Avery Garcia-Prats is an 8th grader at Decorah Middle School. She loves reading, playing soccer, and listening to music. She spends a lot of her time with her family and friends, who play a significant role in her life.
We created Future Focused, a new Inspire(d) column written by pre-teens and teens, to help give the next generation an opportunity to share their voices. Partnering with Dana Hogan, the Extended Learning Program teacher at Decorah Middle School, we offered prompts around the question, “What do we have in common?” Students submitted some really great work, and four were chosen for this Inspire(d). You can read all the Future Focused pieces published so far at iloveinspired.com/category/future-focused. Here’s to Listening to the Next Generation! – Aryn
Staring into the silver-gleaming night sky, you’re met with something endless. Stars shimmer like distant memories, scattered across the darkness, while the moon hangs quietly, watching over the silent world. Planets wander like drifting souls, each carrying stories we may never know. In that moment, as your eyes trace the constellations, there is something that shifts inside of you.
A strange and powerful stillness washes over your heart, a quiet so deep it drowns out your sorrows, regrets, and even time itself. The weight of the past, the anxiety of things that never were and never more will be, the noise of the day – all of it dissolves. You’re left with only awe, held between the earth and the heavens. It feels as though you are the only person alive, like this sky was made just for you. Almost as if the universe stopped, holding its gasping breath while you gaze upwards. And for that moment, the world doesn’t feel small, or broken, or empty – it feels yours.
But as your mind wanders, you begin to remember: this sky, this breathtaking, infinite canopy of specks, is not yours alone. It stretches across oceans, mountains, and borders, bumping up against the lives of billions. Somewhere, on the other side of the world, someone is looking up too, with their eyes wide, their heart open, carrying their own burdens, and singing along to their own tune. They gaze into the same endless sky, seeking the same answers, and hold the same delicate hope.
And in that shared moment, across miles and time zones, languages and communities, you are connected, not necessarily by words, but by wonder. The sky doesn’t belong to anyone, but still, it belongs to everyone. A silent witness to our wonders and griefs, to every fleeting life and every lasting dream. And when we look up, we are reminded that we are never truly alone.
Elsa Propson
Elsa Propson (daughter of Kristin and Scott Propson), an 8th Grader at Decorah Middle School, enjoys participating in extracurricular activities such as wrestling, cross country, track and field, swimming, mock trial, orchestra, and choir.
We created Future Focused, a new Inspire(d) column written by pre-teens and teens, to help give the next generation an opportunity to share their voices. Partnering with Dana Hogan, the Extended Learning Program teacher at Decorah Middle School, we offered prompts around the question, “What do we have in common?” Students submitted some really great work, and four were chosen for this Inspire(d). You can read all the Future Focused pieces published so far at iloveinspired.com/category/future-focused. Here’s to Listening to the Next Generation! – Aryn
Maxine, a small eight-year-old girl with black hair in two braids flying behind her, ran through the sprinkler in her yard, chasing a monarch butterfly. She giggled, tumbling through the tall grasses, racing to catch the fluttering bug before it had a chance to fly away, or worse, her mom could call her in without Maxine seeing where the butterfly flew off to. She ran and ran, unaware that she had crossed the invisible border into her neighbor Mr. Clay’s yard.
“Get out of my yard, you little rascal!” yelled a loud, gravelly voice from the porch. Maxine stopped short, nearly falling straight into the carefully organized flower beds. She glanced up and saw Mr. Clay standing and leaning on his cane, wrinkled face scowling.
“S-sorry!” She squeaked out before she ran back into her yard. She could see he was still out on his porch, so she decided to go back inside. Dinner would be ready soon anyways. Maxine sat on a tall honey-colored stool in the window of her kitchen while her dad finished cooking fried rice for dinner. She sat up straight and leaned close to the glass when she saw the butterfly fluttering by her window. Maxine knew it was the same one because of the swirl mark on its lower wings. She watched it fly away, becoming a little orange dot flitting across the yard, until it flew behind a large flowering bush near the edge of Mr. Clay’s yard, and she couldn’t see it anymore.
The next morning, Maxine’s mother held a tray full of her signature chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. “These are for Mr. Clay. Go run them over to him, okay?”
“Okay,” she said. I hope he’s not still mad. She thought.
She walked over to his house, hoping in secret that he wasn’t home. Unfortunately, he was out in his front garden, planting milkweed.
“Mr. Clay,” Maxine started.
“What do you want?” he growled.
“Um, these a-are for you,” she said. “What are you planting?”
“Milkweed. For the–”
“Butterflies!” she exclaimed.
“Why, yes!” he said, taken aback. “I love to watch them fly around.”
“Me too!”
“Shhhh. Here comes one now!” he whispered.
Maxine watched the butterfly drinking from the milkweed flowers. She recognized the swirl-winged monarch from yesterday.
The two sat and talked, watching the butterflies and eating cookies together. It became their Sunday morning tradition which they continued and celebrated for years to come.
Viola Vrtis
Viola Vrtis is a 13-year-old 7th grader at DMS. She enjoys reading, writing, drawing, playing violin, piano, and ukulele, and spending time with family and friends.
We created Future Focused, a new Inspire(d) column written by pre-teens and teens, to help give the next generation an opportunity to share their voices. Partnering with Dana Hogan, the Extended Learning Program teacher at Decorah Middle School, we offered prompts around the question, “What do we have in common?” Students submitted some really great work, and four were chosen for this Inspire(d). You can read all the Future Focused pieces published so far at iloveinspired.com/category/future-focused. Here’s to Listening to the Next Generation! – Aryn
