week18-08

By Sierra Cruikshank
Rochester High School, Grade 9

I am too afraid to ask her
To see if maybe she regrets
The things I have taken
From her perfect silhouette.
I see the pictures of another time
Another world
Before I was born,

By Sossina Gutema
Essex Middle School, Grade 7

People cheered. The occasional loud voice cut through the mull of the others, and words became decipherable. Go get it! I toyed distractedly with my mouth guard, the slightly wet plastic smooth where my teeth had worn it down. Half time had passed ages ago, I didn’t have a watch, they weren’t allowed, but the game couldn’t possibly continue much longer.

The Big Game

By Tim Lyons
Rice Memorial High School, Grade 9

Some love the game
While others do not
Some get to play
Others are just onlookers
Some just follow what they are told
By the leaders that give orders
On offense some do best
Others are always defending
Some try to win
And some only play to look good
With all their dazzle and flash

Music Mistake

By Haley Harder
Renaissance School, Grade 4

Ms. Cathy handed out the sheets of music. “We are doing this for the holiday performance”, she said. Sheila was excited; she couldn’t wait to play the song on the saxophone. Suddenly, her teacher Ms. Hailey came in and said, “It is time to write down homework and get ready to go home.”

When Sheila got home she quickly did her homework and went straight to the saxophone. Only a few measures into the song, she realized that the holiday performance music wasn’t a very interesting piece. She took out her favorite Jazz song and started playing that instead. “This is so much better than that silly holiday song”, she said.

Not until the holiday performance did she realize she had made a big mistake.

Backstage she was sweating and pacing. Everyone said she would do great, but they didn’t know she hadn’t practiced the holiday song.

Before she knew it, it was time for Sheila’s class to take the stage. First Katherine played her part of the song, then Mary, then Jane. Sheila felt like she had gotten the rhythm of the song by then, so when her turn came, she played a little Jazz part that matched the song.

Then the rest of the class had their turn.

Backstage, Katherine asked, “What did you do?” Sheila said. “I made a mistake”. Before she could answer the rest of the question, Ms. Cathy came up and asked the same thing.

This time she replied, “I didn’t practice the song you gave me, I am sorry, I should have but I didn’t think I liked it. I hope I made it up to you by improvising during the performance.”

Ms. Cathy said, “I love the part you made up, but since you didn’t practice your part of the holiday song, you are now going to have to learn the whole song.”

The Race of My Life

By Halie Lange
Brattleboro Area Middle School, Grade 7

Is there one person in your life that seems to always be better or stand out more? Well for me there has. Sarah always beats me in everything. We both ski, and she gets first and I get second; same thing every time. I have many boxes full of red second place ribbons and medals. It seems that no matter how hard I try, she always comes out on top. At our last ski race, she beat me by three seconds. The next race is at my home course and I want to win more than ever.

Mistakes

By Tucker Stone
Hartford Memorial Middle School, Grade 8

Mistakes…
Sledding when there is no snow
Lighting the Christmas tree on fire
Creating great ire.
Searing the cookies black
Blowing up the smoke stack
Mistakes…
Ice instead of snowball
Not shoveling the deck
Writing too many checks
Christmas ornaments breaking
All the Christmas baking
Mistakes…

Mistakes

By Laura Voelker-Hebert
Hartford Memorial Middle School, Grade 8

I can’t believe you!
It's one thing that you lied,
But lying to my face is the big issue.
I called you a friend.
Now I can't call you anything,
But…the liar.
I’m so disappointed.
“It was just a mistake, I’m sorry,”
You say,
But I don’t even care.
This is so over the top,

Mistakes

By Emily Fariel
Hartford Memorial Middle School, Grade 8

Oops… made a mistake.
Colored outside the line.
Oops.
Spelled a word wrong.
Oops…
Every little mistake,
Adds up,
Makes us imperfect,
and human.

Mistake

By Nicole LeBlond
Woodstock Union High School, Grade 10

When you have everything going for you,
There is no time to slip out of that perfect mold
That is crafted by the impression of others
And there it is it just happened,
Right before your eyes you slipped out of the mold ,
Out of people’s expectations,
Out of your coaches,
Out of your own
But it’s the truth,

Only Forward

By Kacie Collins
Woodstock Union High School, Grade 10

The truth is there is no going back.
Ever.
No matter how hard we try;
No matter how much we want it;
We need it;
No matter how much we wish for it;
There is no going back.
What’s done is done.
What has happened will be just that-
Something that has happened.
“Shoulda, woulda, coulda”
“It’s not what I wanted”
“I didn’t mean for things to end up this way”
One second that went wrong,
One second that will never come back,
One second that will affect things from here on out.
The only way to change the past is to ignore it, to move on, get over it.
Accept the consequences and Focus on the future instead of trying to change the past
Because there is no going back.
Only forward.

