Meet an owl day.

Dear reader,

I thank you for joining me on this journey and although I can't promise you over 2000 words full of excitement and wonder which are two things I usually associate with meeting owls and all kinds of animal (my favourite being camel) I can tell you the experience was bumpy and anything but smooth so if this does end up sounding like a rant bare with me it will be more interesting. Now on we go...

Let's start this story awhile back in 2010 where a young girl made her way to class in the middle of January after having spent 2 weeks having bored out of her mind sitting on the sofa with her dad watching the football on the weekends and cartoon everyday between.

Now bear in mind this is a 10 year old girl completely dependant on her parents to provide not just food, a roof over her head, and the clothes on her back, for which she is very grateful by the way, but also depends on her parents, her mother especially who dotes on said child and constantly reminds her that if she must be a doctor and on occasion, may sometimes be a little more aggressive in her technique in trying to imbue upon said child some kind of direction and ambition.

Now, answer me this, is it wrong for the child to assume that her parents, who have such high goals and aspirations for this child would provide her with the means to pursue these ambitions they have set for her or at least imbue with the responsibility to pursue such things herself. She waited and waited for permission from the parents whose approval she holds so dearly to allow her to pursue any and all creative ambitions hoping that someday maybe it will lead her to the field of medicine or engineering rather than filling her head day in day-out with ambitions of marriage instead.

It seems to me as though the parents never actually care for the child's intellectual pursuits and just needed a punchbag for all their emotional baggage, I thought.

Learning all this over the summer and realising the girl had no-one to support her ambition both set for her and one's she had dared to dream of herself she went into the second term of her year 5 life armed with the knowledge that while her classmates had parents who help them do their homework and encourage them to strengthen their minds and pursue any of their dreams they think of, she had a father who smoked in the kitchen while her mother did the cooking and being that the family only had one table in the house she was allowed to use (because the 'special' table was only in use when they had guests and never at any other time) she was in the kitchen with them inhaling second-hand smoke while she quietly listened to her parents arguing about something, she had thought was stupid, but clearly they had trouble agreeing with that as she had found out when she decided to let them know of her little opinion on the matter and they had asked me to leave the room where she couldn't finish my her homework and had gotten in trouble for sometime after.

So the girl decided, if no-one was going to help her get out of this one-pony town she was going to do it herself, sure they have an Eden Centre but maybe that wasn't enough maybe the girl was brave enough to want more. So it is the next term she walked into school confused excited nervous all at once because the last thing she had received from her teachers was the notice that they had surprise for the class over the summer and this was enough to excite the girl, she was really eager to know what it was but the teachers seem really eager to make the girl wait the whole half-term for the knowledge which they were to receive in school today. Now she could have said the whole class but girl wasn't thinking of the whole class she was to excited and eager to learn their message to be thinking of anyone or anything but her own excitement.

As she walked in the playground she was met with something unusual, her friends were aware of her. she had previously had to try much harder to be noticed by anyone and they had opened up their conversation to include as she just walked past them in confusion and amazement. It just made her try that much harder to get to class first to see what her teachers had to say. but to her misfortune the bell rang and as per the rules of the playground she must pair up and follow and follow a single line and turn left to the first exit where she would line up in a single file with others in her year group (people from England especially in the High Wycombe area will know exactly what I am talking about) so she was doomed to follow the class in and find out along with the rest of the class of students, some of which were bragging about having received the news through various different means and in the end having completed their task in retrieving the information, of which the girl couldn't help but feel a little pang of jealousy for, as it seemed everything came all too easy for the girls and boys who's parents provided for them every opportunity life had to offer that they would be able to do the same for themselves one day and clearly were well on their way to proving that.

So class started but just before their teacher had been able to get in a word our head of year had come in and stopped a moment look the girl dead in the eye then carried her to address the class the rest of the class announcing that she had a message as she went on she made sure to build up intrigue to her message looking around to see if the effect had taken as she moved towards the centre of the room. She stopped as reached the middle and looked to the back of the class as she addressed everyone with 'I have a message for everyone,' everyone broke out in cheer but and as she went on the class grew quieter and soon she announced the message ' this week a local owlry has agreed to come and allow the senior student of our primary school to take pictures of themselves with the owls.

Everyone starting cheering she felt self-conscious and decided not to join in on the merriment of the moment, but was elated at the news of being able to interact with such beautiful creature of which now I am sure there was a built up leading us to the news given that weeks before we would spend an hour everyday learning about owls and being able to appreciate the beauty and magnificence of the creatures. We resumed the day learning about various different things and starting preparation for our 11+. my first thought I have to tell my parents expecting that they would be as excited as I am.

