Chrestomathy, Fall 2016 by The Calhoun School

CHRESTOMATHY Chrestomathy (from the Greek words krestos, useful, and mathein, to know) is a collection of choice literary passages. I n the study of literature, it is a type of reader or anthology that presents a sequence of example texts, selected to d emonstrate the development of language or literary style.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Think higher, feel deeper.â&#x20AC;? (Elie Wiesel)

The Calhoun School Writing Magazine 2015-16 Seventh Graders Fall, 2016

Introduction This issue of Chrestomathy is filled with the thoughts, considerations and wisdom of the seventh graders of 2015-16. There are reflections on the Holocaust, forgiveness, and the power of words. There are six word stories and some thoughts about Calhoun. While our rising writers deserve the lionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s share of the credit for all of this, I want to thank writer and speaker, Liz Murray, who came frequently to work on writing with the students during the second half of the year. Her story resonated so deeply with our students and her wonderful way with them inspired their creativity in new and exceptional ways! Enjoy! Best, Larry Sandomir

Considering the Holocaust

Malina Ferri Holocaust Remembrance Day The sky above me is clouded with ash, glowing, crying. My feet are blackened by the soot, gifting me the pair of shoes I never owned. The rocks reach to my heart and pull me down. There is dust in my eyes but I still can’t cry. My lungs are full but I still can’t talk. I am too empty to feel anything but nothing, too numb to do anything but stumble through the darkness of the daylight. I just want it to end. I want someone to patch up the bleeding sky. If there is no one left who will remember your existence? If the world is empty, who is there to hold all the pain of everything? I can’t understand why we were brought here if all we do is tear apart everything that was once good. I don’t know how I will ever be able to continue on. There is nowhere to go, no one to turn to. Somehow, I have stumbled off the path. It was straight and simple and easy, laid out for the benefit of all of Germany. But I fell through the bricks. Holliss Hirsch

German and Jewish Lungs Breathing in deeply without a care in the world, taking your free breath for granted and of course without such a doubt. Hiding in the shadows fearful to be heard, a man stands alone barely making a sound. No one seems to notice the German oxygen. It’s ignored and unquestioned. The story for a Jew takes a different turn, however. Sleeping with one eye open, careful not to move, the breath of a Jew is hard to make out. German lungs inhale everyone’s air. Everyone’s air has no label or price; anyone can use it except the ones who walk around town with little gold stars pinned to their hearts. German and Jewish lungs breath the same air, in and out. Up and down the human race heaves. Up and down, in and out, German and Jewish lungs breathe for themselves. Oxygen for all, yet somehow not everyone gets that right. We breathe together in harmony. Everyone’s lungs come together to create the beautiful luxury of breath. But some cannot be free. Their breath has to be hidden and totally unseen. Not everyone knows how lucky they are for a breath each day. Deeply inhaling your life away. In and out up and down, deeply inhaling your life away.

Holliss Hirsch TIRED ARMS Tired arms hold the weight of our past. Our embarrassing, breathless past. The one where so many lives were stolen. The one where we lost our way, the one we try not to associate ourselves with. The one with fear, hate, insanity, power, and secrecy. But our arms are tired now. Tired of all our mistakes and choices, tired of the storm we’ve created. Tired of our superior attitude that means nothing more then immaturity. Tired of our dehumanizing. Tired. So relentlessly, unforgivingly tired. We’ve been carrying so much hate with us everywhere we go we’ve nearly forgotten how to love and forgive. How can one difference in our beliefs lead to a World War with people who tend to forget what they’re fighting for. We fight for freedom, but do we really believe it?

Our arms are tired of the confusion and miscommunication. Our arms are tired of the lies and violence. How can humans be so cruel to their own neighbors? We’ve lived together for so long yet we still haven't figured out a way to live peacefully together? Tired arms start to slip, they’re starting to give in but we can’t let them break. No. We must stand tall. Push past the hurt and pain to find the light and joy. We can’t let our tired arms win - our lives, our responsibility, our history, our problem.

Holliss Hirsch The Sun Should Never Shine Here He works well into the night, doing the despicable. But not by choice. He was chosen for the dirty work, the work of a madman. The work of a twisted, disgusting, screwed up community. The work of the devil. His bones popping out in an unhealthy manner, his skin bruised and worn, tearing at the seams. His mouth glued shut afraid to make a sound. He can’t remember how to speak, for the words have been sucked out and tossed into a death camp awaiting the end. The boy looks up at the sky in search of hope but his eyes return to the bone chilling ground. The sun never shines here. The sun should never shine here. The boy knows this by now, but always glances up just in case. The boy is all alone in a place with thousands of people whirling by, spinning him in circles. He looks up again, a force of habit maybe, but he looks for the hope every new day. Not giving up, but feeling the end near. At night, suffocated between other bones, the boy stares at the cold, dark wall and pictures the world he used to live in. His brother and sister, mother and father. He tries to imagine them and feel their presence. He pictures his sister’s little pink shoes, so small and sweet - he could only fit three fingers into them. He imagines his brother’s favorite hat, the dirty brown leather one he wore every day. He remembers his mom’s perfume, the sweet smelling flowers on her huggable body. He pictures his father, so strong and tall and remembers the stories he was once told. He closes his glassy eyes and clenches his fists trying to keep it together. Don’t let him break you, he says to himself. Be strong, don't let them into your mind. That was the chorus he repeated to himself every night. Day after day, getting older, losing hope. The boy still looks up at the sky, but the horrible truth is always there to smack him. The sun never shines here. The sun should never shine here. The dark, gloomy, awful, and unadulterated evil compound holds him, refusing to ever let go.

Anonymous Holocaust Reflection It was one endless night No one woke up Once you were taken into the night You never came out The silence The doors of survival closed after each person Never to be opened again The sun should never shine here How could it? This place That holds so many people and memories Will never be the same It canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t ever be the same Survivors hold the weight of memories After watching everyone they know and everyone else Be taken into the night The flashbacks The fragile memories of faith When it looked like survival was possible The moments in memory

The tired arms The tired legs Trudging on Into the unknown A shower for the women and children Work for the strong men Shower of death Worked to death Only the strongest men Made it out alive Never to see their family Again Lucky enough to live But for what? After all that was seen Was life even worth living? What was seen can never be unseen The screams The yells The cries Nothing could be done No way to help Just witness The terribleness of it all

Untitled That night Birds were flying All together packed tightly One by one Shot down The birds kept flying Bigger groups were taken down The birds kept flying More and more Taken at a time The birds Pushing on Only the strongest Still flying Finally Even the strongest were caged 8

No longer free But alive The last birds Never again going to see the others The birds shot down Will be burned Burned until only ashes are left Only the souls will fly Higher than ever Reaching the sky The stars Shining brightly in the night Where the sun will never shine Night becomes lighter than day The caged birds that somehow survive Are the only ones Flying in the night Soaring for the ones who canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t Bringing the souls higher than the Germans Past the trees Moving faster and faster No one can break them Only a few birds fly But all of the souls are with them Moving through the night

Campbell Murphy Holocaust Remembrance Day Is forgiveness ever possible? Is forgiveness really ever possible? Can Jews really ever forgive Nazis? Can you ever really forgive someone for betraying you and then leaving you behind? Even the few that do stay behind to help, the few who don't betray you, the few that give you a secret smile when they see you even though no one else does, can just that small group really make you believe that there is still hope when everyone else has betrayed you? When the people you used to think were part of your life and your community suddenly thinks youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re the enemy, can you ever forgive them for that? And can you ever forgive the one man who took that all away? No, you canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t because even though it wasn't everyone it seemed like it was. It seemed like everyone was gone and you were all alone with no one to trust. The people you used to think were there for you are now the 9

enemy are destroying your homes and ripping you away from them. You wish that small group were enough; you wish they could've said something but they didn’t because they couldn’t. All because of one man, his power, and his followers. You could never forgive that one man. Because it was he who took it all away

Omar Ali-Badia Holocaust Reflection The Holocaust, a violent massacre of an entire religion, all happening under the psychotic rule of one man. Adolf Hitler. Yet still people follow his ideals to this day. People still believe that “pure-blooded” whites should own the world. That Jewish people are scum and that those of different heritages than whites are inferior. 10

Why do they still carry on these hateful beliefs? Why do they still celebrate a vile man who brought pain and suffering to so many? My thinking is that Hitler scared the Nazi people so badly that that hate and fear made its way all the way to the current generation of Nazis. They still live in fear of Hitler and are servants to their own fears. This fear clouds their vision and makes them believe that the horror of the Holocaust was justified. This fear makes them deaf to the voices of those whose lives were lost in that time. It clogs their nostrils, making them unable to smell the burning flesh of children. It turns them away from the sight of mass graves to preserve the image that everything will be fine. It strips away all sense of compassion for others until they are heartless and numb with fear, so much that the sight of a starving child has no effect on them. It is born with them, it is raised alongside them and eventually it starts to raise them. It stays with them, it controls them, and it steers them down the path it has set for them. It begins feeding off of their hope, until they are nothing anymore.

