The Struggles of the First Morning

I yawned and stretched still half asleep as sunlight streamed in through the window. Strange. It was unusually peaceful. Then I realized. My alarm had not gone off and it was supposed to be the..…”OH CRAP!” I yelled aloud. I rolled over quickly only to hit my head on the mahogany table next to my bed then proceed to fall off landing face first onto the ground. ‘OWWW’ I thought. That woke me up quickly, or the pain did, so to speak. My eyes watered up but I knew that I didn’t have time to cry, because I was already about to be late for the first day of high school! I rolled over onto my feet and right into action. I made my bed hastily as I threw the purple blanket over the milky white pillows. I walked across my simple room to my closet. My room was nothing to boast about. It consisted of a twin sized bed with a purple blanket and a striped bedsheet. There was a desk with my computer on it and also had some framed pictures of my friends. Then there was the closet next to my desk (in the middle) opposite to my bed. In the other corner, closest to my door, was my bookshelf that housed all of my favorite books and the ones I was interested in reading. The walls were plain white but were covered with posters. The room gave off a nice feel. Like it was messy but it was home. I looked around for my school uniform and almost emptied my closet by the time I remembered that I put them in the bathroom before hand to save time. I slammed my room door open as I sprinted to the bathroom and tore off my clothes. I put on all my clothes not realizing that my tie was still in my hand. I grabbed my bag and leaped out the door not bothering to lock it. I mean, I didn’t want to miss the start of the opening ceremony!

Ocean Dwellers

Ocean Dwellers

It was the year 2116. The Earth was overpopulated and neither the Moon or Mars could be colonized in time. Missions for colonization had been planned to start over the next 30 years. As a temporary fix for the food shortage and overpopulation, nearly three billion people were pushed out onto the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian ocean in boats. There were plenty of supplies and fishermen amongst the people which, really, was all they needed to survive. People had to fish to survive and by all means, there was no shortage of fish in the ocean. The small fish were usually let out so they could grow and have eggs. The Ocean Dwellers, is what they were called, had to be smart about which type of fish they caught, which to let go, and which to eat in order to survive all those years. The boats had movable roofs and a submarine mode that lasted for a short period of time, usually three to five days. This let the people survive storms. Everyone had radios and were informed of any storms and their locations which would allow them to steer a different course. The submarine mode was usually a last resort. At any rate, if you asked the Ocean Dwellers if they liked their way of life, it would be hard for them to answer. They do not know what it is like to live on land or eat non-fish meat as we do not know how it is to live on water. The more wise folk would reply with the question “Do you enjoy YOUR way of life on land?”. Most do not particularly like or dislike it. It is just what they had gotten used to and would now be commonplace for them. As we would not be able to accurately imagine how it would be for them, they would not be able to imagine what it is like for us as well. The reason is that it is what is is. A way of life.

There is a moral to this story. And I do hope that you figure it out.

The Life of a Cheetah

Life of a Cheetah

I yawned and stretched as the sun came up. My cubs were still sleeping so I slipped away from the trees we were sleeping under and headed towards the grasslands. I bounded forth, sweeping the area to find prey. I looked around and headed to the moon; opposite of the sun. Before I had barely gone two miles I heard water running and headed towards what I thought to be a stream but ended up being a small waterfall. I headed upstream and drank from the river until I noticed something moving in my peripheral vision.I turned, quick as lightning and sprang to the sound. It was a gazelle that had wanted to drink water but saw me and turned around. I chased after it between a couple trees and into the grasslands. I halted my chase and used the long, yellow grass to hide myself as I crept forth. The gazelle stopped running as it could not see me anymore. It headed the other way, towards the stream I usually drink from with my cubs. I started for the same place and planned to intercept it. I stealthily tiptoed to the gazelle not making any sound. As I got closer, it finally noticed me and started running again but it was too late. I got to my fastest speed in three seconds and jumped on to it (Cheetahs can get to 60 miles per hour in 3 seconds). I went for its throat and it was dead. I scanned the surroundings for lions or other predators that would attempt to steal my kill. I could not see any… yet. I dragged the kill to a safe place behind a tree and speedily ran to my cubs. I nudged them awake and lead them to the kill. I was tired from running and I panted heavily for the next couple minutes while my cubs dug in. After I caught my breath and we had all ate, we walked towards the stream and drank some water. My cubs still needed sleep so we then headed to a tree as we left the yellow grasslands to go back to sleep.

