Fly With Me
Arianna Vetrano (Eleanor Roosevelt High School)
Step 1. Lay your square sheet of paper on the table.

“Dekita!” My mother’s voice jumped with excitement. There, floating on the palm of her hand
perched a delicately crafted paper crane. My brother and I, with our eyes aglow, pondered on how three
minutes ago that geometric object was none other than a flat piece of paper.

“But how, mama?”
She chuckled, “Here, we’ll do it together. Don’t worry, you’re both young and it takes patience and
practice. I was around your age when obaachan first taught me as her mom taught her.”
As my mother promised, with years of dedication, I became just as good at doing origami as her.

The Japanese art of folding paper to craft beautiful representations of life remains a symbolic part of my
cultural heritage and is what keeps my inner child alive.

In our living room can be found a wooden side table which would be fit for a beautiful glass vase or a
collection of picture frames. Instead, there lay a colorful variety of origami that my brother and I have
crafted over the years.

Step 2. Fold sheet into a triangle and repeat once more.

Two summers ago I became a junior counselor at Downtown Day Camp, located in lower Manhattan.

Initially, I was concerned about how I would transform into a good counselor after many years of being a
good camper. With the roles reversed children would now be looking up to me for guidance.

Step 3. Stick your index finger into the pocket and open it up. Repeat on both sides to form a square.

I pulled up a seat next to Alice who was coloring vigorously with a stubby Jazzyberry-Jam Crayola
Crayon. As I reached for a blank paper in the center of the table and laid it in front of myself, I felt her
seven-year-old eyes peer up at me. I smiled and with a soft, encouraging voice said, “How would you like
to learn how to make a paper crane?” She nodded timidly but with an affirming smile. I picked up a
second sheet of paper and slowly slid it in front of Alice. “We’ll take it step-by-step,” I reassured her.

Step 4. Don’t forget to make the creases! Lift up the flap and join the middle pieces to create a point.

Repeat on both sides.

She folded her paper ever so carefully as if she were threading a needle. Her eyes rarely looked up, for
they were busy shifting back and forth from her paper to mine. After the very last fold, Alice broke her
concentration and beamed; she had made her very first origami crane, and she had made it alongside me.

Other children flocked to our table, mesmerized by our creations. So, I taught them how to make cranes as
well, with Alice eagerly participating.

Step 5. Fold the four corners of the diamond in and then fold the flaps over like a page in a book. Lift
both wings up, up, up as far as they can go!
Making origami cranes became a regular activity in group 2AB. As each day passed, I saw
improvement; the creases became sharper and the birds more defined. Naturally, however, memorizing the
steps remained a stumbling block for the children and I would find myself hovering nearby in case of a
folding emergency. Until one morning, at drop off, Alice came running to me bursting with excitement.

“Arianna look!” She exclaimed as she held out a finished crane in the palm of her hand. “I made it
myself!” Her mother, having now caught up, laughed and added, “she’s been making them all night.

she’s even tried teaching me origami!”
In fact,
It later dawned on me that I did have an impact on the young campers by passing down skills, values,
and Japanese culture, just as my mother had done with me.

94