Aerie InternationaL - Missoula County Public Schools

taylor nicole marlow, 18: I was born and raised in Norman, Oklahoma. There are two high
schools in my town; each school has around two-thousand students. Here
in Oklahoma, the horizon is incredibly flat, which makes the sunsets
absolutely breath-taking. I love the state I live in because it is always
changing, but still always the same. My poem was inspired by a memory
from my childhood. I write about my grandfather often because he was
such a dynamic individual. Also, the topic, cooking fish for Thanksgiving,
is not very common. It is a tradition in my family and I wanted to share it
with others.
harriet milbourne, 17: I live in a small village called Walton. It’s just me and my mum at home.
We have a cat and a hamster called Bella and Napoleon. We don’t have a
television so I like to read a lot, we also like to go on walks and swim. When
I leave for university I want to take a course in teaching and eventually
become a teacher. My piece, “Lanercost Priory in the Evening” is based on
the priory in the small village of Lanercost which is just down the road from
Walton. This is where I spent a lot of time when I was younger as my dad
held toy train meetings in the small hall attached to the priory. It was here
that my dad’s funeral was held, so this also has a special meaning for me.
mercy ndambuki, 17: I was born and raised in Kenya and moved to the United States
when I was fourteen on December 24, 2004. I speak four languages:
Kiswahili, Kikamba, French and definitely English. On a typical
weekend, I play tennis, go to Edmond to visit my family friends, do last
minute homework and watch a lot of television. My favorite hobby is
drawing because it gives me the chance to express my emotions and
imaginations through pictures and color.
maria nelson, 17: My name is Maria Nelson, and I am a junior in Helena, Montana. I grew up
in the mountains near Yellowstone National Park. I had a huge imagination as a child, some
of which has stuck with me as I grew up. I believe that there is no greater way to express
oneself than through writing or the arts. “Echoes of Alexandria” holds great
personal import for me. While it is now a fictional cross-section of lives
and relationships, of hope and hopelessness, of drifting and loving and
dancing in the haze of adolescence, of the secret maturity that hides itself
in the minds of the young and can be interpreted in several ways, it began
far differently. I have lost friends to drugs and alcohol. Not by death, but
by their choice, by slow erosion of ideals. I have felt a need to save these
friends, to save them from themselves, and this feeling led to one of the
hardest realizations of my life: that I cannot protect anybody from herself,
that life has twists that nobody can see or foretell.
102
austin noll, 17: My name is Austin Noll and I was born in Lawrence, Kansas,
where I have spent all seventeen years of my life. My first artistic aspirations
began at age two with my life size Clifford drawing and I have been drawing
ever since. Past Clifford, I am now inspired by Lucian Freud, Vincent Van
Gogh, and Sebastian Kruger. When I am not drawing or painting, I like to
play music, basketball, watch movies, and eat cereal (preferably Cinnamon
Toast Crunch.) While I plan on being an artist and attending art school, I
would also like to play in a band, and learn how to surf.