Mistakes

By Chloe Dickinson
Woodstock Union High School, Grade 10

She’s standing there just looking at me,
Breathing hard I stand terrible, furious and free,
But then my head spins,
The tunnel vision begins.

Roaring fills my ears,
Crying tear after tear,
Choking on the words I just spit out of my mouth,
I want her to retort, but she won’t fight, she won’t shout.

MONOPOLY!

By Sean Bjornsson
Woodstock Union High School, Grade 10

Who wants to play Monopoly???
I do, I do!
I’m the car!
I call the cannon!
Dibbs on the hat!!
I call real-estate agent!!
Who wants to be banker?
I don’t
Not me
Let’s make Dad do it
Sounds great
And we’re off
Around and around
Pass go, collect $200!
Can I trade you this for that with $300?
Nope
I got a monopoly!
Starting to see houses
Starting to get dangerous to land on the left side of the board
Oh man, hotels, I really hope I don’t land on one of those
Oh noooooo! I don’t want to go to jail!!
Now I have to go through the hotel row of death
I made it! I’m alive! Halleluiah!
FREE PARKIN!!!!!! YESSSS
Oh man, he landed on Pennsylvania Ave., with a hotel…..BANKRUPT!
Still in the running
Barely scraping by
It’s getting late, almost midnight, been playing for five hours
Still missing the hotels
Bankrupting a person or two myself
Still surviving

Endless Mistakes

By Sossina Gutema
Essex Middle School, Grade 7

I made a mistake
On a math problem
No biggie,
But the
Test is failed
I made a mistake
On my English
Essay
No biggie,
But the
Piece is failed

I made a mistake
On the road map
To your house
No biggie,
But the
Trip is failed

I made a mistake
And told you a lie
And you found out
No biggie,
But the

Just to See you Smile

By Tegan LaBarre
Lebanon High School, Grade 12

Forgive me, please?
Will you, I’ll beg.
Your eyes avoiding mine stings.
Yet still not as much as the burn,
Of when they occasionally meet mine.
Your pupils, blackened with disdain.
Your lips screaming disgust,
Without moving at all.
I yearn for the air, thick with anger,
To be cut, one smooth motion.

Every Second Counts

By Shannon Moriarity
Benson Village School, Grade 8

Your palms are sweaty,
Your vision blurred.
Little butterflies fluttering
In the depths of your stomach.

You cock your head up,
And look at the score.
It’s 33 to 32,
And it’s your team that’s behind.

The ball is in your hands,
The time ticking down…
30 seconds…29…28…
27…26…

You begin to dribble
The knots in your stomach tighten.
19…18…17…
You’re only at half-court.

A defender picks you up,
Concentrated on your moves.
You bounce the ball between your legs,
And you’re past the defense.

6…5…4…
You square up your feet,
And bring the ball to your chest.
You jump, releasing the ball…

2…1…
The ball kisses the rim,
And falls through the net.
Score!

Mistakes, Mistakes

By Basundhara Mukherjee
Frederick H. Tuttle Middle School, Grade 6

Forgive and forget,
fix your mistakes,
or else you will always,
regret and shake.
You will shake with guilt,
if you never forgive,
but forgive and then the guilt goes away.

Mistakes: One Thing we all Have in Common

By Kate Foster
Lebanon High School, Grade 12

Mistakes are one of the few things that everyone in this world has in common, we all make them. Whether they are big or small, there is no avoiding them. We are all human, so that means we come with faults, we can't always do everything right the first time around. Some people make mistakes more than others, but there is no avoiding them, no one is an exception. Mistakes can teach us lessons, or they can make us lose people we care about. Mistakes can be quickly forgiven or can make a person pay for what they messed up on for the rest of their lives. That’s when forgiving but never forgetting comes in.

Forgiving is always a first way to start, if you believe in your heart that the person who messed up allows another chance to prove themselves, then they deserve it. One thing something a person should never do is forget what happened. Living in what happened in the past and focusing on who made a mistake is not the right thing to do, it holds you back from the future. Having that knowledge in the back of your mind is always a good thing to do to keep you on your feet, just in case that person is starting to make the same mistake another time.

Mistakes are something that a person cannot take back, but that doesn't mean that a person cannot try to fix what happened, whatever that might be. Mistakes help most people grow, and learn how to act differently. Not all people make a positive situation out of mistakes though, some just figure that they can't fix what they did, so they continue to do the same thing they did, and they fall into a deeper hole. Mistakes allow us to relate to other people, and get advice on how to change it. Mistakes are one of the things in life that you can't hide from. How you react to a mistake you or somebody else made, affects the outcome of the entire ordeal, so in the end it’s really up to you.

