Image by Dominique, Age 15, Grade 9, Sacramento, California, USA
Setting: boyfriend and girlfriend lying on the grass next to each other, admiring the sky on a beautiful day.
Jake: (
Curious) Do you ever wonder if another world in the sky exists?
Claire: Maybe a world of perfection…
Jake: Or even a place where you can’t do anything wrong
Claire: (
Excited) And with clouds you can jump on!
Jake: And love that surrounds the air
Claire: Where everything is beauty.
Jake: But if you and I were perfect, what would we have to live for?
Claire: (
Confused) Don’t you want to be perfect?
Jake: If I were perfect, what would I learn?
Claire: Nothing, you can do everything right.
Jake: I can’t learn new things without making mistakes.
Claire: Things happen on their own for a reason.
Jake: We met and fell in love, but we were just two people that weren’t meant to.
Claire: So you’re saying if I hadn’t gone to the market, we wouldn’t have met.
Jake: I doubt it. And why did you have to go to the market?
Claire: Because I ran out of eggs.
Jake: And if you were perfect?...
Claire: (
Noticing what he means) I wouldn’t need eggs.
Jake: Exactly. And if I were perfect, I wouldn’t have gotten hurt and I wouldn’t have needed to go to the market to get bandages.
Claire: So if I hadn’t run out of eggs and you hadn’t gotten hurt, we wouldn’t have met.
Jake: My point exactly. Think about what would have happened to you if you were perfect. You wouldn’t have to go to school, so you wouldn’t meet your best friends; you wouldn’t need your parents, so you wouldn’t be as close to them…
Claire: (
Interrupts) I get the point!
Jake: So even though at times I wish I were perfect, I think about what life would be like if everyone was.
Claire: I failed over and over again, and now I notice, that is why I succeeded.