The lost flip-flop earring

When I was in elementary school, I collected earrings. I had every type of earrings, gingerbread, snowmen, candycane, flowers, hearts, dolphins, and my favorite, purple flip-flop earrings. They dangled and they were light purple flip-flops with a dark purple flower. I wore those earrings every single day. I was known for having the biggest collection of earrings then but almost everyday I'd wear my purple flip-flop earrings.

One afternoon, before leaving my fourth grade class for the day, I realized that I was missing one of my purple flip-flop earrings. I grabbed my ear lobe and tugged, hoping that it would magically reappear. I searched the classroom frantically for the earring that would finish my favorite pair. I know it seems weird to be emotionally attached to an earring but I cried a little when I finally left the classroom. The next morning when I walked into the classroom I saw my purple flip-flop earring sticking out of the rug at the entrance of the classroom. I couldn't believe it; it was still there after the janitor probably cleaned the rug. I was so excited that I'd found it again.

Rock

The rocking chair rocked slowly, creaking on the wooden floor. The old man dressed as Santa Claus smiled and welcomed the kids entering the room with a wave, some frightened, some overjoyed. It was a cold, snowy day in December and my grandma brought my sister and I to my cousin's school, a deaf school, to watch a play that he was in and then to enjoy a "meet and greet" with Santa. Because we were at a deaf school, Santa was of course deaf and so were the majority of the people around us, including my cousin, Elijah, and my grandma.
Santa chuckled loudly as he rocked back in forth in his chair, waving us over with a jolly grin pasted to his face. As a 9 year old, I didn't know much sign language, so my younger cousin, Cordell, who is hearing impaired (he is not completely deaf so he can hear more than deaf people but less than others), had to translate. "Hello, have you been a good little girl?" Santa motioned with complex signs. I nodded, that was one sign I knew well. "That's great! What would you like for Christmas this year?" I answered with the only sign that I knew would be helpful for this occasion, a new book. I know most 9 year olds wouldn't ask Santa for a book but I really wanted a new one and that was one of the few signs that I knew. Santa handed me a candy cane and sent me on my way with a grin and a pat on the back.
Rocking back and forth in his rickety, wooden chair, continuously, Santa met with my cousins and my sister. Afterwards we marched, with our candy canes, downstairs into the lobby and ate donuts and drank steaming hot chocolate. Later, with the memories of Jolly Old Saint Nick in our heads, we left with smiles on our faces and candy canes in our hands.

Fireplace

I sprinted inside after a long day of sledding and snowball fights with friends. My sister and I huddled by the fireplace as our winter coats dripped with melting snow. We grabbed our mugs of hot chocolate as we dropped mini marshmallows in to cloud the top of the steaming liquid. We sat by the fireplace sharing memories of the day and laughing about things like who was hit with a snowball and who slipped on the ice. We talked and talked until the fireplace slowly died as our energy and hot chocolate diminished also. The comfort of the fireplace warmed us as we neared the end of our conversation, whispering until there was nothing left to talk about. We gathered our blankets and fell asleep next to the warm fire.

10 abilities that I possess

Ten abilities that I am confident that I possess are tolerance, determination, the ability to listen to others with an open mind, patience, kindness, hard-working, trustworthy, honesty, open and the ability to help others.
I feel that I am tolerant and open-minded even when I have a bias or certain way of believing things and I listen to what the person has to say despite what I believe. When I am older this will help shape my life by allowing me to accept everyone and everything despite what they think or believe.
I am constantly determined and hard-working with everything I do. Whether I'm on the football field marching, in class working or on the track, I am determined to do my best and nothing less. I also work harder to achieve my goals. Later in my life these abilities will help me reach my goals and go further in my career.
I believe that I am patient with most people whether I want to be or not. This ability will help me later in life when I become an early-childhood teacher and with people I meet everyday.
I also have the ability to be trustworthy, I can be trusted in every situation. Later in life this will allow me to be trusted by people and I'll be known as a good person.
I possess the ability to be honest. By using my honesty later in life I will gain many friends and a lot of trust from everyone.
Though I have already listed my ability to be open-minded, I also have the ability to be open. Not only will I be open-minded to people's ideas and beliefs but open to other things in life. Later in life, being open will help me try new things and meet new people, causing me to be a more explorative person.
Finally, the last ability that I am strongly confident that I possess is the ability to help people. By being able to help people I can help othersbecome th4 best that they can be.