Personal Story
and cute. According to my daughter Anita, the macaw had
the same qualities that Taylor had, so she named it Taylor.
The bird came into my hands when it was only a few
months old. I figure it was about four months old. It just
had short delicate feathers and cotton-like ones called
"down." He ate every three hours, day and night, which
was exhausting the first few months until, like human
babies, it stopped calling at night and got up early.
Raising an animal with these characteristics has no
holidays, Saturdays, or Sundays. The food it ate was
porridge with banana powder and grains like corn, rice,
oats, and wheat, diluted in warm water. I had to feed him
using a syringe. Taylor eventually learned to speak and
sing a preschool song. It even learned to imitate the sound
of chickens. He had his favorite foods, like scrambled eggs
with sugar. When he didn’t get them, he got angry and
protested saying, "@¡*$," a word that I certainly did not
teach him. One day Taylor injured its leg, and I took him to
the doctor’s. In the waiting room a young woman, who was
a little overweight, greeted him,. Taylor responded saying,
"Hello ‘gordita.’" The lady was embarrassed and said
“Hey, you don’t have to be so honest!” Everyone in the
clinic could not stop laughing. In May, Taylor will be nine
years old, and he is still a wonderful pet.
Gabriela Rodríguez Morales, who loves both macaws and English, was
born in Chicago, Illinois. She studies in the Adult ESOL Program at
Miami Dade College’s Kendall Campus. Her teacher is Robert Kelso.
The Power of Love
I am from Kazakhstan. I am 17 years old. By this age I
think I kind of know what love is and I want to share it with
you. To me, this subject of love is inexhaustible. Each
person throughout life needs love. Some wait for it patiently
while others aspire to love impatiently. From my culture’s
point of view, love means to lead the life of the one whom
you love. The female is to be along the side of her man who
is the head of her life. I believe that all men who are good
want to make other people happy. Love itself cannot