Quick Write 7-26-24 - Analysis of Flight of The Bumblebee by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

One day, this human named Bob was doing some homework and looks up only to get jumpscared by this random bee that had flown in from his open window. He mindlessly tries to shoo it away but the bee continuously dodges its hand. This piece sounds like Bob's adventure in a cartoon as he tries to catch the bee and get rid of it. Chaos reigns as Bob runs around the room, aiming for the bee but occasionally falling or bonking into things in his room. He gets more determined to catch it during the fast passages of the piece. This high-speed chase lasts for a few minutes and the ending is when he finally yeets the bee outside and becomes relieved. His sister barges in and asked what the chaos was all about. Since she was terrified by bees, all Bob could say was, "Uhhhhhh..."

Quick Write 7-22-24 - A Courageous Time

A time I’ve been courageous was when my grade and I went camping at this camp in a redwood forest called Alliance Redwoods. We stayed in these cozy hut things for a week and were assigned roommates. Every day, we were taken on these adventures like zip lining, making s’mores by a campfire while acting out skits, playing on a giant seesaw, watching Haylie put a banana slug on her nose, and hiking. My cabin and I also stayed up late playing UNO. The one activity I was skeptical about at first was the vertical obstacle course. Even writing about this right now makes my hands tingle. Anyway, at first, I was debating whether I should go or not. One of my cabin mates asked me if I wanted to go with her and after a long period of thinking, I was like, “Eh, you can go with someone else,” And so she did. And the more people I watched scale up that giant course, the more I wanted to, too. I asked my friends how it was up there and they said it was extremely fun, which boosted my confidence further. When the instructor asked if anyone else wanted to go, my hand was raised, not by me, but by my friends. So I took a deep breath and half-unwillingly stepped into the harness and put my helmet on. Soon, the instructor buckled me in and braced myself for the horrors of this course. There were three checkpoints. A red bulb after the first set, a green one after the next section, and a bell at the very top. I hobbled up the horizontal wooden logs and climbed the tires and other wooden logs. I just took one step after another, adjusting and pulling with my arms one time after another, not knowing which bulb I'd end up at. Surprisingly, I got to the very top and sighed a sigh of relief. I grabbed the rope to ring the bell and swung it as hard as I physically could. I leaped down, my mouth extremely dry probably because of the adrenaline. I could feel the corners of my mouth lifting up almost involuntarily, smiling at myself. I was so proud of myself for conquering my fear of heights.