Biography: My Best Friend

My little sister, Emma, has been my best friend for as long as I can remember. She's 19, I'm 21, so we are very close in age. Through every thing in life, she has always been by my side. Every mile stone we have hit, we were there for each other. My freshman year of college started off a little rough, and I remember face timing her almost every day for advice or to just have someone to talk to. Emma is the reason I could to the point I am at. We have dreams one day of moving into a loft together in some big city whenever we graduate college. I love her more than anything else and she'll always be my best friend.

Note: I didn't really want to talk about specific experiences with my sister, but focus more on why she is so important to me. Rather than be specific, I wanted to give an abstract painted picture of my sister.

(my sister and me: by me)

Reading Notes: The Giant Crab Part B

Silence is Golden was my favorite story from this reading. There once was a young jackal-lion cub that was very small. His father was a lion while his mother had been a jackal. They fell in love and had the young cub. The cub had taken after his father in looks, an almost identical twin you could say. There was one difference though and it was that his voice took after his mothers. People thought he was a lion cub, as long as he didn't open up his mouth. This young cub loved playing with the other lions, as they were very rambunctious group. They would stumble around all over each other and make a mess of everything.

One day, while they were playing around, the cub thought he could scare all of his friends. So he opened his mouth wide hoping to roar, but could only yell out a yelp like his mother would make. The other young lions were all confused, and didn't know what was going on. They didn't understand what strange sound this young lion cub had made and if he was even a lion. One of the cubs began to make fun of the poor jackal-lion cub, and all the others joined along. They all said mean words and said how much he looked and walked like a lion, but how when he opened his mouth, he was anything but a lion. They all said he was a jackal and nothing more than that. The young jackal-lion cub became very distraught and upset by everyone disowning him, as they began to tell him that he needed to keep his mouth shut for the rest of time. He didn't have a lion's roar so there was no use in ever saying anything. The young cub sulked away in sadness, and learned then to always hold his tongue when in the presence of others who thought they were better.

Source: The Giant Crab, and Other Tales by W. H. D. Rouse


(The Cub: needpix)

Reading Notes: The Giant Crab Part A

The Giant Crab is personally to me a major story from this reading that I found really interesting. It starts off at this lake in the mountains where a giant crab lived. This wasn't any ordinary crab though. He was the biggest crab that had ever lived, as he was bigger than a dining room table and had armchair sized claws. This crab was a loner, who lived in the lake by himself. There were many different animals though that lived in the mountains by the lake and they needed water to drink. From tiny foxes to huge elephants, there was a variety of animals. The crab though was very hungry all the time though, so whenever an animal would come up to the water's edge, the crab would grab the animal with his claw. After drowning the animal, it would make for a tasty dinner for the giant crab. This went on for what seemed like forever. The crab only grew in size from his feast. The animals were running out of water though and didn't know what to do, until one day an elephant decided to stand up to the crab.

All the elephants created a plan to trap the crab while they were near the water's edge. The crab grabbed onto one the elephant's leg and tried to pull him in. The wife of this elephant begged the crab to let her husband go. The crab found the elephant to be very attractive, so he asked her for a kiss. The elephant pretended to be pleased, so the crab let go of the other elephant and made his way toward her. The elephant who had been released then let out a giant trumpet sound and launched himself onto the crab's back. The elephant weighed too much for the crab shell, so it fell apart into tiny pieces. The animals all rejoiced and went on with their happy life.

Source: The Giant Crab, and Other Tales by W. H. D., Rouse


(Crab: wikimedia)