The rest of the day was a blur I made notes I paid attention but for some reasons I couldn't connect with the material and rather than get frustrated and not be able to do anything about it I guess I gave up on trying to learn and never learned how to. So fast forward to end of the day inside I was full of electricity every time I would think of the owls and I can't describe or even learn to understand what it is, every time this happens I think I am apart of an experiment and in some previous life had committed an egregious sin against someone with the means to make me suffer and had me inflict something on to everyone so that everyone be motivated to keeping me down and everyone have a foot on my neck this doesn't make sense either and it isn't even a complete theory. But I am sure that I upset some rich father's spoiled daughter.

I make my way to the playground and my sister was making her way together with her friends and I made my way to her. She said her goodbye's and carried on towards the shining gate at the end of the playground and even though I was confused and a little hurt she didn't come to see me before making her way to the gate and I was worried it might have the large group of people she had to walk through eyeing me up earlier they had said something about it like they had known what I was thinking and were already having a conversation with me, I had carried on walking.

I was so excited that when I reached her and started talking I had actually startled her, and I was so taken aback by that, that I just stayed quiet in my excitement. Eventually we had made our way out of the school and on the pavement making our way to where our mother usually would be waiting for us and as soon as our eyes meet I feel injected with electricity and and smiled so big that I think she smiled back.

So the rest of the week went by my friends continued the way our relationship was we would play games which more of a ruse for them to be able to hang out with each other and for me to be occupied with something and not bother them. But the excitement of meeting owls would keep me happy or occupied at least for someone, if that was the intention of whomever arranged for it.

Anyway, the day came and I had gotten out of bed without the help my mother coming in to assault my ears with her as she had come into my room ready to wake me up and was shocked to see me changed and ready to begin my ablution, and I had decided I would wait around for the bell to ring, I wouldn't stand in line and follow everyone to the back of the hall I would walk in from the left side entrance and see the owls first.

We've reached the school and I jumped out of the car said goodbye to my mother didn't wait for my sister to walk by my side but rushed out and marched towards the entrance, for the first time in along time I was excited by something and refuse to let anyone bring me down. So I am at the playground and I don't see my 'friends' anywhere. I am actually grateful as I am able to move forward with my plans without having any hindrances or having to explain myself to anyone. I make my way across the playground to the entrance of the side door and open the door feeling a sense of rebellion emerge in me and having no intention of moving backwards I lift my foot up and make my way in, and was immediately disappointed as the crew was still setting up and the birds were in their transportation.

So I wandered around kept myself busy enjoyed the excitement of the day, and what felt like moments after they were ready for us. of course I proved to be totally unhelpful in the setting up of the day and was removed which only added to my anxiety of the day but I was more than happy to leave. As I had previously said they were prepared and ready to let people in the hall they had us single file down the steps of the hall and all of us did without complaint or hesitation as we were all excited for the wonderful opportunity and I had met with people I had previously been acquainted with like Anton who had tried to make conversation with me but I was too wired to talk with anyone. Sorry Anton. An usher came out to allow us in she stood by the door as we walked past her most of the students moved past her without so much as an acknowledgement, when I reached her she was looking at the ground avoiding eye contact I stopped turned to face said thank you and moved on.

Moving into the hall I realised there was more than one owl there were three owls all on their being handled and cared for by an individual from the organization who is sure to speak on behalf of the organization and will no doubt try to inform us of the necessary actions they have had to take in order to save the animals from the cruel hunters' guns always pointed at the skies aimed at their birds and how their organization protects each and every bird under their jurisdiction and they did. I at the time was grateful to be in the presence of people actually passionate about their work however, that was quickly removed and replaced by excitement when it came time for the announcement that we would taking pictures with the owls.

Everyone quickly stood in a line the rooming was lit with excitement and conversation while everyone tried to organise the crowd of noisy people. However, many people only came to look at the owls, most of them just left and a few disappointed people were turned away and told they couldn't take pictures with the birds after being told everyone could take pictures with the birds, which I found incredibly confusing but I was too happy seeing the birds to think about anything besides the white owl sitting in front of me.

I had hoped I would be one of the fortunate few people who would be aloud to sit a bird on their shoulder and take a picture but I had been quickly told that if I could pay I could partake in the event. So I was turned away disappointed and hurt but I marched on to class determined to put this unfortunate incident behind me. I had hoped that the year my sister would be visited by owls she would have better

Two years later, when she was 10 years old herself and winter was over the new year had passed thee half term was over and spring was looming sure enough came around her own meet an owl day and she and her friends each interacted with the birds, fed the, nurtured them, cared for them, and when the time came they each took a picture with the owls. I was so happy for her and a little bit grateful that at least one of us could enjoy the day barring any disappointments. I could tell she wasn't nearly as excited about meeting the birds as I was at least as far as I could tell.

So that's my story the first of many I hope. My writing will get better in terms of direction build-up character development and characters details. I hope to know what you think and thank you for your consideration.

Yours truly,

Cameron Ann Morgan