Courage

Courage is like running a race
Your heart is beating fast
Adrenaline pumping through your veins

You tie your shoes for the fifteenth time
And tuck your penny into your shorts one last time
The line moves more and more
Soon it is going to be your turn

Why are you even doing this?
They said you couldn't do it
You are am too slow
You are going to mess up

Your  name is called

You set my feet on the blocks
You can do this...
You can do this!

Ready...Set... GO!

BANG!

You drive your feet into the ground
Running as fast as your legs can take you
Bravery cheering you on from the sidelines
Fear creeping up behind you
But you do not let her get ahead
Not today

You give all your power
Leaving fear in the dust
Your legs start to give out
You keep on pushing until you feel the ribbon
You made it even when they told you you wouldn't
You made it...

Poem

It makes us tick

It's a different relationship for all

Easy or hard

We all reach that moment in our lives 

We struggle more than ever

Grades, school, hunger, surviving

We try to fight the struggle

But it always comes back

Reader Response

In I Am Messanger, one of Ed's missions is to go to a old woman's house. At first he was asking himself why? What could be wrong with this old lady? She has the same routine every single day. She lives by herself and no one has come to her house. He couldn't put a finger on it. He went to her and met her. She called him Jimmy and started crying. Jimmy was her husband that didn't come back from war, but he couldn't let her know that.  He didnt want to break the poor ladies heart. She thinks he's Jimmy. This sweet old lady needed nothing but love and nurture. So Ed took care of her. He read to her like her husband used to. He was lonely and so was Milla. They both filled in the empty holes in each others hearts.

For Ed this was the first time someone genuinely cared for him. His mother does nothing but yell and cuss him out. He barely even sees his brother and sister and his father, his father is dead. He has no one. But he has friends, I guess. All they really do is insult each other half of the time. Well that Marv. Then there's Aubrey. His Love. He wants to be with Aubrey more than life itself, but she will never like him in that way. She wants to mess around and all Ed wants to do is love her unconditionally. It hurts like it would hurt anyone seeing the love of your life with someone else. Its burned holes in his heart. Milla fills in that hole and sooths some of the pain. She makes him happy and he makes her happy.

The fact that Ed goes out of his way for this old lady, is the cutest thing I have ever seen. He goes along with the Jimmy thing the whole for the whole entire time. He even eats dinner with her and they reminisce about the past, he even proceeds to tuck her in one night. It just makes me like his character a lot more. It literally made my heart melt and I almost started crying (even if i am a soulless person). He cares so much about her. At the beginning I thought that he was incapable of any feelings and was kind of emotionless but I was so wrong. He feels a lot and he says them in the book. He clearly tells you what's going on and why.

I feel so bad for Milla. She had been waiting for her husband years and years on end, which is probably why she thinks Ed is Jimmy. She may have when crazy one of the years waiting or may have some kind of mental disorder like alzheimer's. It happens with old age. All she remembers is Jimmy, the one true love of her life. Ed has now taken that place.