Essay Winners
1st Place
Ava Tassone
Arrowhead Union High School
Grade 12
2nd Place
Jimmy Flynn
Arrowhead Union High School
Grade 11
3rd Place
Amanda Mantei
Arrowhead Union High School
Grade 11
Poetry Winners
1st Place
Emma Verdegan
Arrowhead Union High School
Grade 12
2nd Place
Willow Marek
Arrowhead Union High School
Grade12
3rd Place
Halle Humbrecht
Arrowhead Union High School
Grade 12
The First Laugh
By Ava Tassone
1st Place Essay
The sound of a newborn baby’s first laugh can be described by most parents as the most beautiful and perfect noise one can hear. As the eldest sister in my family with three younger sisters that look up to me, a great portion of my life has been dedicated to making them happy by sharing my humor and laughter with them. As I’ve watched all three of them grow up, my greatest memories with them will always be the moments I made them laugh or smile.
With such a large age range within my siblings, and merely just being a human, I can’t quite remember every moment of laughter. However, only five years ago when I was in the seventh grade, I was introduced to the baby of our family, my youngest sister, Olivia. I was just a young middle schooler, but I began to feel especially old at this moment. As this little girl was just spending the first hours of her life, I thought to myself, “I feel like I have already lived most of mine”. Looking back on the many memories and amicable moments I realized that I wasn’t as old as I had thought.
Having been at an age where most memories are still stuck with me, I can easily remember not only the first time I made my baby sister laugh, but numerous times after, making her smile. We were still at our old house in the picture perfect neighborhood, in her baby pink bedroom filled with hundreds of children’s books and stuffed animals. Sitting next to her wooden crib I held her two favorite things, her singing stuffed elephant and her sensory toy which was a teal and white striped crinkle paper. As she sat in my lap looking up at me and listening to me talk to her, I pressed the stuffed elephant’s ear. It began to sing, as she also crinkled the paper, creating many entertaining noises all at once. She began to laugh what most people would describe as a belly laugh. A chuckle that can be compared to the calmness the sound of white noise brings, or birds chirping in the morning, one of the best sounds to hear. A smile beamed across my face, I felt like my role as an older sister had been accomplished.
I remember countless times where I not only shared laughter with her but my other two sisters as well. Like, standing at the bus stop with my sister two years younger, sharing what stupid thing I did that morning like putting the juice away in the cabinet instead of the fridge because of how tired I was. Or with my eleven year old sister, relating to her humorous middle school experiences of dropping your pencil case and everything spilling across the room, hoping to help her feel less embarrassed. Or with all three of them sitting on our family room couch together, watching our favorite Christmas comedy movie, Elf. Sharing laughter, as Buddy tries to hug a raccoon and gets attacked, a moment where at our large span of ages, we can all understand as humorous.
So, as the eldest sister in my family, being a major role model to my three younger sisters, I find myself mainly focusing on creating those moments of shared laughter to maintain our loving relationships. As a human, I feel that most of us love to experience that feeling of making someone laugh or smile, as it comes right back to you, sharing that laughter or smile. Every individual will have someone or a group of people that they can appreciate those humorous moments together with, like a friend, family member, or professional, but I put my focus on my sisters. Making sure not only my actions are a good example in which they should be following, but lighting up their day no matter how good or bad it was with a good laugh to help them feel more at home.
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