The First Story:

   "This Friday we'll have the yearly Egg Drop Chalenge," said our science teacher, Mr.Baker. "You can  work alone or with a partner."

   My Friend, Cassie, and I smiled at each other. We always worked on projects together.

   The goal of the Challenge was simple---to build a projective container to keep an egg from breaking when dropped over the standium wall.

   I made my sandwich that afternoon while waiting for Cassie. Spreading the  butter-cream gave me an idea.

   "I have a brilliant design for our egg container!" I said when Cassie arrived. "We can project the egg with some butter cream."

   "When not put the egg in a basket with a parachute attached?" Cassie rolled her eyes. "The parachute is better than that stupid idea."

   I couldn't believe it. Of course we'd had our little fights in the past, but she'd never called any of my ideas "stupid" before.

   "Then I'll build mine and you build yours!"

   Since words had been out, our friendship was challenged.

   When Fridy finally arrived, I had to admit Cassie's Egg Force One looked pretty good. Anyway my Egg-cellent Egg Cream didn't look quite scientific. We kids carried our containers up three stadium steps and dropped them over the side wall. Those whose eggs broke were out; those whose egg survived walked up three more steps and dropped them again. This would go on till the last egg broke.

   After four rounds, only Cassie and I were left. I let go of my box. I heard someone say "ew" after seconds. Had my egg broen? I raced down the steps. The sidewalk was dotted with egg shell from those failed drops. Finally I found my little Egg-cellent Egg Cream.

   "That looks like egg drop soup, Laura," Cassie said. She was holding her Egg Force One. My heart raced. Had she won? I looked at her basket. Empty.

   "My egg bounced out," she explained, pointing to a broken shell.

   "A tie," Mr.Baker said.

   Cassie looked at me, and her glare softened. I laughed. She smiled...

 

The Second Story:

   Evelyn Glennie was the first lady of solo percussion in Scotland. In an interview, she recalled how she became a percussion soloist in spite of her disability.

    "Early on I decided not to allow the opinions of others to stop me from becoming a musician. I grew up on a farm in northest Scotland and began taking piano lessons when I was eight. The older I got, the more my passion for music grew. But I also began to gradually lose my hearing. Doctors concluded that the nerve damage was the cause and by age twelve, I was completely deaf. But my love for music never left me."

    "My goal was to become a percussion soloist, even though there were none at that time. To perform, I learned to hear music differently from others. I play in my stocking feet and can tell the pitch of a note by the vibrations. I feel through my body and through my imagination. My entire sound world exists by making use of almost every sense that I have."

    "I was determined to be assessed as a musician, not as a deaf musician, and I applied to the famous Royal Academy of Music in London.  No other deaf student had done this before and some teachers opposed my admission. Based on my performance, I was finally admitted and went to graduate with the academy's highest honours."

    "After that, I established myself as the first full-time solo percussionist. I wrote and arranged a lot of musical compossitions since few had been written specially for solo percussionists."

    "I have been a soloist for over ten years. Although the doctor thought I was totally deaf, it didn't mean that my passion couldn't be realized.

I would encourage people not to allow themseleves to be limited by others. Follow your passion, follow your heart, they will lead you to the place you want to go."