WRiting Contest #5

Intermediate Category Winning SUbmissions

How to be like everyone else during the MORNINGS
By Daniel Sun
First Place, Intermediate Category

Mornings are supposed to be peaceful, right? Except when your alarm blares like an attack, and you hit snooze with the classic “Five more minutes” lie. Five minutes turns into twenty, and now you’re officially late. Your mom barges into your room like a SWAT team. “WAKE UP, NOW!” she yells, leaving you in a frenzy of drowsiness and confusion.

You scramble for clothes—mostly from the laundry pile on the floor—throw on some socks, and brush your hair.  Brushing your teeth will have to wait. You grab a banana (which you’ll probably never eat) and dash out the door at 8:26, with school starting at 8:30. 

But then, as you run, you check yourself, hair: so-so; clothes: wrinkled to the tip; then you look down: mismatched socks. One blue, one red. You know you are cooked, deep fried, battered, and grilled. You’re already late and now praying the universe will give you a chance of not being humiliated to death by your classmates.

Tomorrow? It’ll probably be the same. The alarm, the procrastination, your mom storming in like it’s the end of the world. But hey, you’re awake! And that is the important part. Finally, in the end, at least you have an experience to tell. Well, at least after the visit to the principal. 

How to avoid wasting food
By Christoph Zhou
Second Place, Intermediate Category

“The key to reducing food is organization.” Says the food expert Kelsey McCarthy in an interview. Food is being thrown out everyday, and is becoming a more serious problem every second. In this case, playing your role to stop this is as important as everyone else’s. 

Reducing, reusing, and recycling food are all easy and convenient things you can do to play your role! Starting with reducing food waste, it’s important to think about stopping food waste even before you cook! Organizing your meal plan for the week allows you to know what to buy. Since almost all foods come in a pack containing more than you need, it’s important to plan and organize! 

Second is reusing food. After you are done with the meat of a chicken, or the body of a beet, you throw everything away. But, things like chicken carcass and stems of a beat are all edible! Lots of food is not used to its full potential, and could also provide you with an extra meal! An example is fertilizer water, it can be made just from used  coffee grinds, egg shells. You would put it all in a big jug, and after you let it steep, you have made your own fertilizer! 

Third is recycling. After you finish your food, you scrape your food scraps into the compost bin. With all of these food scraps, you can make fertilizer! And on the other hand, there's expired food that hasn't been eaten. If your potato has grown eyes, or your onion sprouted, you can plant these vegetables into your garden and grow them into new, and delicious food! After you’ve planted it, you can use your fertilizer to fertilize it. Other than that, also remember to water it so it can grow healthy! 

Finally, a few tips. Kale is the most convenient food to plant! It’s a very hearty food, meaning it can withstand intense heat and drought! And as a cherry on top, it also grows like a weed! And a tip, is to not reuse or recycle any food that has shown signs of rotting or molding! 

All in all, I’ve given three ways to reuse your food, and two tips! These are easy and simple ways you can stop pollution. As climate change gets stronger, it's important that we also stand strong, and stop this destruction!

How to Take Care of a Dog That Isn't Yours
By Paxton Tam
Third Place, Intermediate Category

Dogs. Everyone loves them. I mean, come on, how can you not like those cuddly little things? Even if they aren’t yours, you probably love to take them out for walks. I have a dog like this, and that is why I am going to talk about how to take care of a dog that isn't yours. I kind of have a dog because my cousin owns him but I love to hang out with him, too. My cousin’s dog’s name is Sparky. He's a toy poodle and he's funny, spunky, and very cute. I love to play with Sparky. He's AWESOME. There’s a good amount of things you should do to make sure your dog’s happy. OH wait, I forgot, your “not dog” is happy. Anyway, the first thing I like to do is walk him, you always have to walk a dog. All dogs will eventually need to go, if you know what I mean. Next is to play with him and use whatever toy they like best. I always like to play with Sparky. His favorite toys are a squeaky squirrel and a red ball. Apparently dogs like blue and yellow the most, so maybe use those toys. Next: treats. We all know that dogs will go crazy for them. I would say you should buy a few different kinds of treats, then see what your friends or family’s dog likes the most. I know that Sparky loves lamb treats and will run straight to us if we open the bag. The last thing is tricks. I love to see dogs do tricks because they look funny and cute when they're doing it. For Sparky, he knows how to sit, roll over, lie down, shake paw, and stand up on his hind legs. The best way to get dogs to do this is to get the dog’s favorite treats and then teach them how to do the tricks. With Sparky it’s funny because by now he already knows that when we show a treat he’ll do every single trick to get the treat. This is what I know about taking care of a dog that isn’t mine: remember to fill their water and food constantly and make sure your “not dog” is always happy and healthy. And the best part about taking care of a dog that isn’t yours, is that you don’t have to take care of its messes and clean them when they're dirty.

How To Choose a Book
By Selina Wang
Honourable Mention, Intermediate Category

Have you ever wandered into your school library not knowing what to read because you had just finished the entire Percy Jackson series yesterday? I have, and I know how painful it is–being stuck with a boring book you grabbed off a random shelf is the WORST. 

That’s why I decided to interview my school’s librarian, Mrs. Diane Shepherd-Dynes, to give us all some advice on choosing the perfect book for you. 

Mrs. Shepherd-Dynes has been our school’s librarian for 8 years, and even then she still faces the challenge of choosing a book she wants to read. 

“Although I always have a pile of books to read, sometimes I ask myself, ‘What do I want to read?’”, says Mrs. Shepherd-Dynes. 

On days like that, Mrs. Shepherd-Dynes would browse the shelves in our library and let them surprise her. Once she had a few choices, she would scan the backs and the inside front jackets of the books and read the praises and/or the summaries. 

But sometimes the summaries could be deceiving. The story might have an interesting plot, but the author’s writing might be dull and humourless. Mrs. Shepherd-Dynes offered a great solution: “Reading a page of the book and then deciding is a good idea.” She also taught my class a book-choosing tip at the start of the year: “If there’s more than 5 unfamiliar words on a single page, then the book might be a little challenging for you. 

Mrs. Shepherd-Dynes mentioned asking for friends’ suggestions too. If your friends like a book, you might like it too, since a big part of how friends become friends is that they share the same interests. 

I hope that these advices would be helpful on your next book-hunting quest…and I’m off to try them out, too!