For our latest school project, we were asked to research animals, their habitats, and their characteristics, and then compare ourselves to these characteristics. I put a lot of time and effort into the essay, so I thought I would share it with my peeps.
Potintxo’s Totem Pole
For my totem pole project I choose three underwater animals. I choose the whale, the jellyfish, and the octopus. It was very interesting learning about the different things these animals represent. Now, let’s get started.
I choose the whale because it represents importance, family, community, peace, and communication. I think that importance represents me because I am important and I help other people feel important. I try to help people as much as I can because I think it’s vital to treat everyone with kindness and respect. Everyone deserves to feel cared about. If you do that, you are important because you are very helpful and people respect that and like you for that reason.
Family! Everyone is family because no matter what, you’ll be a part of one. It could be your parents, siblings, grandparents, or even friends! Since I’m part of a family and have friends that feel like family to me, it’s logical that I’d pick family as something that represents me.
Another word that the whale represents is community. I am part of a community as well. A community can be your neighborhood or school. I’m part of THREE communities! I have my Dad’s neighborhood, my Mom’s neighborhood, and my school. That’s a large community and I’m very happy to be a part of each and every one of them.
Another very important thing that it stands for is peacefulness. This represents me in an ironic way because at times, I am the most RAMBUNCTIOUS person you will ever meet. Other times, I am very quiet and calm. I’m peaceful when I’m tired, relaxed, and focused. I’m rambunctious when I’m full of energy, having fun, or hanging out with my friends. But there’s always an in between! That’s why peaceful represents me.
Communication! I think this one describes me best because I am very good at expressing myself. I use advanced language skills, and I make the answer longer than it should be to keep a conversation going. I also really like talking and sharing my thoughts. Communication is the best way to do so, in my opinion. Communication describes me in so many ways because I have so much to say. It is also great to mingle and socialize. Talk face to face! Not texting or talking on the phone. That’s great. I like to be in a quiet place and just chat and socialize. It’s awesome! That’s why communication describes me so well.
The next animal that represents me is the jellyfish. The jellyfish stands for organization, acceptance, faith, trust, and sensitivity. Organization represents me because I’m an organized person. I organize my desk, papers, folders, binders, projects, and anything in general. This is also a very ironic thing because when it comes to cleaning my room, I’m not that great. Being organized is good because it means that your work is very nice and neat. It’s also easier to communicate if you can organize your words and sentences to make sense. That’s how organization represents me.
Acceptance is the next word that describes me. Acceptance represents me because I can accept things. Sometimes it’s very hard, but you have to do it. I had a hard time accepting I had a few friendship problems, but I did it anyway. You have to! Some things you just have to accept, and some things you can change, but others are out of your control. That’s why you have to be accepting. Usually, you can resolve friendship problems, but sometimes it just gets out of hand and that’s when acceptance comes into action. It is a very difficult thing to do, but you’ve got to anyway. I think that acceptance represents me for all those reasons.
Faith is the next thing that represents me. Faith means having complete trust or confidence in a person or thing. I have faith in many people, including myself. I have faith in my friends and family. It’s important to have faith in yourself because it gives you self esteem and helps you achieve your goals and to never give up. Faith is something that represents me because I always believe in myself and I never let myself down. If you tell yourself that you can’t do it and that it’s not worth it, you’ll start believing that and not ever try to achieve your goal. That’s why faith is something very important that describes me.
Trust. Trust is one of the most important symbols on this list. Trust is so difficult to describe. It’s very intense, you can’t just throw out a few words and call it trust. Trust is something that you have to earn. If you trust someone, it means that you’ll give someone all your respect and will not be afraid to tell them anything: A secret, something personal, something private. I am a very trustworthy person. If you can trust me, I’ll most likely trust you. However, at times, you can trust someone and after so long, they’ll take all that trust you gave them and use it against you. That’s why trust is on this list; it’s on this list because it’s something very important to me. It’s very difficult for me to describe.