The Stowe Duals

By Conner Gorman
Charlotte Central School, Grade 5

I’m in the gate. I’m so nervous my goggles are fogged up. The clock counts down, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, go! I’m off, all I can think about is, “Skate, skate, skate, glide.” Here comes the first gate, “Crack, shhhwissshhh! I hit the gate and glide around it. Now here’s the second gate. As I go by, I see the crowd, and it fuels me to finish. The third and fourth go by just like the first two. I hit the jump and get really nervous. Am I going to make it? Yes!! I make it. Now, only eight more gates. It looks really icy, can I do it? Will I fall? Will I win? Then I see my friends and think, “It really doesn’t matter about my time because I’m new to the sport, and I’m having fun. It doesn’t even matter if I fall, I can get back up and finish.” I summon up all my strength and finish. In the end, all that really mattered was that I tried and I had fun.

Consumed

By Kristina Wallin
Lebanon High School, Grade 12

Footsteps break into a run
Sweat drips down the forehead
Running not from anything in particular
But the thought of being anywhere else keeps the legs moving
Thoughts of regret dance through the mind
And in a world where forgiveness is a rarity
Forgetting seems just as impossible.

Mistakes

By Robert Knox
Rutland High School, Grade 11

Can you forgive a friend
For making a mistake
That almost ruined
Your entire life?
It may take a while
But it can be forgiven
All mistakes are just that
Mistakes
No one means for
Them to happen
They just do
But when a friend
Tells everyone your
Deppest, darkest secret
It becomes very hard
To forgive them even if

The Mountain Adventure

By Logan Liberty
Crossett Brook Middle School, Grade 8

Yesterday I went hiking up Camels Hump with five of my friends. We started at my house to get on the trail, but we ended up taking the wrong trail, forcing us to go back to the intersection to look at the map.

THIS SHOULD NOT BE PUBLISHED... THERE IS A PLAGERISM ISSUE...gg

Lead Me Through The Fire

By Shelby Grout
Crossett Brook Middle School, Grade 8

Heaven bend to take my hand and lead me through the fire --
Be a long awaited answer to a long and painful fight.

Truth be told I tried my best, but somewhere along the way
I got caught up in all there was to offer,

The Sack

Nathan Tyler Barcomb
Brattleboro Area Middle School, Grade 7

Every Friday night I suit up
Wondering how I will do.

As I stare into the dark eyes of that left tackle,
I know he is the only thing standing in between me and my glory.
Silence for a moment.
The ball is snapped,
I hear nothing but pads and helmets bashing together.

I throw my man down and see my goal

Mistakes

By Sabrina Russo
Main Street Middle School, Grade 8

A Mistake
I think
To live,
To love,
To die,
To hate
A mistake a feeling you feel
When you think
Something has gone
wrong
A mistake a state of mind
A mistake to think you can

The Big Game

By Katelyn Robertello
Mount St. Joseph Academy, Grade 9

When there is an overtime and only 5 minutes left on the clock,
Your heart starts to race.
You are trying to score, your opponent is trying to defend, and no one knows how it will turn out in the end.
You’re trying your best.
You’re a mess.
But then you forget all the things you’re trying to do,

Mistakes

By Tyler Colvin
Champlain Valley Union High School, Grade 12

Mistakes I have made,
Too many to count.
It seems it’s unavoidable,
your inner troubles let out.
Starts with a note,
a secret,
a nudge.

Caroming quickly,
into thin air.
One off hand comment,
blown out of proportion,
leads to your silence,
my questions,
no answers.

Jaded and scarred,

Up in a Ball

By Shelby Miller
Hazen Union School, Grade 10

When they cry,
When they weep,
When they curl,
Up in a ball,
When they do this,
You know you’ve done wrong,
You know,
You did something bad,
Something unforgiving,
Something you can’t take back,

When they cry,
When they weep,
When they curl,
Up in a ball,
When they do this,
You come to your senses,
You try to help them up,
You try to apologize,
But it’s no use,
The pain is done,
There’s no going back,
You did,
What you did,

When they cry,
When they weep,
When they curl,
Up in a ball,
When they do this,
You fall apart,
You leave the house,
You go outside,
Throw dirt,
Yell,
And scream,
You hate yourself,
You hate what you did,
When you go back in,
It’s nothing you can face,
It’s too much,
You can’t do it,
You hurt her too much,
Now it’s up to you,
What’s next?
What’s your next move?
Say sorry,
Promise,
It’ll never happen again,
But you know,