The Underdog

By Courtney W., 9, CDNIS

1)      Today you are going to write a story about a sled dog in Alaska. What is its name? What does it look like? What kind of town does it live in?

Its name is Puffy. The colour of it is brownish grayish. This dog lives in Anchorage. In the town it is very cold.

2)      One day its owner selects it to participate in the Iditarod. It has never participated in any race before, let alone the Iditarod. How does the dog feel? Does it want to participate in the race? Name at least three things it must do to prepare for the race and why.

Puffy feels scared and sad because it was cold and the race was tough and dangerous. It does not want to participate in the race. Puffy has to train for being out in the cold running and to be a stronger dog to pull the sled.

3)      It is the first day of the race! The dog lines up with its teammates at the starting line. One of the other dogs says, “You are too weak to be on our team, Underdog!” What does the dog say in response? How does he intend to prove that he is not too weak to compete?

The dog does not say anything and ignores them. He says to himself that he will prove to everyone that he is not weak and an underdog. He focuses on pulling the sled and does hard work.

4)      The first few hours go smoothly, but as the sun begins to set, black clouds fill the sky. Suddenly, a violent storm starts pouring down on everything. What happens in this storm?

It is raining really hard. Lightning is booming and the dogs feel scared. It makes them tired and scared because of the noise and when it is raining hard hard it makes them wet which carries more weight.

5)      Because of the terrible conditions, the musher is too weak to go forward, and he lies on the ground shivering. Even worse, the wind of storm has blown away the harnesses that attach the dogs to the sleds. The underdog realizes it needs to get the musher to safety. It comes up with a three-step plan. What is the plan?

Step 1: Pull the musher back on the sled.

Description: A few of the dogs pull the musher on the sled.

Step 2: Find the harnesses

Description: The dogs go around finding the harnesses so they can continue their race.

 Step 3: Prepare the food for the musher.

Description: Some of the dogs go around and find food. The others protect the musher and look for food on the sled.

6)      The harsh winds make it difficult for most of the dogs to move, but the underdog remains persistent. He decides to run as fast as he can while dragging the musher by the hood of his jacket. Everything is going well until the underdog hears ferocious barking near him in the storm. The wild dogs approach him. What do they do? How does he react? Describe what happens!

Puffy will explain what happens and the wild dogs decide not to eat them but to keep them prisoner until all the dogs and musher finish and they will go into last place.

7)      Eventually, the wild dogs, force you and the musher into their empty igloo. They say they are going to keep you prisoner there until their friends cross the finish line of the Iditarod, ensuring that the underdog’s team comes in last place. But the underdog notices a missing brick of ice in the walls of the igloo. Describe what he does to escape with the musher.

When all the wild dogs are out finding food, the dog uses its strength to break a hole big enough for all of them to escape.

8)      After escaping, the underdog races out of the igloo with the musher, who has finally regained consciousness. After running for hours, they see some familiar dogs running through the snow. It is his other teammates, and they are dragging the harnesses and the sled! What does the mean dog say after realizing how much the underdog has helped? Do the dogs think they have any chance left at winning the race?

The other dogs will say they are sorry and they will continue the race.

9)      After running for hours, the underdog’s team crosses the finish line in second place! How do they feel? How does everyone treat the underdog after everything he went through? Does he think he will run in the Iditarod next year? Why or why not?

All the dogs feel happy and everybody treats the underdog well. They want to be in the same team for next year if they are in the race.

On Responsibility

        Edith L., 14, Renaissance College


        Responsibility is a big word that is hard to learn the true definition of. Some people learn to take responsibility from a young age, whilst some never learn to do so. Help is something everyone should treasure and be thankful towards when it comes from others. It does not mean people can take it for granted and rely on it. People should be responsible for their actions and their lives. Helping them may not be the right strategy as it would sometimes make things worse.

        Life is given to a person so they can live the most of it and take charge of it. In most situations in life, we are given choices to choose between. These alternatives lead to different consequences, which usually has a good outcome or a bad outcome. It is all up to the decision of the person. If they choose the one with a bad outcome, they should never rely on anyone else to help them. It is their decision to have caused all this trouble so they should feel and be responsible for their own actions and their life if that is the route they choose to follow. Recently on the news, a sixteen year-old boy from a well-off family sexually assaulted a teenage girl on the minibus. The boy was sued and his parents went around to find teachers and other judges from the court to put in a good word for their son. However, the boy repeated his actions twice more within two weeks. This time his parents did not help him as they knew, even if they did, he would not change. Helping those who chose or are not willing to improve themselves is not worth it. In this case, the boy chose to repeat the shameful actions without feeling thankful and repaying his parents for helping him. The parents had made a good and reasonable decision to leave him alone. He will need to be responsible for himself and his ruined life as he chose to. He expected his parents to help him, which in fact wasted their money trying to help a hopeless young man. Letting people be responsible for themselves is one of the best lessons they would learn in life.

        Since alternatives are given, people should not expect others to help them after they chose their route, and definitely not blame them for the decisions and consequences caused. This is because no matter how others have influenced a person, one shall always be able to decide on their final choice, meaning that the person they should blame on is in fact themselves. Since the problem is caused by anyone else, people should understand that blaming themselves is not enough, but to stand up again to feel responsible for their actions and start improving.

        Of course, there are exceptions such as when a situation was not caused by man in any way, like natural disasters. These are situations where people do not even have the basic needs to survive, which are the only ones when help would be required and can make matters better. However, once everything is sorted, they must no longer rely on others’ resources but must use their knowledge to help themselves.

        To all organisms, life is extremely precious. There is only one lifetime for one organism to live through. In order to make a lifetime useful and live one with no regrets, it is necessary to take on responsibility. Help would be required at times but never always. The only person to make your life successful is you, not anyone else. Be responsible for your life, for your friends and family, and for your future. Learn to help yourself: it will lead you down the road to success.