A Post about a Cat and a Jet Pack

At the end of my second class today, a class entirely of students moving from 2nd to 3rd grade, one student could not contain her excitement to share a story with me. Let's call her Rocket Girl. I ended the session, as I usually do, by asking the students to sit down, "bottoms on the floor, bodies facing me," and to take a deep breath. Rocket Girl's hand shoots into the air, wiggling, "Miss Lani!"

I ask the the class to let out the breath and whisper to her to put her hand down. We take a second breath, her hand goes up again. We let it out. Rocket Girl is wiggling uncontrollably with excitement. I finish my post-class ritual by asking the students to turn and face their teachers and not to move until their teachers give them instructions.

Rocket Girl immediately turns back to me, hand desperately in the air. I once again, gently, ask her to turn back to her teacher and wait to tell her story until another time. As students are dismissed one at a time to line up for lunch, Rocket Girl is one of the last to be called, the yearning in her little heart to get this story out making it impossible for her to sit still. When she is finally called by her teacher to stand up, I call her over.

"Rocket Girl," I call, beckoning her over. "What did you want to tell me?"
"I made a jet pack!" she exclaims proudly.
"You did what?!"
"I made a jet pack."
"Did you fly in it?" She shakes her head 'no.' "Are you going to be a rocket scientist when you grow up?" I ask her.
"Yes!" Her class is leaving, so I tell Rocket Girl I will walk her out. We follow the line as the class heads out of the library.
"That's great!" I am trying to exit this conversation now, as we reach the door.
"I strapped it to my cat's belly." Uh oh. All kinds of scenarios are now running through my head.
"I made her paper wings and she had wings and a rocket so she could fly."
"Is your cat afraid of heights?"
"No!" This is said by Rocket Girl in a 'of course not, you ridiculous adult!' tone of voice.
"You are so silly! Have a nice lunch," I say as we exit. Her class is getting further away. One teacher is lagging behind to keep her with the group. The conversation should be over. It isn't.
"I shot her straight up in the air!"
"Crazy girl! Go to lunch," I say with a smile.
"And then, she went up like this," Rocket Girl gestures with her hand to demonstrate.
"Wow. You ar going to miss lunch, go catch up with your class..."
"And then..."

Anyway, you can see how this is going. Eventually Rocket Girl got to eat lunch and I got to ponder the physics behind sending a cat into the stratosphere on paper wings. I hope she does grow up to be a rocket scientist. Then maybe I can fly on paper wings, too.

Credit to RaineDrops18 at DeviantArt for this downloadable image.