http://www.vpr.net/audio/programs/56/2012/11/Abhi_Dodgeson_11-28_Commentary.mp3
The Young Writers Project and Vermont Public Radio presented Millennial Writers on Stage at the Burlington Book Festival on Saturday, September 22 in Burlington. Abhi Dodgson of South Hero is one of 16 students who presented their work.
Abhi is home schooled and is in the fifth grade. He says he loves reading, writing and playing the piano. When I'm writing I feel like I'm in another world. I have seen over 20 lambs be born on my farm. I can recognize all 18 of my sheep from any angle, and sometimes I get to go for a ride on my favorite sheep.
Not Gone Forever
Saying goodbye is like saying goodbye
to a part of you.
If you have lived in one place
all your life, you become attached to it
and leaving is so hard.
I said goodbye to my country
my home
my language
my friends
my bed
my sounds
my culture
my belonging
my birthparents.
I came home to new surroundings.
Everything was so new to me.
Slowly I came to know my new home
and I came to know my new family.
I found a part of myself I never knew I had before.
I now have a very loving family.
I still have part of my country inside me.
This is what I have learned:
Saying goodbye is difficult,
but new things can happen when you
say goodbye.
Ahbi came home to Vermont' with his adoptive parents from Kerala, India when he was 17 months old. At the time, he was speaking and singing in his native language, Malayalam.