Joan Playford

Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom Hashoah) Is forgiveness ever possible? For the past year I have sat in the disheveled basement of another, in the freezing cold I breathe, I sleep. I eat the scraps of a mutt, I keep a blanket of paper nestled around me at all times of the day. I will survive, I will fight through the peril that I face, I will grasp the chipping paint on the wall and use the little strength left in my body to stand up. I will close my eyes and hold in the tears, for I have left my family in fear. I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know what has come of them, if they live to see the darkness of some and the kindness of others. The hostile, so called warriors that knock on my guardianâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s door, they take from the poor, never the rich, for they are safe from the evils of the world. They use their money to support those in power; they pay for the washing, food and bed without worry. They mustnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t plead for the mercy and forgiveness of others while they play in their backyard, in the sunlight rooms of their houses on top the hill. I sit in a pit on the floor, contemplating my current situation. How I long to see the daylight. I feel the pain, I hear the noises, and the horrific odor fills my nostrils. I cannot complain, because I could be one of them. One of the dead, the remembered, the forgotten, one of many. If not for my mother, I would not be sitting in this place. I must

fight on for her, I must keep the memories of her in a temple that will never be destroyed. One that even the strongest of chemicals cannot destroy. I feel the cold working its way into my bones, growing old. I feel that my time is soon, I have always known it would come. To kick down my door and storm into my place of hiding, he will offer me a delicacy like rum. He will offer to pour it down my dry, cracked, and broken throat. I will refuse, I will stand up. They will drag me by my coat, through the sullen Earth and trudge to their car. What’s black and white and red all over is something much more horrid than a newspaper. The image has been burned into my soul, igniting my internal flame. I will never recover from its fame, its glory. As I ride with others to the station, I fear I would be slain. No windows, no light, nothing but the decrepit smell of failure and despair. We arrive without our baggage. We are put into the animal carries of the train. The tears, the children, the mothers, the families. I can’t bear to see it all. The ill, the injured, forced to stand on their wobbly legs. They can’t survive, they give in to the suffering. The dead among us, we are never free. When we arrived at Auschwitz, the Nazis took us; it felt like we were scum. No one to call for help, nowhere to run. I felt as if death had chained us to his arms. The grim reaper walked among us. I felt the living and the dead. Those adored and glorified, those who fought to the very end. The devil was among us, the decision maker just ahead. Those who worked until they cracked under physical pressure. Every woman sent to the left, the sick, the weak, the worrisome sent with them. The men were sent to the right, where brutal beatings awaited them. Stripped them of a head. I will never forget. I will never forgive. I sweat through my skin and onto the ground. The evils that awaited me were no more. I was never free - I worked until blood rained down my back, until my fingers and toes were numb. The days began to blur and my imagination was beginning to take the best of me. I was going to let death steal my personality, but I continued to fight. I will never give in. The day the bells rang out and called to me, the day the allies set me free … I will never forgive those who fought against me. I cannot forget the others. They will live inside me like brothers, we will walk through life together. I am the eyes they have left, the hope that their families survived. I now sit alone, without courage, but I must go on and never forget. The Holocaust.

Sarah Valger

My Family and the Holocaust

Last year I visited Yad Vashem, which is the Holocaust Museum in Israel. I’ve also visited the museum of Tolerance in Russia. On Thursday I’m going to the Holocaust museum in Washington D.C. There’s a difference between visiting a place where millions of other stories are heard, but it’s another thing to have a deep personal connection to it. My great grandfather, Michael (Moisei) Valger was an Auschwitz Birkenau survivor, as well as a soldier in the Russian army during WW2. Unfortunately, I never got to really know him because he passed away when I was born. When he was alive, he never talked about his experience, which left my family history at a complete stop. Two years ago, I thought it would be a good idea to make a family tree. I registered with a service called Ancestry, and they gave me a format to make my tree. I got all the information up until my great grandparents. Four out of six had passed away, and my parents and grandparents didn’t know any information. I was left in suspense, until recently. I had just had my Bat Mitzvah over the summer, and it was time to choose a project. I really wanted to do something that had to do with the Holocaust, because I felt that I needed to honor those 6 million lives. I searched the web. I thought it might be interesting to look up my great grandfathers, who both fought in the war. To my surprise, I found one great grandparent, Michael. It was primarily drafting documents, as well as a marriage license and a list of war camps. During the Holocaust, he was hiding in the woods, until the Russians found him. The Soviet government placed him into three war camps. Then he escaped. For years, he had to lose his Jewish identity to survive. He then was found by the German army, and was placed into a concentration camp. His name was changed to Moisei, he was removed of a last name, and was given a number, the only personal thing to him. He stayed there for a year and a half until the camp was liberated by the Americans. The story ends happily, but the story was never told. My great grandfather's’ story remained hidden, until I discovered it. I believe it is my job to tell the story. I must be the carrier, so my family’s history is not forgotten. Six million Jews died during the Holocaust, all of them with families, with love in their lives. It is my duty, and the duty of others, to make sure they never disappear. Sarah Valger Faith Faith an idea? Faith a thought? For those who know, Are there those who haven’t got faith? Is faith story? One yet to be told? Or is faith something that you can’t hold? To me, faith is a feeling that you get when there’s nothing worth believing in, but yet. Faith is around you, in every place. 13

Sarah Valger One Last Bird She sits by a window, her eyes soaking wet. Her heart is filled with sorrow and regret. A bird lands on the windowsill and chirps. She smiles, but has a condescending look, The bird looks up at her, but he is confused.

Julia Labusch The Sun Should Never Shine Here Yet it does. Like a cruel joke. As if to say, “Hey there, it gets better. Just hang in there!” But it won’t. Everyone knows that. We’re going to die here and we all know it. We’ve all come to terms with it, might as well wait for it to happen. There’s nothing else we can do, but the sun shines down on us, not letting us forget the happy memories of our lives. It stings our necks with its humidity, reminding us of summers where children didn’t have to fear for their lives. They could just run around and play until they got tired. Reminding us of times when our biggest worry was failing a test or that one child who makes fun of us for no reason. Reminding us of people always there for us, families, to hold us and to tell us stories and sing us to sleep. Now we fall asleep to screams of terror and moans of pain. You think we’d get used to it by now but no. We never do and we never will. We know that one day those moans and screams will come from us, and everyone else will just lie there and listen, because there’s nothing else they can do. We’re sick of listening. We’re sick of doing nothing. We’re sick of waiting to die when that big golden sun is telling us to hold on. Telling us that no matter what, we’ll make it through.

That and other broken promises. There’s no hope. The last thing we see is going to be a dark dingy ceiling right in front of our noses. And that sun is still going to taunt us while we die. It’s going to keep shining, keep reminding us, keep giving us those sick memories that we know we will never get back. While we bleed, it’s just going to dry our blood, giving us even worse reminders. And those reminders, mixed with all the happy ones, gives us nothing but more sorrow. We want to yell at the sun, “Shut up! We get it. Please, stop. Or at least help us.” But it just keeps singing its merry little tune, deserting us like it always has. What were we thinking? We knew it wouldn’t help, but we still asked. There’s no one else we can ask. The others can’t do a thing. We keep hoping someone, anyone, would run in, disarm the guards, and unlock the gate like the handsome prince from the storybook who comes to save the day. But this isn’t a storybook and that will never happen. We try to cheer each other up, tell each other our stories, but we’ve been here so long that we’ve run out of stories to tell. And we can’t think of any others no matter how long we stare at that horrible sun. So we just keep waiting in silence, until the sun sets.

Emily Bauman Flashbacks I see them My eyes begin to water I hear them My ears begin to ring I feel them My palms are sweaty I know them I lost them

I need them They left me I wake up crying and screaming. Scared of myself and scared of my new family, I’m praying they will be different, but I could never know. I fall back to sleep. “Save me please, save me.” “I love you.” “Please, Please!” “Bye.” “You are the last one, please.” He jumps Right through the window Leaving me to hear the knocking My own brother The knocking no one wants to hear Please Please Please Please Save me Again, I wake. No one has noticed. This family must be better. My new brother loves me, really loves me. He isn't just in love with me saving him or the idea of him being able to save himself. I am saved, I need to be. “Mom, come back. Why are you leaving? I need you.” “Exactly, you need me. What you don’t know is I need you so much more and I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if you loved and needed me as much as I love and need you. It hurts so much, so much more than you could ever know. Right now you think I am hurting you, but later you will realize I am saving you.” I cry, so much, so much More than I want to admit to More than I want to think about. This time, I don’t open my eyes. I just simply have to think about my new mother. I never want her to hurt me and I know she never will. I have to know she never will. I need her, she needs me. “Dad, where are you going.” “Don’t worry, your mother and brother are still here. I will see you again, in this world or another. I love you so much. Now go back to bed.” “I love you.” 16

“Breakfast!” I am safe. I am loved, I need to be. “Breakfast!”

