It’s Hard to Say Goodbye by Lilu from Florida

I raised a caterpillar named Reggie. My mom and I  found Reggie as a skinny caterpillar. We brought him inside and watched him eat leaves as he got fatter and bigger. Then he turned into a Chrysalis after making a J shape! We watched him for days as a chrysalis. 

One day his chrysalis turned clear. So we taped my mom’s phone to the flower pot and put the video setting on time-lapse. The next morning, my mom was walking by when she saw a wing appear. She woke me up immediately and by the time I got to the flower pot, the butterfly was already out of the chrysalis. We watched his wings unravel for the next hour. Then I took him outside to give him flying lessons. I set him on a flower outside and he just stood there! He crawled to the top of them plant and flew to a plant lower where it was less windy.

After three hours of watching him practice flying, it was time to let him go. I didn’t want to let him go, because I loved him and I have been watching him for so much of his life. I knew it was the right thing to do. I felt so sad to have to say goodbye, but I put him on a plant near the ground and said, “Goodbye, Reggie.” I went back inside and cried a little even though I don’t want you to know that.