Day 8: Delco Park
Seeing as we had a three-day weekend thanks to Memorial Day, Tuesday ended up being this week's Monday. I don't have any military in my family, but I still have much respect for those who serve and for those who lost their lives in service to our country. Coming back to school today was tiring at first, as it usually is at the start of the week, but the day picked up after a sleepy morning for me.
We didn't actually do that much this morning. There was a small thing about taking notice of the world around you from a different perspective, but it was cut short by a fire drill. The idea was that by bringing ourselves lower to the ground, we can see things at that small level more clearly. There was a man who was taught by a Native American man to use this perspective shift to become a better tracker. Once we came back inside after the fire drill, we started walking to Delco Park. The walk took somewhere around 20 minutes, so the walk was probably about a mile.
Once we got there, we met with an author and an artist. The author was named Rob Boley and he writes what he calls Scary Tales, twisted versions of fairy tales. The illustrator was named Amy Anderson, and she creates Metots, which are mixtures of three animals. We were tasked to create our own Metots based on animals linked to adjectives we'd describe ourselves with. Once we did that, we had to either write about them or draw them in detail. I wrote a short story about mine, which you can read at the bottom.
After that, we were basically allowed to do whatever we wanted to once again. There was a pond with some geese and ducks that I took some photos of, and there were also a lot of people walking their dogs. I love dogs, so I would always try to meet them when I can and pet them. One that is very worthy of note is a black lab named Blue. Blue was a good boy, to put it simply. When he saw me, he came over to me and just stood near me, waiting for me to pet him. His owner didn't even have him on a leash, seeing as he was so well behaved. I saw his owner throw a stick for him to fetch and he got so excited he did little jumps; it was simply adorable. Safe to say, he fetched the stick well.
Lifelong Companion
I am Nai. I was not born, no, I was brought into this world by my original owner. Her name was Triss. She was a sorceress of incredible power, but one thing she wanted more than anything else was a lifelong companion. That's who I am. She based me on her three favorite animals, so I am a combination of a dog, a cat and a raven. What she did not know was that I would outlive her by several generations. When she created me, she made sure that my lifespan would be the same as that of my owner. Inevitably, the time of the sorceress' death eventually came near. She grew sad, knowing I would die with her if she did nothing, so she knew what she had to do. She had to give me away. She had no children to transfer me to, but her brother did. She transferred ownership of me to her young nephew, Martyn. I was there when she passed on. It was the saddest moment of my life. I was safe since Martyn had already become my new owner, but I sat in her lap to comfort her. She passed in her sleep. I cried for the first time. I knew I had to be strong for Martyn. He took Triss' loss nearly as hardly as I did, and I was there for him as much as possible. Possibly the worst thing Triss had ever done to me was die, but I have been alive for so many years thanks to her. Eventually, Martyn knew his time was nearing, and he decided, just as his late aunt had done, to pass me down to a young family member. This time it was his grandson, Francis. Francis eventually passed me down to his son Martyn III, who passed me down to his niece Julie, and so on and so forth. I have been a member of this family for many years, and I have been cherished by all of my owners. For this, I have Triss to thank.