Daniel Komiss In Unison As the children march down the small, narrow street, you can hear the beat of their feet. Their arms stay rigid at their sides, as they look at the back of their leader. Fea r is written across their faces and nestled within their movements. One does not want to be corrected, or eyed; one wants a look of approval and pride. For one this is a difficult task, as he cannot stand still. He twitches with each command, and continues to move when the others stop. His hearing disability keeps him from moving up in the ranks, and his “disobedient” behavior labels him a nuisance. For one motivated and witted friend, this is not a problem of another, it is something worth standing up for. “Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love. Love risks degenerating into obsession, friendship is never anything but sharing.” -Elie Wiesel For one teacher it is a rather humorous situation, while he punishes the two misfits, and laughs with his inflated ego and little minions. He forcefully places the boys in the mud. He makes the upstanding boy run laps in the ice as his friend collapses onto the ground from exhaustion. He enjoys the torture, for he thinks it will whip the delinquents into shape, but he does not identify the tear in his plan. Each time the boys complete their punishment, stand up, come back to class, they defeat the purpose of the task. “Every time a Jew opens his eyes he is standing up to Hitler; every time he draws a breath, he becomes one step closer to surviving.” Anonymous Holocaust As a Jew, the Holocaust makes me feel hurt and uncomfortable and unwelcomed in some places. Sometimes if I am around people who talk about religion and people who aren’t Jewish, I tend to feel uncomfortable telling them my religion. I know there is nothing bad about being Jewish but when I heard about all of these Germans that hated Jews so much they wanted to kill them, it makes me feel hated. A lot of times I don’t want to tell people I am Jewish because then they might think less of me. Some people feel proud of being a Jew and getting through the Holocaust, but I just sometimes feel like an outsider. 17

Most people I know are Catholic or Christian and I don’t like the fact that I am different because of my religion. I know that people only hated Jews because they believed they were smarter and wealthier than the rest, but I still feel uncomfortable that a group I am part of was hated so much. There are still some people who dislike Jews and it makes me sad because I don’t want people to hate my family and me when we didn’t do anything to these people. I can’t do anything about my religion because I was born this way. It’s really hurtful to know that some of my ancestors were in the Holocaust and passed away because of Hitler. To kill innocent people because they were born a certain way is inhumane. Killing anyone is terrible. Hitler and everyone who thinks murder is okay should understand the value of a person’s life. They didn’t care about these people at all and wanted them to die when they did nothing at all to Hitler. I don’t like my religion being part of such a huge, terrible event in history Hitler made being Jewish seem like a negative thing. Being a Jew isn’t a negative thing. Jews are mostly good people. There are terrible people and great people in the same religion. You can’t determine how people act based on their gender, religion, or race. You can only tell how a person is once you get to know them. Not all Jews are very smart or wealthy and want to be better than everyone, not all Muslims are terrorists, not all Germans are against Jews. There are some people that do fit the stereotypes they are given, based on their gender, race or religion, but that isn’t always the case. Before you judge someone, know who he is.

Natalia Rueda Closed Doors

So many lives were lost in this terrible tragedy They didn’t deserve to die How could so many people have no mercy And just kill, shoot, and murder They were so innocent They had families, friends Who loved them 18

Hitler and his men just closed the doors on them Not caring Should have had open minds How ignorant They didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know the Jews Yet they killed them They never opened the doors just left them shut There was no light No hope No faith Just darkness pain, anger and fear Pure fear It scarred their minds Left a dent in their hearts That will stay there for eternity Losing everything Nothing to hold on to Nothing to value Trying so hard to fight back Stand up Stay alive But no It was all too much The bullets The blood The deaths Too much to handle Feeling lost And not knowing what to do The sound of the bullets Of books, bodies, and valuables burning The cries of children and adults The screams of agony A feeling of emptiness Like there was nothing left At least nothing that mattered 19

He never gave them a chance Not one So many innocent people So many Are dead Gone Forever The trains So crowded So dead Never alive With doors that never opened No more shining lights No brightness Or happy feelings Pure sadness carried those carts Surrounded them Never let go The people who died will always be remembered Forever and always

Jake Weinstein Holocaust The Holocaust was one of the worst things to ever happen to any group of people. Think about everyone you have ever looked at or at least me, being 13. That's about how many people died. If you think about that how someone can come into that much power to kill that many people without most people even questioning it, that is crazy. It seems so impossible that someone could make other people who before had no need or want to kill anyone

start to work at killing camps. How could they even do that? Every day they're taking so many people's lives for no good reason. The only reason is Hitler coming into so much power that whatever he says is what people do and they now think that it is okay to do that. It is almost like the new President just started saying unless you are some kind of race or religion then you must leave the USA or be killed. If that were to happen today people would fight back. It was not even that long ago. It just seems so unreal that someone not that long ago could come into that much power. Think about if all leaders were like that, where whatever he/she says that is what you do. Even if it is something that hurts you or could kill you, if they say it, you do it. That is insane. I wonder what would have happened if Hitler died earlier. Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s say he died without any war. How would they have gotten back up and running? He was so much in power and people wanted to obey just him. How would they have picked a new leader if one day he would have just died. I wonder if maybe the country would have split in two halves. I wonder how everyone who killed people felt when it was over. Did they feel bad or did they still think they did the right thing? What would you do with your life after you kill so many people and then you saw what you were doing was horrible? What would our world be like today if Hitler stayed in power and never died. Would anyone have an issue with it today because at this point most people would have grown up with it and gotten used to it. Then if it kept going everyone who he wanted to die would have died at this point. It would be a very odd world to have everyone be almost the same. How would it feel to be hiding and know every time you wake up or even go to sleep you could die in a matter of minutes? I would hate that so much because the only goal at that point in your life is to keep your life. There is no fun, nothing enjoyable. You would just have to wait and wait and wait more until hopefully it would end one day. You would also never really know if it was ever going to end; it could just be like that forever.

Aiden Horn Holocaust The Holocaust was one of the saddest times in history. The late 1930s and early 1940s was a horrible time. Adolf Hitler killed over six million Jews and other types of people. To him, Germans were the only people who belonged on Earth. That the world let Hitler make it so far was mind blowing. All I can think about is the suffering

people. People who could have made the world a better place just killed and for what? Just because they were Jewish. That is the most sad and depressing thing that I have heard. If I lived in Germany at the time, my family and I would most likely be dead. It is just so hard to believe the world was like that. I thought that stuff happened so far in the past, but the Holocaust was not that long ago. Adolf Hitler was an awful person and turned other people into him - haters of anyone who was not German. He was such a smart person and it is so bad is when someone uses a great quality for evil. To me, Hitler was a very smart person, but also very stupid. He was extremely smart to know how to control people, but so unbelievably stupid that he thought that killing so many people was for a good cause. Something that scares me so much is if Hitler had fully succeeded. If he didn’t attack England and Russia at the same time, what would the world be like. I know I wouldn’t be here. If I were, I picture a Times Square with Hitler on all of the big screens. I picture signs saying, “Pray to the Fuhrer.” I see flags of Adolf Hitler everywhere. I see a messed up world. A world where people are still disrespected for their religion and race. I see either no one who is not German unless they are slaves. If the Nazis succeeded, there would be no Martin Luther King and even if he was born, the moment he would be an upstander, he would be killed. I picture it always being a rainy day in my mind because even though it might be the sunniest day ever, it will always feel rainy to me. I would never have been here and if I was, I would have not been able to have a good life. However, what bugs me the most is that my family wouldn’t have a good life either. Writing this is just so difficult. My family not having a great life makes me tear up. They mean everything to me and one person could have ruined that. That part also makes me furious. Adolf Hitler never understood how important one death was. With one death, you are making so many people sad and ruining their lives. All I can do is thank God he was defeated. This is another example of Adolf Hitler’s stupidity. He thought, what can killing eleven million people do? It ruined so many lives. He might have been killing someone who could save the world or that person's son. It is such an awful thought that the world could have been so much of a better place. He didn’t realize the impact he made. Overall, he killed much more than eleven million people because he killed all of those peoples, kids, grandkids, great and grandkids. I rarely will say I hate someone and mean it, but this is one of the rare cases where I will say it and mean it. I hate Adolf Hitler so much and I don’t even feel slightly guilty for saying that. He controlled people and killed millions, so I don’t care that how many people hated him. He deserved to die. This might sound very dark, but if you take a moment and think about what he did, it does not seem so extreme. This is the first and hopefully the last person who I think deserved to die.