Sensitivity describes me so well I could just rant about it all day. I’m a very, very sensitive person. When you first meet me, you wouldn’t think twice about me being sensitive but, to tell the truth, I am very sensitive and I get sad and offended quite easily. Because I am so sensitive, that can sometimes affect my friendships because they get the wrong idea. If that happens, it can make them think that I overreact, that I’m not kind or understanding. But if you know me well enough, you’ll know that I’m just really sensitive. That’s why sensitivity describes me.
The last animal on this list is the octopus. I choose the octopus because it represents strength, strategy, mystery, creativity, and intelligence. The octopus represents strength. Many people tell me that I’m a strong person. They tell me that I’m great because of the way I color and design things, the way I talk, and the vocabulary I use. I try to do nice and neat work, and I usually impress the teacher with that strategy of mine. That leads me to my next subject: Strategic!
I’m very strategic because I find a way to work through most problems. Not just school related problems, but also friendship problems and problems in general. In group projects, I am usually the one figuring out the answers and coming up with ideas. In math, it takes me a bit longer to solve the problems but I generally find a way to work through it and find the solution. I like figuring out problems; I find it interesting to strategically work through a very difficult question. Many of my friends agree with me about being strategic and working through problems. That’s how strategic describes me. The next adjective is mysterious. I’m very mysterious, nobody knows what I’m going to do next. This is why I will start off with a normal sentence like “Hey, Michaela! Can I ask you a question?” See? Something normal like that. She’ll then answer, “Yes? What is it?” Normal conversation. The question will be something shocking and random. Example: “What did the squid say when the ostrich crossed the road to go see the pickle jump over the fence?” It’s NOTHING like a typical question that you’d assume it to be! With me, you can never jump to conclusions. I’m sure Michaela would respond something like, “Hola, Pepino Squid! How’s the cheesy morning?” because she knows me and how we speak. I’m also very secretive. It’s hard to get secrets out me. Many students in the classroom think they know what to expect, but sometimes they don’t actually expect me to ask a normal question. But I do!
Creativity is next thing that I wanted to talk about. Creativity describes me in so many ways. I am VERY creative. I draw the most random, creative, things. From dancing hamburgers, to an ice cream with a mustache, a rainbow ostrich, a pickle family, and so much more! I say the most random, crazy sentences that almost NOBODY can understand. Maybe one out of thirty people can understand what I’m trying to say. May I give an example? Oh, well, I can. Example: “Oh! Oh! Oh! Why would the squid travel all the way to SquidTopia, tell me he’d come back, but then didn’t?” What I was trying to say, in a less obvious way was, “Oh! Oh! Oh! Why would (blank) travel so far away from me, tell me he’d come back, but then didn’t?” If you really think about what I just said, it was quite sad, actually. I say a lot of things like that to make it less obvious and humorous. In reality, though, what I’m saying has a very deep meaning. I know that sounds crazy, but it’s true. That’s how creativity represents me.
Intelligence is the last word on this list. I choose intelligent as an adjective to describe myself because I am intelligent. I consider myself intelligent because I get good grades, I’m in an advanced writing class, and many people have told me that I’m a very intelligent little girl. I’m very good at spelling, grammar, reading, social studies, and math. Everyone in my family is very intelligent so it’s kind of in my genes, thankfully. I don’t want to write much about me being intelligent because it’s a bit rude, in my opinion. I wouldn’t like people bragging about how smart and intelligent they are. Intelligence is a very common thing. Everybody is intelligent in their own way. Maybe in a specific subject: sports, music, anything really. That’s why I’d describe myself – and everybody else – as intelligent.
Those are my explanations and thoughts about the animals I chose.
The End.
Who helped:
– Le Mom, Henar Chico
– Le Foreign Exchange Student, Andrea
Where I bought the materials:
– Joanne’s Fabrics and Crafts
– Home supplies
Potintxo's Blog 