Luna's Land

In Unit 1 in the Stories class which is called Creations, the class learned about different ways we can read a story and went over adverbs and adjectives, which play a huge role when writing a story. For our first action project the class was assigned to create our own mythological world, using descriptive language, adjectives, adverbs and just our imaginations to get readers feeling like they were actually in the setting that they are reading about. To get a closer look at what our minds were picturing while writing, we were also asked to illustrate our world. Through this first unit/project I learned the importance of using adverbs and adjectives correctly, how helpful descriptive language can be, and how to dig deeper when reading or writing a story, and I think I connected well to the purpose of this project, because I dug deeper while writing, I made sure I included descriptive language, I also made sure that my creations also made sense, but with all that, I  also made sure I was having have fun by letting my imagination run free. I decided to write about a world that I decided to name Luna’s Land, which follows a young girl’s adventure creating a world that the moon dreamed of. It took me awhile to come up with this story, but I was determined to come up with something that I would be proud of. I’m also not that great of an artist, but I tried my best, and I am very happy at how my drawing came out. I’m very proud of how I handled all my frustration, which was to keep trying and to keep using my imagination. Thanks to this project, I now have a better understanding of what makes a story a good one, and I definitely will use the knowledge I gained from this unit throughout my years in school.

There is a world far and isolated from anywhere else, where by day it was very sunny, and by night the stars shined like diamonds. It’s called Luna’s Land. The people who lived here were all once from planet Mundane, a place with no beauty or excitement, just plain grass everywhere. One day the sun and the moon, two sparkling orbs, decided to run away from Mundane, because they were fed up with the lack of beauty there. They raced quickly to this new planet, and whoever arrived there first got  to name the new planet. The moon won, and as a  victory named  the new planet after itself, calling it Luna’s Land.The Moon and sun decided to bring some of the citizens of planet Mundane with them, so that they could have a say  on how Luna’s Land would look. Here, all you had to do was carefully imagine what you wanted and your mind would control anything, giving you the power to create anything. Since they hadn’t been used to using their imaginations anytime before, they were a little rusty at being creative, but the citizens, surprisingly and rather quickly began working their minds like computers, coming up with new ideas.

Although she shared the new world with the sun, Luna always felt like she had much more to offer and she found it ironic that although this planet was named after her, few really gave her much attention. She didn’t get why everyone was in love with the sun’s evil burn and dangerous heat, but she did give the sun credit for using her light and heat as an oven for everyone. Some people praised the sun so much, they would sit in front of her talking for hours. They would even tell the sun about all their bad deeds and lies, but the sun would punish those with bad tongues by burning them with a massive heat wave. These people, however, never learned and would keep going back to the sun. Some people were beautiful with their tanned complexion, others not so much, looking like tomatoes. 

One night, Lapeka went into the valley of secrets and wishes, where she and other people would quietly  sit on thick clouds of unspoken desires and thoughts. The valley was always dazzling and bright because of all the secrets it held.The rule is that you make a wish and throw it up in the air and watch it twinkle in the sky. But, you always had to be careful because your wish just might come true, and the way you knew it is that your wish would  become a shooting star. Lapeka was so used to her wish just sitting up in the sky giving her a twinkling glare, that she was caught off guard when her star flew up and away like a bird. Her wish? To get everyone to admire the angelic moon.

Signs of Lapeka’s granted wish were everywhere.The next day, the sun was out of business. No one was lined up to to talk to her, like they’d always done. Instead, they were impatiently waiting to talk to the moon. Everyone was in line on the stairway, and suddenly Lapeka found herself at the bottom, something that she was not used to because before she would be at the top alone. The line was so long, it was like the only payphone in a sea of people needing to make a call. By the time Lapeka slowly and carefully got to the top, the sun had stolen the show again with its sunrise, meaning that the moon had to go rest.

The day afterward Lapeka went through the same thing. No luck in talking to her soul-mate. She was heart-sick. “How can I be so stupid?”she asked herself as she thought about her wish. She had to come up with a plan to get the mysterious moon back into her life. Lapeka finally decided that she had to create something with her mind, which she didn’t really enjoy doing because her creations have never really worked. But, this was her only hope.

  She sat in her shady backyard thinking and thinking until she came up with an idea about hiding the moon or trying to block it. Lapeka imagined huge, steep, dangerous rocks glued together, something that her mind decided to call “mountains”. She impatiently waited until the night-time to use these scenic devils. When she heard people swiftly run to spill their hearts out to this dark goddess, she was ready to go. She carefully set her mind to start and little by little in the distance she heard the rumbling and roars of the rocks getting bigger and bigger. Feeling determined, she thought to herself “she’s finally mine again”. But, these dangerous, giant rocks were not big enough to hide the moon’s majestic soul. The mountains themselves were sitting there looking ashamed that they were of no use. They were so devastated that they  began to weep, and each time the mountains cried, pieces of rock would come crumbling off, until nothing was left but dust. Now people would go there to cry and weep because their souls felt so weak and worthless just like the dust, where the bold monstrous rocks once stood.

  Lapeka cried her eyes out at this failure, until the next thing she knew, she was sitting in a pool of water formed by her own tears. The puddle got so big that it became an ocean. She got the idea of giving energy to the ocean of tears, making some of the water run to scare the people waiting for the moon, whom she hoped would eventually leave. She named this powerful force “tsunami”. The water traveled in huge waves, but before its magnificent show of power, the waves quickly ran back like the ocean was racing away for its life. The salty, black water was afraid of the moon. This ocean was named Salty Tears, and sometimes people would go and leave their guilt to drown there,unknowingly mixing with Lapeka’s tears. It was like a mysterious black hole, that would go on and on, dangerously drowning you with your own guilt.

  After all her creative efforts, Lapeka gave up and ran to the pile of dust where she let out her own piercing cries. She realized she would never have Luna again to herself and that maybe her wish was not a good idea. Looking around and still sobbing, she noticed all of the natural beauty around her, some of which she had actually helped create. She saw the valley of secrets and wishes, the monstrous mountains that would roar every second, and the black ocean floating with guilt. Although the landscape contained some things that were good and not so good inside of them, the world around her was still extremely beautiful. Realizing that she had helped create just what the moon had wanted made her happy, and Lapeka understood with pride that although she was going to have to share her beloved moon with everyone else she would always be the closest person to Luna.

Below I have an image showing the outcome of Lapeka's distress,that includes the valley of secrets and wishes, the monstrous mountains,and the Salty tears ocean.

RD, Luna's Land (2014) Photography.