Fish in a Tree

Everyone is smart in different ways. But if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life thinking that it’s stupid.

Well…alone is a way to be. It’s being by yourself with no one else around. And it can be good or bad. And it can be a choice…. But being lonely is never a choice. It’s not about who is with you or not. You can feel lonely when you are alone, but the worst kind of lonely is when you’re in a room full of people, but you’re still alone. Or you feel like you are anyway.

You say that you'll grow up to be nobody. But logically.. if nobody's perfect... well then, you must be perfect.

One thing's for sure. We're not gonna fit in, but we're gonna stand out" -Keisha

An older brother is older. A big brother looks out for you and smiles when you walk into a room.

maybe “I’m having trouble” is not the same as “I can’t.

What letters do you see backward?” “Well, O, I, T, A, M, V, X, U . . . and some others.

Alice in Wonderland - a book about living in a world where nothing makes sense made perfect sense to me" -Ally

My grandpa used to say to be careful with eggs and words, because neither can ever be fixed. The older I get, the more I realize how smart my grandpa was.

I believe that the things we put numbers on are not necessarily the things that count the most. you can't measure the stuff that makes us human.

Everybody is a genius but if you judge a fish by its able to climb a tree it will live its whole life believing it is stupid.

I can't think of anything worse than having to describe myself. I'd rather write about something more positive.

But what really gets me is that in order for Mr. Daniels to come up with this plan, he must have thought of me outside of school—when he didn’t have to think of me. I bet other teachers have never let me sit in their head one second longer than they had to.

I decide that the craziest, strangest, most unbelievable thing I could ever draw is me doing something right.

I'm afraid to open my mouth sometimes things just come out that get me more in trouble.

Rain, rain falling down Down, down on the gound All the birds go in the trees They don't like the rain, you see.

Even when i do something right, I feel like i've done something wrong.

She doesn't get it. Being funny when you don't mean to be is terrible. Having to laugh at yourself along with everyone else is humiliating.

Every word is another shovelful of dirt from the hole I've dug for myself. So I figure my best bet is to shut my mouth.

I stand tall, but everything inside shrinks. The thing is, I feel real bad.

You can't make people unhear something. I should be used to this, but it still takes a piece out of me every time.

Whenever I do my best, they tell me I don't try hard enough.

There is a tray full of glass sundae dishes filled with brightly colored ice cream. Strawberry, pistachio, black raspberry. Pink, green, and purple. I like the colors next to each other and wonder what kind of impossible things I can draw about ice cream. Maybe melting rivers of it. And a man with a cone-shaped head sitting in a babana split dish rowing with a spoon.

Sometimes a person will do just about anything for a wish to come true.

But if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life thinking that it’s stupid.’” I think hard

And I wish I was more like Albert. Seeing him shuffle away in those sneakers makes me want to be better. I'm not perfect, but at least I'm not mean. And then my heart sinks because I realize that I just was. I guess I did it because I was lonely. Now I know that there are worse things than being lonely.

He doesn't want to know about the real me. It'll be like people in scary movies who think they want to know whats in the basement, but when they find out, they're always sorry.