Breathing Underwater

Breathing Underwater

Scuba diving had always been Jack's favorite activity. He loved the water, loved swimming, and loved the ocean. He was fascinated by fishes and everything that dwelled in the water.  “I can’t wait!” He thought to himself as he went to sleep that night. As he woke up the next morning he was ecstatic. He woke up his parents immediately who originally, would have scolded him, but were now used to his enthusiasm for scuba diving. His family loaded up the car with their gear and drove to the docks. After his parents arranged the ride to their designated spot, a little left of the giant rocks protruding from the ocean, they entered their rented boat and the navigator revved up the engine and Jack began his journey. He opened his eyes not realizing when he had slept to see that they had arrived and were retrieving all of their gear from the back of the boat. Jack’s eyes lit up as he grabbed his gear and put it on. When he was ready, he dived into the water without a word. His parents followed suit and acted as nothing had happened, because they were used to him acting this way. He was a quiet kid most of the time so his parents had grown used to their child’s silent personality. When Jack had entered the water, he swam towards the first school of fish he saw. He noticed that this was a species he had not personally encountered before as he did not recognize their scales. He marveled at it for a few minutes until his parents came and they started to swim to an underwater cave that they had not been to before. He broke out into a grin. Jack could not wait.

SkyDiving 2024

The year was 2024. Planes would now allow you to skydive from a much higher point in the atmosphere but you would be wearing a mask that would filter oxygen to you for the first 2 minutes of the fall. Max was excited and could not wait to try it. His parents had planned this with him for weeks and tomorrow was finally the day. He tried to sleep but tossed and turned all night, much too eager to go.

The plane ride up to the air platform (it was a huge plane with buildings on top hovering in air that would come down once a week to refuel) was awesome. The

Earth grew smaller until he could almost see his whole country. On the way up there is always a few minutes of 0 gravity which Max loved. His body was weightless as he flipped around among the interior of the silver plane. The black seats served as ledges for him to push off from to get to his bag. He pulled out a bottle of water and opened the cap letting a little bit of water escape. “Mom, Dad!” he yelled. “Watch this!” and with that he pushed the water and chased it down the aisle of the small plane.

The few seats of the plane gave everyone restricted maneuverability and space which nearly caused some collisions. Right as Max  positioned himself under the water, the gravity came back and the water dropped right into his mouth. He laughed with his parents but it was cut short by a fasten seatbelt sign. They were about to land on the skydiving platform. Everyone wore oxygen masks until they were inside the building where the air was not thin like the outside. They had air filters and greenhouses that produced air for indoor breathing. They checked in and headed to a different plane. They would soon be skydiving away from the silver planes and platform.

The plane took off without a hitch and in ten minutes, they had already arrived. Max eagerly strapped on his parachute and stood at near the open door, with the wind blowing his hair around. Once everyone was ready, they jumped into the sky. The g-force immediately hit as everyone’s cheeks jiggled. It was almost like 0 gravity again except they were falling. The family formed a ring and tried to stay together while adjusting their speed by bringing their arms up. They would have to separate eventually so their parachutes did not hit each other when deployed so max tucked in his arms and legs like a cannonball and gained speed. He fell faster than his parents and once he gained enough distance, he suddenly sprang his legs and arms open and spread them wide apart. The air lifted and carried him so his speed decreased several fold. So much so that max felt like he was flying. The oxygen mask rang which meant that it was time to parachute. He pulled the lever on his back and was yanked upward as the parachute deployed and caught air. As he floated down for the last minute, all Max could think about was how he wanted to do it again. He had fun.

The Four Dimensions

A Brief Summary of the First Four Dimensions

Have you ever gone out and watched a “3d” movie?  What makes something “3d” in the first place? Most would say “something that is flat like paper” and while that is technically correct, it is far from the whole truth. Now first of all, there are not JUST three dimensions as a majority of people think. String theory states that there is a MINIMUM of nine dimensions and that the tenth dimension is, well….., everything. In a single point. But let's not get into that. For now, let us discuss the first and second dimensions for they are the simplest.

