As a small child, my not-so-secret wish was to fly. I wanted to fly, not via an airplane, but via the wind. I would of flying. As I say that, I don’t mean it as a metaphor for longing to fly, I mean I literally dreamed of flying. Often I was either a fairy, with wings for flying, or I was my ordinary human self and I would jump up and swim through the air. It was around that same age I visited the glorious Grand Canyon with my grandparents, and the weather was cold and the wind was strong. I remember wishing with all my might that the wind would pick up even harder and just blow me away. I wished that I could fly via the wind. I could not. Mary Poppins, however, could. I loved how she floated elegantly from the sky using her magical umbrella, allowing the wind to carry her to the Banks’ home. It was just like what I wanted to do, only prettier and calmer (much like Mary Poppins herself). In addition, she was just so wonderful. She could make any chore fun and any place into an adventure. She took the kids out into the world and showed them the magic of their imaginations. Plus, the songs she sang were catchy and fun too. The little Disney girl I used to be grew up into a Broadway teen. So, in addition to the reasons I loved Mary Poppins as a child, I now appreciate her voice. The way she speaks and sings is so very proper and pleasant and clear. Her articulation is exquisite. She never strains when she sings and her high notes are like the pitches of a violin combined with the brightness of a xylophone. (And the songs she sings are still very fun and catchy). Though I’ll never fly away in the wind like I wanted to as a child, Mary Poppins is still my favorite Disney character because of her beautiful voice and positive attitude. I hope someday I can become as “practically perfect in every way” as she is.

Teddy is my hyper, goofy, loveable cream-colored poodle. He’s a little ball of fluff who loves belly rubs and scratches under his chin. He’s the most energetic puppy you’ll ever meet. He jumps on me whenever I come home and runs around the yard when he’s bored. He plays many roles in my life, like comedic relief, a bringer of joy, a buddy, and yes, sometimes an annoyance, but the most unique role he has played has been an agent of social facilitation. “What is social facilitation?” you ask. Social facilitation is a theory that proposes that some people perform tasks better with others watching them than they would alone. For example, a football player may make a good pass in practice with nobody watching, but he makes a great pass in the home stadium with thousands of fans cheering him on. He does better because of the presence of others. That is social facilitation. Teddy is like those thousands of fans for me. He cheers me on through the good and the bad, and I perform better with him around. Really! On my own, I’m a terrible runner. I’m slow, I have no endurance, and my asthma makes it hard to breathe. Running is a miserable experience and I only do it because I need to strengthen myself for other actually fun sports. Yet, for Teddy, running is a great joy. He’ll run circles around the yard just for fun, feeling the wind in his fur and the grass on his paws. He runs because it makes him feel good. So, I decided to take Teddy running with me, and it turns out that I can run for a longer time with him than I can alone. Maybe it’s because I see how happy he is, and I want to keep him happy by running as long as I can. Maybe it’s because I’m competitive and I want to push myself to be better than he is. Maybe it’s the simple joy of having a friend with me while exercising. Whatever the reason, I have more endurance while running with my little puppy, so now he comes with me every time. I do better because of his presence. He is my personal social facilitation. Teddy makes me a better athlete and a happier person. I do my best running with Teddy because he provides me with what thousands of fans are for a football player: social facilitation. But Teddy is also like those fans because he brings up my mood. If I’m sad or upset, I can lie down on the floor next to him, and he’ll lick me all over my face. That always makes me giggle. Though Teddy is sometimes a little crazy, he’s my favorite puppy ever, and I love him very much. I’m going to keep running with Teddy every week, and, hopefully, I’ll be able to run for eight minutes straight one day. It’d take a while to explain the reason why that’s my goal, so I’ll just end on the fact that I know that I’ll achieve it a lot faster with Teddy by my side.

Writing is my art, my craft. A sculptor, when faced with raw marble, sees life in the rock, and she frees it. She chips away at the stone until it is beautiful. A painter, when faced with a canvas, sees a masterpiece of depth and emotion. She layers colors onto the canvas until it is beautiful. Similarly, a writer, when faced with a notebook or keyboard, sees a story. She layers and sculpts the perfect words until that story is beautiful, until it is alive. This is why writing is valuable. This is why writing is beautiful. Words are the paints and the stones of writing, the medium through which I create something beautiful. Some words look beautiful, like mystical and amethyst and somber and Aurora. Some words sound beautiful, like Laurel and corvid and warmth and Aquarius. Some words do both, looking and sounding lovely, and some do neither. As a sculptor carves and a painter paints, I as a writer put words together. I combine them into sentences. I move them around. I find the best way to create something beautiful, to free the life that is the story inside me. This is why writing is beautiful. This is why writing is valuable to me. But more than its use as an artistic medium, writing is personally important because it allows me to communicate with others despite my physical limitations. There are times during which I have extreme difficulty talking. No matter how hard I try, I stutter severely or can’t talk at all. On those days I don’t feel isolated, frustrated, and hopeless because I can write. I can write and still be understood. I can still have my voice, and that is also why writing is so incredibly valuable to me. The times I can speak, my words often float away from my mind before I have a chance to say them. Writing them anchors them and tethers them down somewhere tangible. I can read what I’ve written long after it’s escaped my mind. Therefore, I don’t feel lost or resentful. This, too, is why writing is important to me. Writing is beautiful. It creates life, creates new worlds, characters, and wonderful stories for readers everywhere to enjoy. Writing is valuable. It allows me to speak with a pen when I can’t speak with my lips. Writing is an anchor. It allows me to remember things I’ve lost seconds ago, ages ago. Therefore, writing is incredibly important for me personally.