.jpg)
The following is a fiction story I wrote for this year's Reflections program at school, a national PTA arts program. The theme for this year is "I Matter Because," and I wrote about the theme from a tree's point of view. The story has advanced to the state competition in Illinois!
***
Ten years ago, a seed was planted. A brown, oval-shaped seed full of life and beauty and growth. It would get bigger over time until its time is up. That tree is me, Elm.
That little seed was planted by Margaret Brown. Margaret had just moved into her new home with her husband. They were starting a family at the same time Margaret planted me. And now her daughter, Sienna, comes outside to read with me every day. It soothes me to hear her voice as the wind settles.
It was the end of summer and I heard a familiar sound of the back door creaking open. It was Sienna! I held my breath and told myself just a few more weeks. You see, when it's almost fall, trees lose their leaves because it gets cold. It feels a bit weird. It makes my leaves tingle until they just completely fall off.
She had a book in her hand. We read it every day after she came home from camp. Sienna was crying like her eyes were geysers. She ran to the top of my roots saying, “Oh why can’t they just be nice about my clothes.” I dropped one of my flowers to try to make her feel better. Sienna looked up at my crumpled leaves. That flower was probably the prettiest plant still on me. I don’t care if I’m not pretty. I know that Sienna will still love me.
She looked up at me, confused, and said “Hmmmm, that’s not good. Your leaves shouldn’t already be changing.” I watched her run inside, drying her eyes.
When Sienna came back outside, a new book was in her hand. She said “Elm, this book is about climate change. I’m a little worried about you.” She read to me all about climate change telling how it impacts nature. I was confused because I wasn’t quite sure why this was happening. Sienna read the whole book but I still didn’t know how to feel, I didn’t even know if it mattered.
Sienna picked up one of my brown, crumpled leaves and said, “I need to do something.”
The next day after Sienna returned home from school, she came up to me and said, “I have an idea! Maybe I could set up a stand and talk about climate change.” She gave me a big, old hug.
We set to work. Well, Sienna set to work, I can’t move. She got markers and crayons and colored pencils. She had about 10 pieces of paper. She showed me the paper and said, “Look, this sign says save the trees. I’m going to put the sign up and a table. If people are interested in helping then they will talk to me.”
Sienna was setting the stand up. As I heard a bit of a ruckus her mom came out checking on her. Margaret had said tomorrow would be time to use the stand.
On Saturday it was time to start. From the top of my branches I could see Sienna talking to people and this is what I heard: “If you would like to help the environment talk to me. You can make letters to the mayor or put up posters or do the simplest things like walk instead of drive! It’s going pretty well, so many people are interested. You know trees take carbon out of the air and give us air. They also give animals homes and let other animals feed off of those animals. My tree Elm matters. Your favorite tree matters. All trees matter.”
Then I understood. I realized I influenced so much in the circle of life. When Sienna said that, I realized I mattered. We give air and we take carbon out of the earth. And we give animals homes and without those animals other animals won’t have food and critters will become extinct. I really do matter. Now I finally know what’s going on and why it’s so important.
Sienna asked me “Do you think I matter?” I tried to shake my leaves to say yes. She smiled and said, “I think you matter, too.”
The End