The first dimension is a single point. The universe would be a line in this situation. Anything in the first dimension would be on the line only capable of moving along the line, forwards or backwards. Next is the second dimension. The second dimension is one that we are all familiar with. To go from the first dimension to the second dimension, you simply add a line. An object in the second dimension would be like a dot on a coordinate plane. The two dimensions of the second dimension are length and width.

This brings us to the third dimension, which is obviously the most easy one to comprehend because the third dimension is the the one we are living in right now. The third dimension is depth. This adds another line to the two dimensional coordinate plane. Your location would be determined by latitude, longitude, and altitude, while in the second dimension there IS no altitude. Another word for the third dimension is depth. Back to our original question, what makes something “3d” in the first place, the answer would be depth. Now you could definitely state your location with just those 3 numbers, but there ARE more dimensions.

Now let us enter the fourth, and for the sake of this paper, and final dimension that we will be discussing. The fourth dimension, is time. Now you cannot really draw another line in your three line coordinate plane for the fourth dimension because the fourth dimensional line would be a timeline. A being in the fourth dimension would, theoretically, be able to move through time naturally, as easy as we are able move forwards and backwards, or side to side. The fourth dimensional being would be easier to be described as a snake. Your baby self would be at one end and your deceased self would be at the other end. Now here is something to think about. If light is shone upon a 3 dimensional object and it results in a 2 dimensional shadow, then what would happen if light was cast on a 4 dimensional object?

A Short Sci-Fi

Another one had been found. This time it was a remnant of the twenty second century. Relics like this military robot were extremely rare. Centuries old, it was indeed a mechanic fossil.

“A long time ago, nearly 600 years, world war three had been tearing the Earth apart until my great ancestor had launched a special robot into the sky which acted as an EMP of unprecedented measure. With most of the population wiped out by robots, it had become a race between nations on who could mass produce bombs and robots to annihilate the other. When Draktheen, my great ancestor had seen what was happening to Earth, she had created the Volleybot EMP Series 42, which was designed to wipe out all machines on the surface, along with the any humans that had neural implants, including her own which had kept her alive for 3 years. History had happened accordingly to what Albert Einstein had predicted with one of his famous quotes, “I know not with what weapons world war three will be fought, but world war four will be fought with sticks and stones.” It had taken the Earth hundreds of years to heal and even then, there were still permanent scars left in the planet. A mere 3 million humans had survived the war and even though they attempted to mass produce, after 600 years, there were still only 30 million humans globally. After the war, all traces of twenty-second century medical related advances had been wiped out. Only the knowledge retained by the collective, remaining human race was what had been left of the once great medical era of the twenty-second century. Despite their attempts to repopulate the Earth, disease and sickness would come and would not be cured. Babies would die early because of the limited medical support and the average human life expectancy had been brought down to 45 years; nearly half of what it had been before.  Humans had passed down oral recipes for how to make machines which ranged from ‘computers’ to ‘steam engines’.They could not make these of course, and neither can we as the materials necessary are too difficult to obtain. These instructions were finally written down in year 2400 to keep them as close to the original thing as was possible in hopes that one day, we may be able to build these machines again to make the new humans’ lives easier. I, Drakul, had become a seeker, looking for anything that remained from the past in hopes to kickstart humanity and find an essential upgrade that would help boost the collective human population out of what we named the Caveman Era. We were still dwelling in caves, unable to go outside anytime before what we presumed to be around four o’ clock due to the immense heat. The EMP had detrimental effects on the planet which had resulted in speeding up global warming. Luckily for us the Earth had begun to cool 200 years ago and remember that we are lucky that we can even go out after four. I have told you about me and some history about the planet. That, my students is what you call killing two birds with one stone. I must go search for some more relics because, as you may know, I found a military robot in the 3rd quadrant of the northeast caves so I must go and look for more.” I ended with a clap.  “What does that mean?” one of my female students asked. “That means” I sighed. “That you may leave early today. Class dismissed.” And that had concluded  the end of the first day of my part-time job as a history-exclusive teacher.