Jude Thompson Holocaust Remembrance Day I wonder what made Hitler think of the idea of exterminating Jews from the Earth. What made Hitler not like the Jewish community, even after everything they had done for their countries? Why did he not like the religion, and what made him direct his focus on getting rid of all of them? Did he have bad experiences in his childhood, or did something happen to him that made him direct his anger at the Jewish community? Why was it specifically the Jewish religion that he did not like? How could Hitler think that Jews were not equal to anyone else? They are not different to anyone else, apart from their beliefs, and so what if Hitler doesn’t believe in what they want to believe in. Why should that make it right for him to say that they are not equal to him? They are human beings and so is Hitler, why did people support anything he said? How could they support anything he said? It is one of the worst things you can do to a human, downgrade him for what he looks like or what he believes in. What makes the Jewish religion not equal to Christianity or Buddhism or any other religion? It really surprised me when I realized how many people actually supported Hitler’s ideas. It made me wonder whether they were forced into supporting him, were being guided into the wrong state of mind by propaganda, or were actually choosing to follow him. Why was killing all of the Jewish people in the world a good option? What made it so bad that there were Jews living among people of other religions? Why was it a necessity to get rid of them? There were so many problems in the world that had to be fixed at that time, and being Jewish wasn’t one of them.

Edith Lemoine Holocaust Remembrance The Holocaust was a horrible tragedy that should have never happened. It was a dark time for the whole world, and it’s all because of one person, Hitler. Why no one in power said no to him earlier and stopped him is a mystery. Hitler wasn’t in his right mind. He was insane and couldn’t see that Jews were people too. He wanted to take over the world, which isn’t the part that makes him nuts. He wanted everyone to look the same, blonde and blue eyed, but everyone has the right to look what they look like and should still be able to live in the world as who they are. Hitler didn’t agree with that. That's what makes him a psycho, horrible person.

To be taken out of your home is nerve wracking to begin with, but then once you're there, realizing that if you can’t do any manual labor, you will die in a gas chamber is a horrible thing to comprehend. Imagine you have five-year-old kid and they said you would live and work at the concentration camp while your five year old is sent to “take a shower.” They think, okay, I’ll take a shower, but you know that that is the last time you will ever see your child again because they’re about to die in a gas chamber. That was Hitler's plan. He wanted to make sure that those “not worthy” of living in his world were discarded like a used tissue. Just go throw them in the gas chambers because they’re “unpleasant” to look at. Who in their right mind would do something like that? He wasn’t in his right mind. Hitler, unfortunately, was a genius, but crazy with smart is not usually a good match. Because he was so smart, he found ways to make what he was saying seem sane in the public eye, so no one in power could stop him until it was too late. And his plan worked for more than a decade. People realized too late that Hitler was a man who was never sane and should have been stopped earlier. But now we have to make sure that we don’t make the same mistakes. We have to make sure that someone like Hitler doesn’t come to power ever again.

Julia Filiaci Holocaust

The streets where the cold ghosts 24

Roam, where no one is known That’s home A title that’s all I am A speck of dust left on the side Why? I ask What did I do to deserve this? So frightened of life Life that now seems pointless My family is gone My friends are gone My identity is gone My life is gone I’m gone I have to hide in shame Torn out and shattered Then step in a flame Burn and burn Until you become ashes Finding freedom All in just flashes And then burn If you stop you die In a cold oven where you lie No one can breathe Not in this air Only things seethe How can I stay? How can I live? Not when I have nothing Nothing to give I loved my home I loved my world But my world is gone now I’m on a train Waiting for the showers With tears like rain

Elijah Isaac Yom Hashoah Hitler and the Nazis had no soul; they enjoyed tons of people dying and suffering. Buildings covered in swastikas and the secret kidnapping of Jews - then the Holocaust happened and there was no more hiding anything. All hell broke loose and the killing 25

began. They were those few people who didn’t hate Jews, but they had to hold on to their feelings for their own safety. Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, so many got caught and taken; there was no escape. Newborns deprived of the chance to have life, families throwing their own families into the oven. Starving and torture inflicted on innocent humans. What do you do when there is nothing left to do? Why did I survive, why me? Why did I burn my own family? Who is the man who attempted and almost succeeded with genocide? How could someone hate a religion so much and be so evil? No words should be powerful enough to torture and kill six million innocent, loving people. How devastating the trains were, so many people squished together! There was no sitting for 3 days or more, the countless cries, the crap at your feet and the crap leading Germany.

Sophie Goldstein The Holocaust Memory The Holocaust was the worst genocide that ever happened. My family had to hide in the woods, thinking they were going to die. Hitler was relentless. He tried to make Jews feel so inhuman. Hitler tried to destroy my people and their ways and he failed. He separated Jews. Lined them up in concentration camps, naked, when it was freezing outside and he would shoot them without even realizing how many people he killed, how many people’s lives he ruined. He threw their bodies into a pile and let them rot. He was a coward. He was afraid to be tortured so he blew himself up. He was totally fine with killing six million Jews, but he was afraid to die when he was just one small person. Why did God’s creatures do this to others who are also God’s creatures? Why are humans so horrible to each other if they know how hard it is to be human? Why did so many people stand by during the Holocaust? Why? Every person has the right to worship what they believe. I am Jewish. Thinking about the Holocaust makes me feel sick. Sometimes I fear that something like that will happen again. What if

Hitler’s soul still lurks around? What if he takes the shape of another person? What if everyone stands by and people just let these things keep on happening? War. Blood. Tears. Bodies. Guns. Fear. KILLED. Everyone who is born deserves to live. Not be killed for who they are. Everyone always says the Holocaust was so bad, but would they stand up for the people who were being killed if it happened again? I wonder how it felt to live during that time? Seeing all your family being taken away, all your things lost, your family store going out of business. Having to be looked at as a troll. Then the Nazis would take you away from your house. You would never see it again, all because you are Jewish. They took you far in a crowded train made for animals for weeks. Your little brother died from a virus, then you woke up and you were in a line waiting. There was nowhere to go. You knew you were going to die. You wanted to go home. You couldn’t see anything but the piles of bodies of your people. Your mother was in front of you. She cried. She was the next person to die. She looked into your eyes and said, “I love you; be brave.” So you did, knowing you were going to die and that this was the end of the line. You were so angry. Your life was perfect, you loved your family and life and school – and now it was just over only because you were Jewish. Your mom looked at you as the Nazi put a gun against her head. BOOM!!!!! No, no, you screamed. The Nazi turned around and shot you so fast that you barely had time to feel sad that she died.

Jude Griffith Yom Hashoah

“This street holds its secrets like a cobra holds its kill.”

The Jew is coming tomorrow. I don’t know why Papa wants him. I’m scared and I can’t sleep at night. I don’t want to be taken away with the others. “Close your eyes and you will see.” For hours on end we sit here, scared for our lives and fearful of the day the Nazis will go into the attic and see us all. Is this really my life? Sitting all day long, every day, not moving, not talking, watching my family get sick upon me. “And I remember the Holocaust. I remember all we lost.” When I saw the Nazi planes up in the sky, I didn’t know what to think. How would you be able to live with yourself seeing your family die in front of you? Your life is heaven, mine’s hell. “Shot and sent to their grave, can’t awaken, it’s too late” It’s hard to see your own father give up. I used to see him around the camp once in a while, now I only see him in my dreams. I can’t live like this anymore. I believe one day I will be with my father again. I’m scared for that day to come, but at the same time, I’m happy. “All that we can do is just survive” Hidden in his basement for the past year. Every day I see my Nazi friend change. He didn’t mean to hit me and I know he’s just following the leader’s orders. Right in front of me, I see the once nice kid turning into the devil with each passing day. “Tell me, where can I go?” I hide in dumpsters and steal food at night. I pray every night that death will come and take me away. Why do I have to be the unlucky one still on this Earth? I’ve lost all hope. I saw my mother get shot in the head by a Nazi soldier. I screamed and cried, but nobody heard me. “Today I weigh less then a shadow on the wall” Today I had half a carrot. Once I would have thought that was nowhere near enough food for an entire day; but now that is a five star meal.

Casey Kalfus 28

Holocaust The Holocaust was the worst thing to happen in humanity’s life span so far. In my opinion, it was the most fatal thing ever. Maybe that’s because I’m Jewish or maybe it’s just because horrible things happened to great people. And even if they weren’t the nicest or your best friends, they were still humans, just how we are now.

When I think of the word, “holocaust,” the first word that comes into my mind is death. I wanted to see what other people thought, so I went around our school floor and asked. Some of the words that came up were: fire, struggle, and sad. You might have noticed the words that people thought of were hard and painful things. The effect that word has had in our world is so painful. Even now, 70 years later, this word is still so horrifying. And I couldn’t even imagine how much agony it was right after the Holocaust was over!

