Introduction to “Sprocket’s Adventure”
This piece is about when I traveled to Costa Rica over February break, and met the wonderful little neighborhood dog that we nicknamed “Sprocket”. I feel that this piece shows how I have learned to write stories about my real life that come more naturally, and are more in detail than they were last year. I chose this piece to show this specifically because I feel that they way in which I described Sprocket’s appearance and behavior especially shows my improvement in describing things in more depth. In the process of revising this piece, I added even more detail to the story overall, and extended the story to continue further into what happened while Sprocket was with us. I believe that this helped to add more context to the story, and to leave off on a more finished note. The revised ending of the story left off with the last time I saw him, thus it had more emotion than I had when it originally finished off, by the waterfall.
Sprocket’s Adventure
by Sophia Cooke
I pull open the cabin door to find a small scruffy little dog staring up at me. A smile comes across my face as I motion over the rest of my family to come see him. He seems to do a little dance as we admire him. He has an odd set of features, including pale yellow coarse fur, short stubby legs, and snaggle teeth. But this is somehow endearing on his small frame.
I step out of the door frame and kneel down to his level. His tiny tail flies back and forth through the air as I stroke his back. As I beam at him, I giggle at the thought that we have found multiple friendly stray dogs while on our trip to Costa Rica. We originally figured that he would only stay for a few minutes, then leave to visit the next customer at the Paraiso Quetzal Lodge. We decided to continue with our day and go on a hike. As we walked up the cement path to the trail beginning, we noticed through all the greenery surrounding us (which has now become normal to me) that the scrappy little dog still pranced happily around our feet.
We continued walking, still assuming he would eventually tire and turn around. As we wandered through the forest with the constant drone of insects in the background, the thousand year old trees, and slippery floors, we conversed about how delighted we were to have him joining us on our hike. Eventually he wandered off ahead, and as my normal self, I worried about him when he slipped out of our view. We decided that he had taken a turn back to the lodge, so we continued to marvel at the beauty of the forest. Soon enough we heard a rustling behind us and the dog came flying past us like a rocket, causing me to jump back a little. This caused my mom to decide on the name Sprocket for him, due to his scruffy appearance and rocket like entrances.
My family, Sprocket, and I continued descending down the long trail, until we came to a waterfall where we stopped to rest. As we sat to catch our breath, sprocket came prancing over and sat next to me. I ran my hand through his ragged fur, and he smiled back at me as if we had known each other forever. We continued the hike, and he stayed with us as we got lost, slowly descended the long repetitive and winding paths, and crossed over bridges. No matter how far we walked, it seemed his little spry legs would never tire, as he was the smallest one there, but had more energy than all of us combined. He continued to make exits and entrances, popping out of the bushes at the most unexpected moment. Once our three hour walk finally ended, we decided to go to the hummingbird garden in the Paraiso Quetzal Lodge. We watched all kinds of iridescent hummingbirds flutter around Sprocket, who casually wandered into the garden. He sat on a green platform overlooking the rest of the bungalows in the lodge, and sat there patiently waiting. My whole family eagerly awaited his return from the garden, but he seemed to never come. We had to go, so my parents convinced me that I would see him tomorrow, but in response I gently sighed knowing soon all I will have left of him is memories.
About the Author
Hello, my name is Sophia Cooke, and I am a student at DeWitt Middle School. As a student in general, I would consider myself to be an overachiever, although I am also a procrastinator, which creates many rushed and chaotic situations daily. In English this year, I have become a stronger writer through practice. From writing slices of life, to writing my novel in November, I have had many opportunities to develop my writing skills. Last year in English, my writing lacked a certain flow, and was often very abrupt. I can see now looking back on this year, that my writing has become more fluent and complex. I think that I have improved greatly, and I can see this in my writing, specifically my more common usage of literary devices such as similes, and metaphors.
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