Title: The Elephant and the Rope
Author: Marie Fay
Citation: Fay, Marie. “The Elephant and the Rope.” Inspirational Storytellers. Inspirational Storytellers, 27 Feb. 2013. Web. 17 Jan. 2017.

In the non-fiction article, “The Elephant and the Rope” written by Marie Fay, an adult elephant is living his whole life with the fear to failure. The elephant in this story has been living his whole life attached to a little rope not being able to move freely on his own when the rope this elephant is attached to; he is clearly able to break free. When the elephant was young he was attached to the same rope from causing him to not run away so in this elephant’s head, he is not able to break free of this rope, “When they are very young and much smaller we use the same size rope to tie them and, at that age, it’s enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free” (Par. 2). This elephant is now fully grown and still thinks that he is not able to break free of this rope due to the fear of failure. This does not only apply to elephants; it applies to everyone. This story shows that life has all sorts of failures for us; therefore, you can never give up on those failures, no matter how hard it gets you have to keep on trying because one day you will be able to overcome your failures.

Title: Greedy Boy
Author: KidsWorldFun.com
Citation: KidsWorldFun.com. “Short Stories » Greedy Boy – A Short Moral Story for Kids.” Greedy Boy – A Moral Short Story for Kids. LM Digital Media, 16 Mar. 2015. Web. 17 Jan. 2017.

In the short story, “Greedy Boy” written by KidsWorldFun.com, there are two boys who are twins being completely identical appearance wise, but the exact opposite for everything else. One of the boys was Sam; very generous and selfless personality, while on the other hand there was Tom who was very greedy and selfish. Sam and Tom’s dad was very wealthy and told Sam and Tom that they have gotten to the age that he is going to share his fortune with them equally; however, Tom did not agree: “Whoever proved to be more intelligent and strong would have to get a bigger share of the wealth” (Par. 3). Sam and the father agreed with Tom’s conditions and the father made a challenge for the two to see who gets more money: “Walk as long as you can, and return home before sunset” (Par. 4). When Sam and Tom went out for the race Sam followed the rules walking slowly yet steadily while on the other hand, Tom sprinted. Sam walked as far as possible until he saw that he would have to start walking back home so he would make it back in time. Tom, with his greed to earn more wealth, walked twice as long as Sam, and thought he would still be able to return home before sunset. He hurried back when he saw the sun turn orange; unfortunately, he could not even make it half way home as the sun started to set. Sam made it back home getting the majority of the wealth from his dad while Tom got nothing. This story shows that you have to be grateful of what is ahead of you, be fortunate of the situation you have, and do not try to take advantage of it, letting your greed takeover or it will only go wrong.

Title: Personal Reflection
Author: Cole Rosenlund

I train very hard for soccer every year, not only with my team but also in my own time. One year my team was 1st place ahead of the 2nd place team by 1 point and we played the 2nd place team in our last game of the season. If the 2nd place team were to beat us they would finish in 1st place and go to provincials and we would finish in 2nd and not go to provincials; although, if we either tied or won we would come in 1st place and go to provincials. The game started and played for 80 out of the 90 minutes before anything had happened. In the 80th minute my team passed the ball to me across the goal; 6 yards out for a wide open net and I went to kick the ball to most likely get the game winning goal for our team and go on to provincials but as I went to kick the ball, it just didn’t connect right with my foot and I completely missed the net. The next play the other team went down on a breakaway to end up scoring in the 81st minute to go up 1-0. I was so upset, all I wanted to do at the time was come off because I thought I wasn’t good enough and I had just lost my team the game. Even though I wanted to come off, I stayed on the field and got rid of all those negative thoughts out of my head and thought that I owed it to my team to give a 110% effort and go back and score a goal to tie the game. In the last minute of the game I played my team mate a through ball for a breakaway and kept on running into the box being left unmarked again. My teammate passed the ball to me across the net, again for a wide open net, where I could redeem myself and I took the shot and scored the goal to end up tying the game which sent us to provincials. Life is not about going down on yourself for all the things you could have done better, it is about learning your mistakes and moving on.