OKAY , SO I WAKE UP , I GET READY for the day , I get washed up and I get dressed . My Nana brushes my hair and I sit down and I wait for my class to come on . I actually have a second to eat breakfast and then I do my ten o ’ clock meeting . Then it is my next meeting and I do math . And then , after that , I have a little time to play around and stuff and then I do my eleven o ’ clock meeting . And then after , I play and eat lunch ; I have an hour and I probably go outside or take a walk or do independent work . And then I have my two o ’ clock meeting with my teacher and read something . Today , I read a book called Ollie ’ s Odyssey . It ’ s about a toy that went missing . And then I just have my night and have my dinner and dessert and then I go to bed and do all of that over again on the next day .
I actually have two favorite things I like to do in school : the eleven o ’ clock , when there ’ s a mystery scene , and I usually like story time . Today , I was so comfortable because my teacher said , “ Get in a comfortable spot to listen to the story .” I got so comfortable and I felt like I could barely keep my eyes open . I was just like : I can listen with my eyes closed . And I literally fell asleep . My mom said , “ It ’ s all right . It ’ s not a big deal .” I was like : “ It is a big deal .” I usually pretend to fall asleep in my class , like in cartoons . Mom said , “ Were you trying to pretend and then you actually did it ?” I ’ m like , no , I just fell asleep . So I got a little bit less cozy .
I just feel like I ’ m right there with [ in-person classmates ]. For my birthday , I had a Zoom dance party with my school
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friends . That was really fun . And we were just dancing and I was so shy and I didn ’ t like dancing in class . But then after a few minutes that I started liking one song , I was like [ dances enthusiastically ].
I can read a whole book . And probably in just a few minutes , I can read you a book ; if you want me to , I can . But if you don ’ t want me to , that ’ s fine . When I first went in school , I started getting better and better and better at words , so now I can read harder books . They ’ re actually for grownups to read , but I read them all by myself . I read a book last night called How to Catch a Unicorn . And guess what ? Before I even told someone , I could spell out the word “ experiment ” in a snap . This is how long it took me to figure out the word “ experiment ”: [ Snaps fingers .]
Remember you said that it was a good offer to read a book to you ? Do you want to , or not ? Okay , it ’ s right over there . You can count to two to see how fast I am , because people call me the Flash .
Felicity ,
16 , sophomore at Portsmouth High School ( virtual only ), Portsmouth
MAYBE IT WAS TWO , THREE YEARS ago , when I was getting serious with my art . My dad is a fan of manga and is a fan of anime , and I got into anime . And I just kind of started copying it and trying to get better . It ’ s always been a relaxer for me . There was a time I was putting all of my emotions into the art , but recently it ’ s just been like coloring in and painting . I also like to sketch stuff ; it requires more thought , though .
Back then , I went to Thompson Middle School , where my brother [ Elijah ] goes . I was going to go to Rogers [ high school in Newport ], because they said they had a visual arts course with one of my favorite art teachers . But two weeks before high school started , they canceled the program . They basically were saying , sorry , it doesn ’ t exist anymore , bye .
I was freaking out because I had a bad eighth grade year with a lot of my older friends . I wouldn ’ t say it was bullying , but it was passive-aggressiveness — just not feeling in place . You know , I ’ m mixed , and a lot of people see me as just a black kid , but I ’ m not , and then the black kids would be like : “ Oh , you ’ re too white . You can ’ t be black .” I was tired of that . And I felt like the teachers didn ’ t see my potential or see that I was smart enough to do the honors courses . And every step of the way , my mom had to fight to get me into honors courses and advanced courses .
I was just not ready to go back into that environment . And I knew that the kids that gave me trouble eighth grade year were going to do it again because it ’ s hard to change . My mom was like , we can find something else . And she called Portsmouth and they had a visual arts CTE [ career and technical education ] program that would accept me .
44 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l SEPTEMBER 2021