A lot of songs have been written about the Holocaust and basically all of them are very sad and depressing. That’s because there was nothing positive about that time, ever. If you listen to a song called “This Street, That Man, This Life,” by the Cowboy Junkies, it’s really depressing. Here are some of the lyrics to the song: This street holds its secrets like a Cobra holds it to kill. This street minds Its business like a jailer minds its jail. That house there is haunted. That door’s a portal to hell. This street holds its secrets very well. As you can see, literally everything that relates to the Holocaust turns into hate, Hell, and Death!

Julia Labusch Where’s Ruthie? My best friend Ruthie always has a huge smile on her face, as we run around playing tag with my little sister and me. She’s the greatest friend we’ve ever had, like another sister to us. She’s kind, smart, funny, and amazing. We love her so much and cherish every minute with her. One December 17, when we were finally done playing for the day, we went home. I didn’t know that would be the last time we saw her. If I did, I wouldn’t have let her go. I 29

would’ve said, “Come stay with us, Ruthie! Don’t go inside, you can’t.” I would’ve hugged her close and brought her to the field for another round of tag. But I didn’t know. The next day, she wasn’t at school. I assumed she was home sick. I went to her house and knocked on the door. It didn’t open. I knocked again. Nothing. I looked in through the window, but no one was there. I took a pebble and threw it at her window. “Hey Ruthie! Are you there?” Nothing. Maybe she was already at the field, waiting for me. I ran to it, but she wasn’t there. I looked all around, expecting her to jump out from behind a tree and scare me, but it didn’t happen. I began to worry. I went home and saw my mother sitting on the couch, shaking. “Mama? Where’s Ruthie?” My mother just looked at me and cried. Aidan Campagna The Endless Nightmare - Holocaust Remembrance The Holocaust, the horrible time full of horrid memories, when an insane man named Adolf Hitler denounced all Jews. All Jews in Germany were stripped of their citizenship. Jews were considered criminals. Being a Jew was considered the worst thing that you could be. It was an inhuman thing. Jews were brought to concentration camps where they would be killed. Brought i n crowded cattle cars, taken from their homes, captured, and taken to camps. Conditions at the camps were terrible. The Jews taken there would be starved, tortured, gassed, and experimented on. After they died, other Jews would be forced to burn the dead bodies of fellow Jews, some, family. Hitler’s aggression toward Jewish people quickly spread throughout the country. Jewish houses and stores were destroyed and raided. A group known as the Nazis made it their goal to wipe out all Jews and replace them with a superior race Hitler called Aryans, people who were blue-eyed and blond haired. Hitler’s acts, or as he was locally known as “The Führer,” are unforgivable. It is absolutely surprising how much aggression was pointed towards the Jewish people. No one has really found out why Hitler hated Jews, and they probably never will. Fortunately, some people would hide Jews from the Nazis. Punishments would be brutal for hiding Jews.

The Holocaust is, thankfully, over. Hitler, realizing he was losing the war, committed suicide in a bunker. Survivors were and are now are crippled with horrid memories and nightmares of the Holocaust. About six million Jews were killed during that time. Hitler was insane and should never have been the chancellor of Germany. People still remember the Holocaust, and we should never forget all the Jewish people who died during it, all the innocent people who burned in the fiery hatred of Hitler.

Jonas Butelman The Train Ride The Nazi officers screamed at us to all get on the train. I saw a young man run away. The try was not successful; a guard chased him, beat him to the ground and dragged his unconscious body onto the back train. I thought I saw that man’s tooth on the floor, but I feared to move closer to it to be sure. Mothers attempted to calm down their crying children. Behind me a mother tried to reassure her daughter that they were safe, but deep down she didn’t know at all. I saw an officer say something to another and then aggressively tell us to get onto the train. The even more crowded train wasn’t very calming, so even more children started screaming. Their mothers covered their mouths before the Nazis would find where the sound was coming from. One of them pushed a very old man, and told him that he was moving too slowly. The train started moving, and after a few hours of gaining speed someone tried jumping out of the train and tumbled down a hill into a lake. He didn’t move. I heard someone scream out, saying that he was her father. Someone fell asleep, or became unconscious for a different reason and fell down. I expected someone to tell an officer about it, but no one did. I walked over to one myself and told him. He told me to go the hell away, ending the sentence by calling me filth in its purest form. I went back to my spot. I felt myself slowly collapsing, and felt drowsy as I felt my body collide with the floor. After that I heard the same trooper screaming at me to get up. I took a while to get up; after all, I hadn’t eaten in days. He hit me very hard with a baton. I got out of the train to see a two long lines, the first with young men and a few older, and the second with the elderly, women and children. The soldier said I wasn’t fit enough so I was put onto the second line. A lab coat wearing man, who I presumed was a doctor, although I don’t think he is following his Hippocratic oath, told us to go to a showering room. 31

Allegra Wertheim An Endless Night The endless night starts with a knock on the door. That is the beginning, but there is no end. We hear the noise, coming from the front of the house. “Open up, open up now!” My father tells my brothers, sisters and me to go to our bedrooms and lock the doors. But it is too late. My youngest sibling, who has no idea what is going on, opens the door, and invites the Nazis inside. My father starts to cry, something I have never seen him do before. He starts grabbing everything his hands can hold as we are all dragged out of our home. We are put on an extremely crowded train, leading us who knows where. It feels like years, even decades that we are on the train. The weight of the silence is too heavy for me to handle. Finally, we are allowed to get off the train. Where are we? I wonder. Is this a work camp? I have so many questions, but few will be answered until the endless night is over. I guess my time had come. I had known that it would happen at one point, but I di dn’t know when and I didn’t know how to prepare myself. My mother had been taken away six weeks before, while out taking a walk. I counted the days of the endless night. Nazis came and took me away about a month and a half ago. I wish I had my prayer book with me, something to help me escape from reality. But they burned everything I that I had on the train. I think about my friends and my mother. I try to forgive, I give it my all. But it is just too hard. Can anyone forgive people who have made your life and the life of your people miserable? Is it even possible? So much effort goes towards forgiveness, but I keep 32

failing. I can’t forgive. It is so awful what is happening to the Jews. We are treated li ke wild animals. The Nazis think that the only way to tame us is to put us in concentration camps and find a way to make us die. But that is not taming us. It is endangering us. I thought the endless night was put to an end when my father died. He was not being fed enough, and he was working way too hard. I thought that I was given one last awful thing that happened to me. I hoped that after, life at the concentration camp would not be as bad. Maybe the Nazis would even be pleased with all of the destroyed Jewish souls, so they would set a few people free. I don’t know why I was so hopeful. Why was I being so optimistic? All I was doing was getting my hopes up. Nothing got better. Nothing even stayed the same. Everything got worse. It was awful. I want this night to end. I want to open my eyes and find that it was all a dream. I can’t believe that the endless night just started with a knock on the door.

Luke Roshkow Even The Rocks Cry Everything cries at this sight. The man, the woman, the child They all cry. Everything must cry Even the rocks cry. Even the rocks. The train driver who drove the Jews to the camp. Will cry. He tells himself he has done nothing, But he knows what he has done. A German soldier in Russia will cry to himself, because he knows what he did. The loyal Nazi and The French collaborator Will cry at the horrible sight of dead bodies. Even the rocks cry. The pits in the ground, the Finnish soldier, the bugs that eat the dead Jews and the common Polish man who sees what is happening to his countrymen all must cry. Even the rocks cry.

Luke Roshkow This Place This place This place is dark This place is dirty They give us no light The only water washing this place is the tears of children This place reeks of burned dead bodies No one cares enough to even put them in a mass grave They just burned them This place is horrible You want to get out of here alive But they are not going let that happen You will be killed not matter how hard you fight it This place Is Auschwitz

Claire Coven Taken Away It was close to four, I think When they came But really how could I know Behind closed doors all I could hear were the clocks ticking and footsteps The footsteps of those here to take me away Here to take me away Every second from here on feels like hours

Years Decades Centuries I guess it was my time To be taken away, I mean My family’s and friends’ time had come Behind the closed door of this clock factory I have spent the last year or so 1 Hiding myself from the world Hiding my name But how should I know what the date is I count the days in my prayer book What is its use now? Now that it’s gotten me taken away It makes me sad to think no one is left No one is left to wonder about where I went I wondered about where they went Of course, I know where they went by now They were taken away I have already been taken away from my community My family My friends My liberty has been taken away My opinion was taken away long ago My say as well My temple was demolished My children gone All I have lost It has all been taken away My mind has been taken away And now my body will go with it too 2 The only thing that can’t be taken away Away by those men Is my soul; My soul and the souls of my people Will never rest For we are the wrestling ones

Anna Friedland Holocaust Remembrance In class we have been learning about the Holocaust. It was one of the most terrible events that anyone has ever told me about. We learned about Elie Wiesel and how his family was taken away to a concentration camp. Elie was a survivor. When he did an interview with Oprah he said that he was always running and he couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t think of a time when he was walking. What Hitler did was a horrible, horrible thing to do to human beings. He took lives away from humans who did not do anything wrong. Some people were forced to burn their relatives or their friends and if they said no, the Nazis put the Jews in ovens alive. I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t understand why someone would even have thoughts like Hitler did. I know that Hitler was extremely smart, but he used his smarts for bad things. He could have figured out a cure for a disease but he chose to kill people instead of help them. What I do not get is why people agreed with Hitler's ideas.

