MS 80 Student Wins Citywide Essay Contest

Norwood resident Deandra Leeshue, a seventh grader at MS 80, took first prize in a citywide creative essay contest sponsored by New Youth Connections and was published in the group's newspaper, NYC's April issue.

The topic of the essay, reprinted below, was, "If You Could Be Anything in the World Besides a Human, What Would You Be? Why?" The essay was published in the April issue of NYC.

Six other MS 80 students in teacher Laura Spalter's 7 PRESS 1 class who participated in the contest, were awarded honorable mention. They were: Mohammed Alshami, Ukeme Mbaba, Luis Pitre, Shelaine Ramdass, Tavita Ramlakhan, and Alicia Wilson.

In the same issue in which the prize winners were published, letters from two other students in Spalter's class, Elvisa Mujovic and Suzette Badana, were published. Spalter said she is proud of her students, particularly because they were the youngest to be published in NYC, which is geared towards high school students.

Immortality

By Deandra Leeshue

If I could be anything in the world, I'd want to be the wind. I would like to be the wind because I would be my own boss, blowing any way I feel like.

When I am mad, I can spin so fast to make a tornado so the world would know my rage. And on a hot summer day, I can blow a cool breeze so I can watch kids come out and frolic.

I can bring lost loves back together, or choose to blow victim and murderer apart. I can't change minds but I can change lives. I can blow so cold one could freeze to death. Or stop blowing, so windmills couldn't work and farmers couldn't water their crops -- nothing could grow and everyone would die.

I can blow just hard enough to help an old lady put her seeds in the ground and cover them with soil. When I bring them air they'll grow beautifully, and she'll admire her garden happily every day.

Without me, birds couldn't find refuge in the sky. Animals couldn't glide without the wind beneath their wings. I can pick the leaves up off the ground in the autumn, and spin them so they create a beautiful show that people will have to stop and watch.

If I am the wind, I'll have the power to create, destroy and illuminate.

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