Student’s Writings

“ACHOO!” I sneezed loudly. My brother exclaims, “Gross!”. We are in the car on the way to our grandmother’s house. I have the worst stuffy nose ever! Why did I have to get a dog? I thought to myself. I could’ve gotten a cat, or maybe a goldfish! We finally arrive at my grandma’s house and unload the car. As I’m dragging my bag into the living room I notice something. It doesn’t smell like snickerdoodles! Grandma always makes us snickerdoodles when we come over. I put my bag down and go into the kitchen. “Hey, Grandma, why doesn’t it smell like…”, I pause and look up to see Grandma taking the cookies out of the oven. My Grandma says, “What were you saying, sweetie?”. “It’s nothing.” I say in response. She shrugs and asks me if I’d like a cookie once they’ve cooled down. I, of course, say yes.

After thoroughly enjoying some cookies, I head upstairs with my bag and enter the guest bedroom. I was expecting the intense aroma of my grandma’s air freshener but I couldn’t smell that either. I’ve never actually slept in the guest bedroom because of the smell keeping me up. Today, however, I unpacked my bag and jumped onto one of the beds. It was so comfortable! My brother walks in and groans. He pinches his nose and says, “How can you handle the smell, it’s awful! I think I’m starting to get a headache.” I responded by telling him, “I guess my stuffy nose has some benefits.” He groans again before running out of the room and going to sleep on the couch. I fell asleep shortly after.

I wake up the next morning feeling so refreshed, despite still having a stuffy nose. The bed was seriously magical. I was disappointed that I couldn’t smell my grandmother’s signature breakfast of bacon, eggs, and blueberry pancakes. I get dressed and head downstairs. My moms says to me, “Aw, you look nice today!” I am about to say thank you when I sneeze. She makes a shocked face. I say, “Thanks but, how am I supposed to look cute when I can’t stop sneezing!” She laughs and I go into the kitchen for my breakfast. My grandma starts making me a plate when she says, “What took you so long to come down? You’re usually awake as soon as the bacon gets cooked.” I sigh and say, “I couldn’t smell it. I have a terrible stuffy nose.” Then I sneeze again. She laughs and says, “Why didn’t you tell me? I’ll make you something to get rid of it.” She takes out a tea bag and pours water over it in my favorite mug of hers. I let it steep and I ask her what flavor it is. She tells me it’s ginger tea. I drink it and, surely enough, my stuffy nose magically goes away. “Thank you!” I exclaim before running up to my grandma and hugging her. As soon as I hugged her, I could smell her strong perfume. I could hardly breathe! We stop hugging and eat breakfast.

Around noon my mother tells my brother and I that it’s time to go home. I go upstairs to pack my bag. I walked into the room and immediately groaned loudly. I could smell the air freshener now! I run in like the room is on fire and quickly pack my bag. I headed back downstairs to say goodbye. As I’m hugging my grandma again, I make sure to tell her to get rid of the air freshener. She tells me, “Oh sweetie, I can’t. It’s covering the stench of a dead body!” She winks at me and we all laugh. On the way home, I roll down the window and smell all of the wonderfulness of nature. As I took in one more whiff, I felt a sneeze coming. Not again!

Quinn Guilfoyle

September 22, 2023

4 Senses

Today was the day when everything that could go wrong went wrong . I lost one of my senses. I lost my sense of Sight. I could not see anything. All I could see was darkness. My life doesn’t feel the same anymore. I feel hopeless . It feels like I am just nothing without my eyes. All I do is sit in my room, right by the window and just listen to the sweet sound of birds chirping, and the leaves moving.

I really do wish that God would take one of my other senses away instead of my sight. But you know what? Everything happens for a reason. Maybe I wasn’t supposed to be a football player, or a business owner. Maybe I was just supposed to a blind man who goes around the neighborhood telling his story to different people to tell them to never take life for granted.

Ethan. Jobita Jemadari

September 22, 2023

4 Senses

Chicken noodle soup… The pulled chicken and vegetables soaked in broth… I would hate to miss the taste of it. I put my lips to the hot bowl and slurp up some of the broth.

“Owwwwwwwww!” I scream. My tongue is on fire. I wait a few minutes for the soup to cool. Huh, I don’t taste anything? I must’ve screwed up the recipe.

“Dinner!” my mom yells.

I run downstairs and see glorious pasta bolognese. The creamy tomato sauce paired with ground italian sausage. I take the first bite and don’t taste anything.

“Ma, this doesn’t taste like anything.”

“I made it how I always make it.” my mom replied.

“I couldn’t taste my soup and now this. What’s going on?” I said.

My mom grabbed a piece of garlic bread. The end piece, the best piece. I took a bite..

Nothing.

“I don’t taste it.” I said.

“Seems like you lost your sense of taste, we gotta see a doctor.” my mom said.

We ran through a couple tests and the doctor broke the bad news.

“Son, you lost your sense of taste.” the doctor said.

“This can’t be true. I can’t eat burgers, pasta, or broccoli anymore!” I yelled in agony.

“Listen, a big part of taste is your smell, and you still have that. You just can’t taste anything sweet, sour, or salty.” the doctor answered.

All the foods I once loved are gross. Yogurt is like slime in your mouth and eggs are squishy and gross. Pizza for breakfast and breakfast for dinner don’t hit the same anymore. The one thing I can still eat is spicy foods. I pair spice with everything. I eat it with cereal and even ice cream.

Since I eat peppers with everything, I developed a strong spice tolerance. I eat South Carolina Reapers like they’re candy. I decided to go to a pepper eating competition. I made it to the finals versus Greg Foster. He holds the world record for eating 10 Carolina reapers in 10 seconds and he is the world champion of the Hot Pepper Eating Championship. We tied between eating 20 Carolina reapers in under a minute. Sudden deathmatch began and they brought out the Apollo Pepper. Developed in a lab, 3 million Scoville heat units. We both ate one to see who broke first. We waited and waited until it hit like a nuclear bomb. Whoever could last longer without drinking water, wins. Ten minutes went by and we were both panting. Greg Foster grabbed his water bottle and I won the championship.

Rhys Guilfoyle

9/22/23

Senses

I should have listened to Mr.Tom when he told us to stop listening to music with headphones on. He would always tell us to not wear headphones because, when we reached his age, we were all going to be completely deaf. In my youth, I used to think nothing was gonna hurt me. But now I am dealing with the terrible consequences of listening to music way too loud.

Now I am a 65 year old with a couple of kids and a failed marriage. As a result of me being so grumpy! My children decided to put me in a retirement home. Nobody likes to have conversations with me since I can barely hear them. I am always saying Huh? Or, What did you say?

But I am not the only one here. Karla’s kids decided that she was too much to handle so they also put her in a retirement home. She is the only person that I can actually hear. You would think that when someone is 67 they would be more quiet but she was the complete opposite.

She always had some type of beef with the caregivers at the retirement home. She would argue about how they were always giving her soup and that she wanted a steak for dinner.

One morning both of us were watching the news. And the breaking news was that Sexxy Red had tragically passed away. Karla could not believe it and she started screaming hysterically. She was screaming so loud to the point where the little hearing I had left was gone. I got up and used my walker to go back to my room.

Hector Rivas 09-22-2023