PERSPECTIVES Nobody Knows Kyra Fox Verse 1 nobody wants to see you fail but you’re lost in your own fairytale they say your heart is on the verge of frail but they don’t know, they don’t know if only if only if only if only

people listened to the quiet like you people listened to the shy like you people listened to your prolific words you were heard

Chorus

i’m talking about the one in the corner reading to himself he’s always in the library or at the nearest bookshelf i’m talking about the girl who still has imaginary friends i’m talking about the girl who doesn’t adhere to the trends i’m talking about the boy who gets laughed at for his dirty shoes but they don’t know he walks three miles in them every day to school

Verse 2 it’s hard because you’re in a precarious state of mind you want to be heard but your voice stops you every time you just seem to fade away while still being there so you get lost in the words and your own world that’s fair the kinetic hallways scare you until the end they trample over you and your invisible friend

Chorus i’m talking about the one in the corner reading to himself he’s always in the library or at the nearest bookshelf i’m talking about the girl who still has imaginary friends i’m talking about the girl who doesn’t adhere to the trends i’m talking about the boy who gets laughed at for his dirty shoes but they don’t know he walks three miles in them every day to school

Verse 3 you don’t even loathe people who don’t notice you in a sad way you understand why they have no clue about you just another benign day at school laughing quietly at all these silly fools

you see things everyone is too caught up in to see all these kids pretending they all agree all these clones live in unison Chorus i’m talking about the one in the corner reading to himself he’s always in the library or at the nearest bookshelf i’m talking about the girl who still has imaginary friends i’m talking about the girl who doesn’t adhere to the trends i’m talking about the boy who gets laughed at for his dirty shoes but they don’t know he walks three miles in them every day to school Post the crux of their life is popularity they’re all caught up in their lies while you live in sincerity you may not be the proverbial kid in his trending clothes but you’re more than just the kid that no one knows

Kyra Fox Loath I loath dentist appointments I loath the look of disappointment I loath pain I loath moments that feel like crushing rain I loath the tears that we must face I loath the moments of disgrace The word is negative because you loath what you don’t want to occur You loath all the things that are impossible to concur You loath all the events, you wish had an alternative Now do you see how the word is negative? 39

Kyra Fox A Fictional Characterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Mood I try to understand her but my eyes cannot grasp the complex pain on her face. The stench of the pain in her eyes makes my own heart want to collapse. She has a benign yet honest smile smeared across her face. I ask myself why sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s smiling? Did she say a joke in her head or is she laughing at the world? I wonder what thoughts consume her mind but I try not to think too much about it because then I might get too caught up in a thought that will never have a resolution. Yet I cannot help but tamper with the idea of her mixed emotions and how they can be. How can her eyes look like the midnight sky, while her smile looks like a summer morning? The surreal look on her face cannot be described. It looks like her mind is pondering billions of thoughts at a time. There are bitter thoughts and elated thoughts, but her face cannot figure out which to display. Is she utterly euphoric, completely melancholy, or maybe even both? I guess these are the questions that lie beautifully unknown and that is simply okay.

Holliss Hirsch What if We Came Together in Unison? Life as we know it has changed right in front of our eyes. We get older. We grow wiser. We become who we were always meant to be. Sometimes it takes a little more soul searching to find exactly what that one thing is, but we do find it eventually. Or do we? Obstacles are prone to getting into everyone’s way. When you finally find a way around it, another one appears. Do we eventually find the real us? The person we want to be or do we settle? For something less then what we deserve? Our world, our community, and our media all pressure us to become someone we don't want to be, but rather someone who society wants us to be. We turn our well-deserved lives into a contest to see who ends up the best. We change ourselves for other people. We should not ever have to change for anyone but ourselves. What would happen if we all came together to help one another out instead of competing to be the “best?” What are we judging our standards on? No one. We judge it from the twisted up mess that society has left us to look to. But then again, who created our society? Us. Then who can change it? Us. But who never changes it? Us. Everything revolves around everything. We exist in a rotation of lies, competition, expectations and feelings. But what if we came together? What if we came together and once in for all beat ourselves at our own game. Take down the shiny walls of fake expectations that we built with our own guilt and fear. What if we all got along without the games? What if we got along embracing our differences, wanting our differences? Instead of looking at other peoples’ faces, what if we looked in the mirror once or twice to see how we feel about what we want and believe. Our lives should be lived by us individually. Not by anyone else. What if we came to together in unison?

Leah Shneyder

Simply Said

A beautiful women with a beautiful camera. She walks around loving life. 41

Taking pictures of some things she enjoys. But did you know what’s under her skin it’s not what you think. She’s mad at what life has thrown at her.

Holliss Hirsch a discarded hurricane she hides from the world in a quiet corner where her presence speaks loud but no one seems to notice. she has a lot of courage, but not even she can see it. her eyes are like a hurricane, hungry and wild. her meaning, yet to be deciphered as she walks around looking down, dreaming of a surreal world where no one is forgotten. you don't look back to see her, but if you did, even for only a second, you would see those hurricane eyes strong enough to make you believe again. she’s rendered to the world in pain, not everything always goes her way. but, oh, if someone would reach her with a benign smile and take her rejected hand, maybe they too could see into those discarded hurricane eyes like i do. they sparkle and shine like stars in the night sky that float over oceans so blue. her eyes tamper with your mind. she feels alone, with nothing but her day dreams, nothing but her daydreams and empty soul. her loneliness could overtake; why doesn't anyone help? left to loiter about her options, the few that she sees. no one takes charge and the only one left is me. abandoned to her septic thoughts, the discarded hurricane is left to her demise. but it’s not too late, what if she could see into her own hurricane eyes? what if someone showed her the hope she possesses? life flashes before her, her heart a gaping hole left for fixing. she needs to feel cared about again. who would do this to her? who would do this to anyone? the discarded hurricane needs stitches. no one is in sight. i step up to the task and am met by those eyes. i lean down to stitch her up and see a smile. the discarded hurricane hasn’t smiled in a decade. the smile, though, is genuine, the smile is hers, you can tell it’s for real the way it lights up her eyes. 42

i feel relief, i feel happiness, but i feel remorse, sorrow, and fear for the fact that no one has reached out to her once yet before. no one bothered to help the discarded hurricane. why hasn't anyone been a friend to her? the hurricane continues to rumble in her eyes. she sees hope in the distance. her stitches are secure. and she goes on to reach for the stars, but it was close, too close. she almost missed out on a life for herself. but i finally stood up, how i wish other people would do the same. no one should be abandoned and alone, the discarded hurricane would certainly know so. she is not, however, called that anymore. discarded is done, but the girl with the hurricane eyes is still out there though, being the one to stand up for you and the boy down the block. whenever someone needs a little more love. she embraced her life and goes on to teach others to do the same. the girl with the hurricane eyes lives on after all.

Malina Ferri Forgiveness Forgiveness means that you are over anger, that you no longer hold a grudge against someone for something. Holding the power to forgive and the power to hold onto your anger forever is a tremendous power in its own right. Never forgiving and never being forgiven are equally painful. Living off anger, living to hate, may keep you going but it tears you apart. Living off of guilt and the need to continue in peace eats you away just as much. And though anger almost seems favorable, it quickly fades to depression. Anger causes you to lash outwards, sadness causes you to lash inwards, at yourself. Because itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s your fault that what happened happened, somehow, in some way, you know it is. Anger is a blind emotion, but sadness gives you sight. Through anger you numb yourself, you don't really have to think about the pain, you just act on impulse and tear apart everything your unseeing eyes see. But when it all fades away - and it has to, sooner usually rather than later. Then you see, you remember, all over again, and it hurts so much more. You can cry and cry but you don't feel the tears; they act only as an anesthetic. And though anger holds you up, keeps you in place like a brace, through sadness you fall apart, crumble from the emptiness and the hollow the hatred left in you. You are the force pulling yourself apart, you, only you. Voices may speak to you but you simply don't hear them, though you understand every word they speak. And though forgiveness is not an act of time, but of volition, being simply able to forgive takes so many forevers packed into your short lifetime, though, still, only a matter of time.

