Writing Samples

I like going to Girls On the Run. It teaches girls like me what their star power is, and work on what they are good at. We also make charity events where we pick a theme to raise money and we donate it to homelessness, animal shelters, other causes we care about.  We practice running for 8 weeks and at the end of the program we do a 5K which is equal to 3.6 miles. In the beginning I thought it was almost impossible to get to the end of the finish line.  But my friends and I practiced twice a week with the same group of girls. We practiced laps little by little and I pushed through it. On the morning of the 5K my aunt, my friend Dorothy, her mom and me, all ran in a group. We all had the same feeling that this is impossible to finish because a big long run seems easier to say than it actually is to run it.

 

What helped me get through it was that Dorothy’s mom turned on music and helped us feel happier and excited about it. Before I knew it, I was already on top of the hill. Another thing that helped was that there were people in the few areas cheering for us. This made me feel excited to continue and encouraged me to go on. First it was one mile, then it was two miles then I was almost at the end. I decided to push through it and get to the end, and be proud of myself too. By running a 5K I would  have done something that not everyone my age can do when they are this young. When I hit the finish line, all the pain went away except for my big need for thirst. I felt proud of myself for pushing through it all. I also learned that it wasn’t all about being the first, but when we work together we can achieve more than one thing at a time. In this case running a 5k while hanging out with my friend not realizing I achieved something big! Everyone cheered not just for me but my whole group of new friends who appreciate me for who I am. 

 

Another thing I love doing is my future profession, I think, is painting. I love painting in my own time because it helps me express my feelings and I don’t have to be “perfect” at it. What I mean by that is when you paint you don’t have to do the exact same thing in your mind. If you can, that’s great. If you have an idea in your mind. For example, I want to draw a realistic car, I have the idea in my head, then I start painting on my canvas what I am going to do. I start with a pencil for the outlines, and paint it with some paint. But then I look at my idea in my head, then look down at my painting, I see it is completely the opposite of what I imagined. But I realize practice makes progress. So I continued to paint and draw. I sometimes look at things in my house that I would like to draw, for instance my sofa. Or my dog, if he stays still :) Maybe I draw my piano, and flowers in a vase. These are called still life.

I also like to make paintings of what my family, aunts, cousins, like to do. In Turkey this past summer, I made paintings for my aunts, uncles and cousins. Each painting represents what they like and what they do best. I felt like I was part of a community, not just a family. I don’t do this to get attention, I do this because it makes me feel happy and l love doing things for others. Both Girls On The Run and painting in my own time makes me feel happy, because those are just my passions. I like making new friends, and painting, which are a big part of my life. They bring me joy.

-December, 2021

Bik, who is my piano teacher, influenced me by teaching and showing me a different angle of what playing the piano is about. It is about more than playing an instrument. It is about enjoying what you are doing and having fun while you do it. Piano is the most exciting thing that I learned. Every note is a part of a melody, and every note is freedom for me. Because the minute your fingers touch the keys and press down on them, it feels like you can keep going. One note leads to another note and so on… The next thing you know is that you are playing a whole song. It makes me feel happy that I am playing for myself and others. When I am upset I play the piano, it makes me calmer and it makes me feel like I can continue going on with my day.

What I like most about playing the piano is my teacher Bik.  She doesn’t only tell me what every note is, she makes me see the notes. She taught me that if I can’t read the notes, you can look at the bottom of my notepad: where I can see All for A, Cows for C, Eat for E, and Grass for G. 

I thought that short cut (All Cows Eat Grass) was super cool and I understood what it meant easily. Bik changed my whole vision of what it means to play the piano. I used to think playing the piano was super hard. I used to get cranky because I was only able to play two notes. And I used to get frustrated at myself for not being able to know anything about playing piano, until I met Bik at The Crowden Music School. Now I can make up different types of songs and my own music.  It is nice to learn something new. Being able to play a song without looking down at your keys is the most wonderful feeling ever. It makes you feel like you can do something like having your own super powers. And when you are done playing, when you open your eyes, the crowd is cheering for you! (Or it may be just your dog barking, in my case my dog Bruno). Either way, playing an instrument such as a piano is awesome. 

 

Playing music is a thing that everyone should do in their lives because being able to play an instrument takes you to a whole other world. My teacher Bik and I worked hard, and finally we got to the place where I can just put my hands on a stack of piano music  and start playing each note at a time. Music has changed everything for me. I have Bik to thank for it.

-December, 2021

I would like to learn about all the creatures and their habitats in nature, such as marine biology and ecosystems. More specifically, I want to learn about creatures and their habitats. My parents planted an olive tree before I was born in front of our house. Every year it kept on growing and growing while I was growing. I usually climb my tree and I look at the sunset from the top of the highest branch. One day I climbed my tree and a tiny itty bitty bird was chirping at me fiercely. It was so close but far enough from me that I wouldn’t get hurt. It kept chirping loudly. At the same I looked down and I saw in the crook of a branch a small little birdnest with a mom sitting over two bluish colored eggs that had itty bitty dots on them. So I climbed down the tree and let them be for a few weeks because I wanted the chicks to hatch. A few days later,  when there were no more birds chirping on my tree, at a time I didn’t see any more commotion, I decided to climb the tree to check on them. I realized that the nest was empty and had a few bits of fluffy things in it. It had no feathers from baby chicks or mom or daddy bird to be seen. I thought in my mind if the eggs had fallen there would have been egg shells on the ground. But there weren’t any. Then I remembered a day ago, there were crows coming onto my tree in a very suspicious way.So I thought that the crows ate the eggs because from that day on, there was no more commotion. I would like to learn more about nature to understand when to interfere and when not to. Or not at all. So I can protect animals without hurting or disturbing wildlife chains. 

 

I also would like to learn more about marine biology to study what is under the ocean. I want to actually do a field trip to the shores, and would like to learn about what is in the bottom of the ocean and explore things that I haven’t seen in person. This past summer I went on my uncle’s sail boat in Turkey. With my mom, grandma, my uncle, my cousin and my aunt we swam in the Aegean Sea by jumping from the side of the boat. I saw crabs on rocks and sea cucumbers on the seafloor. The sea cucumbers clean the sea by filtering the water.  The water would get dirty without them. Infact, I learned about this but want to learn more. Some people were harvesting the sea cucumbers and selling them without giving the cucumbers time to regrow. So in some bays the water got super gross and dirty.  They did not care so much about their own sea and land. Now they don’t have many to sell, and they also ended up with dirty seasides.  I also woke up to the sound of the seals going “arf arf” which was super cool because they were very close to us. This means that the seals had enough to eat to survive. So there is hope. I would like to learn more about wildlife, what’s under the sea, what’s on land and I want to help. Because of climate change, coral reefs are dying and humans are making climate change worse. I want to be one of those humans that doesn’t make it worse, but only makes it better.

-December, 2021