Journey of a Silk Worm

Last Spring, several students in our adult tutoring program wrote stories as a part of a city-wide literacy project called “Symphony of Voices.” Immigrants were challenged to find an object from their home country that brought back tender memories and write a story about it. Here is the story written by Jian:

Journey of a Silk Worm

I have a beautiful silk scarf from China. In the cold winter, it gives me warmth. Looking at it, I remember a funny thing from my childhood.

When I was a primary school student, there was a lesson “Silkworm” in my text book. After learning, my teacher taught us to breed silkworms.

The small silkworms were black and thin, like a small wire. I carefully put them into a box, then put in chopped mulberry leaves. A few days later, I found that the silkworms had molted their skin and grown bigger. In this way, after four times, the silkworms looked white and fat; through the skin, we can see the shimmering. Teacher said, “It will spin.” I made a support out of bamboo. The silkworms climbed up and spun, then it became a cocoon of white thread. Do you know? A long silk can be drawn from the cocoon. The silk can be used to make very beautiful clothes.

There is a Chinese saying “until the end of life, a silkworm keeps spinning silk.” It means someone contributed his life for a great cause. I’m grateful that every item that is hard to make needs to be cherished.