Trey Loizzo The Forgiveness Reflection Forgiveness means to know that someone did something wrong, and to accept that and move on. It means that the person forgiving is not forgetting whatever the other person did, but they agree not to resent them for it. Forgiving can be important and powerful. While there are some things that should not be forgiven too easily, forgiveness helps both people involved. I think forgiveness is really a better practice than holding grudges. It helps people ashamed of their actions to feel as though no one hates them for doing harmful things, and it helps the forgiver let go of their anger. Emotionally, psychologically, and scientifically anger is not a good emotion to experience long term. It is never good for a personâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s health to feel endless resentment towards another, and forgiveness relieves them of that.

While forgiveness is important, there are some things that are hard to forgive. Forgiveness is a good thing, but sometimes things are done that are so terrible people just can’t forgive, or feel morally obligated to hate whoever wronged them. I feel that certain people do not deserve forgiveness, but if someone who did something terrible really regrets it, it is better to forgive them. I say that because forgiveness is mutually beneficial, and it makes no sense to be resentful and furious for our entire lives, just because another person might not deserve to be forgiven, when we can be happier instead. However, sometimes people just can’t forgive other people, and sometimes, while it might make logical sense to, it just wouldn’t be morally right. While I believe in forgiving even people who don’t deserve forgiveness, sometimes people do things that make it wrong to forgive them. For example, Hitler and the other Nazis who engineered the Holocaust should not be forgiven because their acts and ideas were beyond deserving forgiveness. While what people do matters, I think a main part of whether or not people should be forgiven depends on whether they feel remorse. Forgiveness is like giving because it is, in a way, a gift. When someone who really regrets his actions is forgiven, they are given peace of mind and an assurance that, while they may have done terrible things, they are not resented. Forgiveness is very important and should be given most of the time. While there are some unforgivable crimes, people who feel remorse should usually be forgiven. Hate is actually a useless emotion, and resentment is not great, so forgiveness is necessary in life. It is just the better option than stewing and holding on to grudges, and it leaves so many more possibilities.

Lauren Carey Forgiveness Should you forgive should you not? Should you be friendly or should you not? Should you give a smile to them if you forgive them? There is much power if you forgive someone, but you have to be careful with what you do with it. You can’t seem like a pushover, but you also can’t seem like you can’t let go. So what should do with this magical power? If you are really friends with the person you will forgive them because you want to talk to them again. Real friends are hard to find. If you withhold forgiveness then you might not ever get her back as a friend. 45

Everyone has the right to forgive. If nobody ever forgave anybody people would never be friends. Everybody make mistakes. You give happiness when you forgive someone, It gives her the relief that you still consider her your friend.

What I Want My Words to Do to You Lexi Ashe I want my words to be thought about. I don’t care if they’re agreed with, I don’t care if they’re not sugar-coated. I’ll say them respectfully Because I want them respected. I don’t want to be in a conversation That only allows one opinion. I don’t want to be in a conversation With people who shut me down when I say my thoughts. I don’t shut you down I think about your words And I want the same I want my words to be thought about.

Jude Griffith Words Matter

His words made you put down your drink. Your words really made you think. I want my words to let you live your life free of all mistakes. You just broke through the barrier, now you’re back on your feet. I want my words to let you know, you matter.

Allegra Wertheim I want my words to make you pause and realize how lucky you are, and appreciate that. There are so many people in this world who take a lot for granted. They do not understand that there is an abundance of people who have so much less than them, but are still thankful. For example, I often see people in the cafeteria (myself included) who hear what the lunch is and make a face implying that the food is disgusting. I want everybody to think about the people starving and consider themselves lucky. We should be extremely grateful that we go to a great school that gives us an amazing education and even serves us food. Also, currently there are many countries fighting and at war. I know that fighting is part of life, but sometimes I want to say something that will make them take a step back and comprehend that what they are fighting about is just silly. I also want my words to make you see. I want them to make you see how lucky you are to have food served to you. They should be able to see the privilege in living. When someone goes to bed at night and their parents say, “I love you,” I want them to pause and think a little before they say, “I love you” back to them. My words should make you be grateful, even when you’re not around me. When you’re walking to your house, you shouldn’t be complaining that you have thirteen blocks until you get home. Instead, you should be grateful that you have strong legs that are able to walk you the thirteen blocks home. When you are at a museum and you see a picture or a painting that you don’t like, be grateful that you have eyes that can see that painting or picture. Everyone should take a moment every day to realize how lucky they are. They should be extremely grateful for what they have. They need to be able to have sympathy for all the people who have a lot less than them.

Nefeli Bratsis I want my words to make you laugh so you will be happy because happiness is all that matters. I want my words to tell you new things you never knew. I want my words to make a discovery so that people will be able to use my info rmation to create something and help people. For you to think why, what, how, to question everything coming your 47

way, to say this is real. I want you to believe the impossible to imagine the inevitable. To be amazed with the unknown knowledge of the world and think what else there is. I want you to have the curiosity to go and find those things, study them, observe, and discover. Maybe, then, one day, you can change the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s beliefs, theories, and rules.

Claire Coven When I speak, I would like you to listen. When I speak I would like you to consider what I am saying, consider my words. When I speak, I would like you to stop looking at whatever you are looking at and look at me. To hear and to listen are two different things. I want my words to mean something to you. I want them to make you feel a glow inside. I want my words to make you question what you know. I want you to respond, so we can create a dialog and if Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m being completely honest, I would like a little argument here and there. I want my words make you happy, sad, annoyed, questioning, but most of all, I want my words to get you thinking. I want my words to be as blinding as a noon sun high in the sky. I want my words to be comforting, like going to your favorite place. I want my words to make you appreciate all you have. I want my words to allow you to hope for better. I want my words to make you stop and think about who you are and why you are here.

Malina Ferri When you see my words, I want you to see past the ink and paper and into the story, to step inside my words and let them take you where you want to go, to let you escape the turmoil of reality. When tears stain your vision or anger colors it red, when envy steals your heart or when self-pity pulls you down, I want you to be able to grab onto my words and let you brush it all away, even if only for as many pages as held within the covers of the book you hold onto so tightly, lest you lose your sanity. I want you to live within the worlds inside my mind, the worlds and thoughts and flickers of ideas that only I can see - the stories I write when I can do nothing else but live inside myself. I want my floating feathers of thoughts to be shared through the anonymity of ink to the whole world. When you can do nothing more than cry, I want you to hold my words in your hands and forget everything but the plot, to become closer with my characters than the real people in your lives who constantly let you down and forget you. My words will never let you down; they will always remain on paper, in your head, in mine. I want my words to make you laugh and make you cry, better something false than something that can truly hurt you. I want my words to make you hurt with your desire to live inside them, because their black ink and white paper is so much more colorful than the world that spins around you.

I want my words to remain with you forever, reminding you of things you don't want to remember. I want my words to hurt you more than any knife could, to dig deeper than any bullet could, to make you bleed more than any blade could. But yet, my words are completely powerless when left unspoken.

Natalia Rueda I want my words to pierce through you like a knife. I want you to realize that what you’re doing is wrong. You shouldn’t be getting pleasure from my pain. You deserve to feel the power of my words blow you off your feet. My words will make you feel what I feel every day. Every. Single. Day. No one should have to suffer the way I do. Why do you feel the need to treat other people in such a terrible manner? Do you find it fun? Pleasurable? Do you gain pride from hurting others? My words will crawl all over you and make you feel the agony, the hurt. They will destroy you, affect you, hurt you. You will be a different person and your view of the world will completely change. Everyone will be treated equally no matter what, no matter where. At school especially. Other students won’t fear you anymore. They will, rather, accept you for who you are once you change.

Sophie Goldstein I want my words to be part of your life I want my words to inspire you I want my words to change the way you view the world I want my words to lift you up when you’re down I want my words to be there for you and make you feel good about yourself I want my words to help you reach for the stars I want my words to make you smile I want my words to protect your from hate 50

I want my words to be your shield I want my words to show you that I will always be your friend Though I do know what I want my words to do to you I’m not sure you will want to listen to them Aidan Campagna Words of Some Sort I am not very poetic. This will be difficult for me. I don’t care really. It’s really just what the words do. It doesn’t matter what I do. My words need to have some meaning. They have to matter to you. My words need to make sense, which is hard for me because I don’t. My words need to make you start thinking. I don’t mean emotion really. I mean deep thought that really challenges your mind. It is hard to make something that actually makes you concentrate. If you’ve ever watched the movie “Interstellar,” you would know what I mean. My words need to be confusing, but at the same time, make sense. My words also need to inspire you in ways. My words are those words that give you inspiration, or ideas. They should change the way you think. To take your hobbies, and make them talents. To take your stories and turn them into legend and other stuff that makes me sound philosophical. My words need to make you understand, or leave you questioning fact. These words of some sort need to make you ask why something is or why something isn’t. You need to know better depth of what you think you know. My words challenge you to find out all that there is to know. If my words don’t make you think like this, then I won’t be able to make you think like this ever. This has been a very long and hard struggle for me. Someone who is a fire hazard and breaks the shades isn’t the best philosophical material. I am never going to find these words that can make you think like this. If my next assignment is to find these words… just NO.

