance with the giraffe, I was invited to join them in their afternoon ritual, a race down a jungle trail. I welcomed the idea and decided to take part in their annual race.

I was quite skeptical at the thought of doing even remotely well, and my hesitation proved true. The race began with me bringing up the far end. I continued to run poorly, struggling to even keep my giraffe opponents in sight, until we came to a small hill on the trail ahead, and to my surprise I witnessed every massive giraffe fall to its knees and proceed to crawl on the hill. It was my human instinct to run up the hill, but I continued no further without turning to ask what they could be doing. Couldn’t they just run up the hill such as I? It seemed easy enough. It must have been a concept few or none of the giraffe had ever thought of—why couldn’t they just run up the hill?

Then out of many, one giraffe stood to his feet, not lacking caution or fright, and ran up the hill to the amazement of the other giraffe. It did not take long for the other giraffe to figure it out and they too ran up the hill. Although I was honored and thanked graciously, it did not take long for the race to continue. The race was back in full session, but not with out some drastic changes, for this time I felt an unnatural surge come into my body, thrusting my way past the lead giraffe and further ahead into the forest. Even though I was not paying much attention to my surroundings, I did not fail to notice that I could not hear nor see the giraffe. What I was giving complete attention to was my breathing and the placement of my feet.

I continued in this pattern until I came upon a door right on the trail ahead of me which I decided without hesitation to open and carelessly pass though, like I had done it a million times before. There I saw kneeling on the floor my English teacher, Mr. Gonet. I felt no surprise at his involvement painting a tile-like floor. I then realized that when I stepped out onto the floor I had almost slipped, but caught myself, and in turn ruined the glistening paint job that was laid before my eyes.

However, after noticing this, I also noticed I bucket of paint right in harms way of being trampled and spilled over the floor. I promptly told Mr. Gonet that he should move the bucket of paint, because there are going to be a bunch of giraffe coming though here at any minute. You can imagine that if you were to say this to anyone you might feel like an idiot and they would feel equally uncomfortable, but this was not the case. He took my advice, moved the bucket, which was then narrowly missed by the giraffe.

After the giraffe trampled though the door they proceeded down a flight of stairs into an unfrosted, more modern like room in which they all stood around and began talking as if they were at a cocktail party drinking and eating hors d’oeuvre. It was my assumption that this marked the end of the race, so I bid farewell to Mr. Gonet and went to join the giraffe in their conversation. One giraffe and I began talking about how none of them could read or write. I was just making an offer to help them learn when I was rudely awakened from this marvelous dreamland by my alarm clock.

—Christopher, Age 16, Single, USA


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