Journal #1

Once upon a time, a long, long time ago all creatures walked on land. Most of the animals were happy with their land habitats, but one animal was not: the fish. Walking on land was always hard for him, his scales made traveling around very difficult, because he was too slippery. The fish always felt like the land was not his real home. One day while the fish was taking a walk with some of his friends, the platypus, the elephant, and the giraffe. They came across a body of water they had not seen before. The elephant was the first to notice that something was different about this water, "Look friends, do you see that colorful plant-like creature at the bottom of the water?" The fish and his friends moved closer to the edge if the water, intrigued, to see what elephant had pointed out. "My goodness, you are right!" Fish exclaimed, "I have never seen anything like that before. I wonder what it is?" The rest of his friends expressed a similar interest and started thinking about was to get closer to the colorful creature, or try and bring it on land with them. Platypus suggested, looking at the nearby tree, "Well we could tie a whole bunch of branches together with those leaves, and lower it down to the bottom and try and prod it out." Giraffe and Elephant looked at the Platypus and said, "No way! That would never work!" Platypus became quiet, disappointed that they did not like his idea. Fish finally piped up with his own idea, "What if I went under the water myself, to see what the colorful creature really is." Fish's friends were wary of his idea. "What if you cannot breathe under water?" The fish thought about it and answered, "I will just hold my breath, it will be easy." Fish finished reassuring himself. His friends agreed and stepped back, giving him some space before he went under water. Fish approached the edge of the water and dove in, immediately he is overwhelmed with the feeling of water around him. Instead of fear, which he thought he would feel, he was overcome with happiness. Fish gasped and realized that he was able to breathe under the water! Fish moved his fins, and found out that he was now able to manipulate the water and swim around. Fish was overjoyed with this fact and almost forgot his purpose for swimming in the water in the first place! Fish started swimming closer to the colorful creature until he finally realized what it was. "Look! It's not a creature at all! It's a piece of colorful coral!" Fish exclaimed. Fish was so excited to tell the discovery of the coral and his new found swimming ability to his friends, but when he looked up at the surface of the water he saw that he had taken so long swimming that his friends had all left! Fish became very sad and felt lonely, so from that day on, Fish decided that he will never again talk to his friends on land. He will stay underwater to swim and make new friends and explore this new place for the rest of his life! And that's how the fish learned to swim.