Julia Labusch I want my words to make you think. Think about life, death, happiness, sadness - I want you to just take a second and consider what I’m saying and what it means. I want you to love my characters and also hate them. I want you to feel for them, to connect with them, and to understand them even if they aren’t human. I want my words to affect you as a person. I want to change your viewpoint on the world and give you a second opinion, a second possibility. I want you to agree and disagree 51

with me. I want you to think, “Yeah, I see where you’re coming from.” I want you to understand me, understand what I do and why I do it. I want my words to excite you, to make you wonder what will happen next, to tell your friends about it and give them the same feelings. Then, when you finally know what happens next, I want you to be satisfied with what happened. I want you to feel like I did the right thing and chose the right angle. I want my words to make you laugh. I want you to understand my humor and find it enjoyable, even if it’s in the darkest of times. I want my the dark nature of my words of scare you, to make you think I’m insane, to make you think it’s too twisted and awful to even exist, but at the same time to accept that it exists and push through it, finding those slivers of humor or happiness. I want my words to leave you with something. A giggle, a tear, a pit in your stomach, or just a simple thought. When I’m finished with what I’m saying, I don’t want it to be an experience you’ll soon forget. I want you to remember for as long as you can, and to get that same feeling whenever you think about it.

Anonymous What I want my words to do to you I want my words to make you puzzled and complexed To make you twist and turn in frustration To the point of where you get nervous and insecure … But then you are not You feel calm Free and fresh Vivid Blissful What I want my words to do to you is make you … You Annie Brewer What I want my words to do to you is relax you. All around me I see stress. The whole world is on a never-ending schedule. Each minute of each day is part of a goal. There are no breaks in the world’s schedule. When you stop the movement of your hands, your

brain still bounces ideas around. “What can I do to make this better? Why did this happen? What can I change? I need this to be PERFECT.” I want my words to distract people from their worlds. I want them to laugh. The world needs to laugh. To add laughter would take away stress. Stress blocks ideas. So do goals. I hate long-term goals. I want everyone to move one day at a time. If you convince yourself you have to do something and you can’t, you kill yourself finding out why. There are things I want to do, but having a goal isn’t wanting, it’s convincing yourself that you need. Needs strangle your creativity and fill you with stress. A need screams in frustration at you until you feed your need with goal completion. I want my words to kill your self-promoted needs. I want you to stop and breath. I want you to laugh.

Jude Thompson I want my words to pierce your skull and make it to your brain so that you may finally understand when I want you to do something and when I want you not to. When I tell you to stop following me or when I tell you that you need to stop doing something that annoys me, I want you to stop, think about what you did that frustrated me, and do not do it again. I want my words to make it to your head so that when I say enough, I mean enough. I want my words to make people happy, but also voice what I am thinking. I want my words to break through your skeleton and crawl up each bone until it reaches your brain and you understand what I’m saying to you. I understand sometimes the words fall from where they were and don’t make it to the receiver, like someone falling from the monkey bars at the playground. Sometimes the words won't come out of my mouth out of fear of making the person sad, but inside I am as confident as can be. I am told that I need to say it by others, but I shouldn’t because it would make me feel terrible. I have to do something about it, but I don’t have the heart to do it. Miles Sugarman I want my words to inspire you, to make you believe in yourself. I want my words to tell the truth. I want my words to make you feel emotions you have never felt before. I want my words to make a difference. I want my words to make you feel amazing. I want my words to change your expectations. I want them to make you stop and really think. I want my words to open up new doors that you can enter and find things you have never thought about. I want my words to create new words.

Lauren Carey When I say I am sad I want you to be sad with me and then we can work it out together. When I achieve something I want you to be happy for me, not jealous. I want my words to speak to you. I want them to help you. I want them to make you smile when you are sad. I want them to give you hope. I want them to help you believe in love when you think there is no chance. I want them to make you think of how lucky you are. I want everyone to wake up from the nightmare they are in and forget about everything that is wrong with the world. War, murder, and ISIS. I want everyone to go to their happy place and not worry about anything. People should be relaxed when they hear, read, or see my words. People should cry when they see my words. People think crying is weak, but I think it means that you are showing your emotions. Crying makes me feel like I am pouring all of my emotions out of my body and letting them free. Emotions are sometimes locked up and crying is the key to letting them out.

Emily Bauman I want my words to make you think. I want them to make you ask the questions that you are too afraid to ask. I want them to make you question yourself and the people around you. I want them to help you find the person you are, and the person that you want to be. I want them to make you feel like you are different, but I want to make sure you know that there are people who WILL understand you. I want them to make you feel comforted, yet confused. I want them to bring you to not only the brightest place in your life, but also the darkest. I want them to make you to know that the world is scary and that in no way is life easy, but that shouldn't stop you from doing what you want or need to do. I want my words to make people think twice before they call someone a name, and I want my words to help the person whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been called that name restrain from retaliating because it can hurt just as much as the original name-calling. I want my words to make your emotions clear so you can understand, accept, and use them in you r life. I want my 54

words to help make sure you can save you from yourself or others that may hurt you. I want them to stop you from telling someone that they can or canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t do something because of their race, gender, age, or even something as simple as their name. That is what I want my words to do to you.

Jonas Butelman I want my words to blow you away. I want them to make you believe what I write. I want them to be able to immerse you in a fictional world. I want them to make you understand my life. I want you to be able to eat my thoughts, but not without a little bit of chewing. Writing should be interpretable, but not without a little bit of thinking. I wish that they would amaze you. Making writing decent isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t that hard, but that can easily change.

Six Word Stories (Sometimes 7, Sometimes Fewer) Jay Wu I said no, they heard yes.

Malina Ferri Closed eyes, stained face, goodbye. 56

Open smiles, red heart, no more. Stillness, and peace are not the same. Broken souls and shattered minds. Torment, despite the silence. Forevermore, a beating heart. Sophie Levy As words fly, people die.

Liam Hade There she laid; bed to coffin. Who I am; Yoda I am

Annie Brewer Six Word Stories; Often ClichĂŠ. City boy, missing country. Even breathing is competition. Body locked, soul free. Knock offs break, originals last. A comment - ruder than rude. Movement is hard, stillness - harder My bed is not worth making. Someone else, can Past your light is infinite darkness Stories not read - watch the movie Perfection is a point of view

Good pressure-diamonds. Bad pressure- dust. No paper is needed to write World breaks objects, but builds souls A sin is an opinion. Winning, soon forgotten. Losing sticks.

Miles Sugarman I need to go. Heart healed, I won’t share it. I hide behind my body

Edith LeMoine The world will crumble without me What is wrong with the world? There’s so much wrong with me Sarah Valger Love fades, but also never dies. Friends are more than shiny objects. I wish you never left me. Why don’t they notice me? All the sinners are secretly saints. My life is a ticking bomb. Ain’t no sunshine when he’s gone. A history of people-the present Julia Labusch I woke up in a coffin.

Green eyes, brown hair, one leg.

He was blind to the warning. 58

The future doesn’t scare me anymore.

The music makes me feel safe.

The pages turned on their own.

A gunshot, a scream, then silence.

As long as you’re here.

Seconds passed like hours.

It was too loud for you.

How could you leave me alone.

Left, right, then to the sky.

Your life was never yours anyway.

You are in danger. Leave now.

Jonas Butelman No crime too big or small. He tried not to commit crimes. He remembered everything about yesterday. He never even met his daughter. He solemnly accepted his father’s fate. He tried to do it all. 59

They thought heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d live. He wanted to leave the city. He feared he would be expelled. He decided to run away. He wanted to see it burn.

The Calhoun School as Microcosm Holliss Hirsch The Calhoun School is an excellent example of a microcosm in the world. Calhoun represents equality, knowledge, freedom, love, community, and imagination. The school does not only make you feel like you belong somewhere, but it gives you opportunities to show youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re a part of something. Calhoun is a model of what something can look like with a little love, appreciation, and sense of community. A diverse place where no one is

judged by the way they look or where they come from, but by how they react to things and what kind of choices they make. Calhounâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s progressive learning style is an example of reaching to find yourself, sharing ideas and asking questions with out fear of being shut down or chastised. You are encouraged to make a difference, you are encouraged to get out of your seat and say what you want to say. You learn how to respect othersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; thoughts respond in a helpful and kind way. If the world was more like Calhoun, we might all get along a little bit better and we might learn to be individual human beings following our influence with other thoughts to guide and construct our lives. Calhoun is a wonderful place and if the world was just a little bit more like Calhoun, we might just all finally get along.