by E. Paul Zehr
Melissa’s the best older sister. I sometimes wish she were mine. I can’t imagine her not caring about anything. She’s always so loud and fun.
I don’t know if I could be as brave as Audrey.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22
Batgirl’s spirit animal is obviously — and this isn’t going to be a real surprise — a bat. Sure, they strike fear in the hearts of old ladies, but I gotta figure out why they’re superhero-worthy.
Another trip up to the college put to good use! After school today, I met up with Mom at her lab. Before going by her building, I headed over to the nearby library to look into bats. They have a great section on pop culture.
I have spent a lot of time thinking about this fixation on bats that the Bat-Family has. It was all started by Bruce Wayne, of course, way back in DETECTIVE COMICS #27 in 1939. Actually, I learned at the library that it really all started with Bob Kane and Bill Finger who created “Bat-Man” together.
The famous comic-book line (from “The Batman Wars Against the Dirigible of Doom” DETECTIVE COMICS #33, November 1939) that everyone who writes comics is always using is that bad guys “are a superstitious and cowardly lot.” In the original Bat-Man story, Bruce Wayne chose a bat because he wanted something that would scare the bad guys. But I don’t find bats too scary, actually.
Anyway, after Ricki told me about this she asked if I had a copy of that 1939 comic book. Of course I said no! Then she told me that a copy in super good (“mint”) condition sold a few years ago for more than $1 million! Yikes.
If I had a copy, even if it was in really poor condition, I would absolutely keep it.
But back to bats. I quite like bats as animals. They are kind of like furry mice with wings. Good ol’ Kayli had two white mice as pets. She named them Zeke and Eek. Let’s be honest: Kayli has kind of a limited imagination for names. They were cute, but a bit messy. OK. A lot messy. One did poo in my hand once. Seriously, it was gross.
In fact, last year, I saw this awesome PBS NOVA show on bats. The way bats can shriek and bounce sound around and use hearing and echolocation to “see” is cool. Kind of like dolphins. Except smaller. And dry. And furry. And they don’t eat fish.
Or at least not whole fish all at once. But on the down side, bats do have toxic poo.
Yes.
Toxic.
Poo.
I couldn’t believe that part. Bat poo has a special name even — guano. Which reminds me . . . I know all that poo is gone but I really have to go wash my hands. AGAIN.
The NOVA show said that a fungus can grow in the guano. And then it sprouts spores in the air and if you breathe them in, they can grow in your lungs! It was called “histoplasmosis.” When I shared this with Mr. Richardson, he was very impressed.
So bats scare a lot of people for a lot of different reasons. Before I learned that, I thought a better choice for a superhero’s spirit animal might have been something actually big and physically threatening. Like a silverback gorilla. Gorilla-Girl (or even Girl-Gorilla) has kind of a nice ring to it. And maybe a more powerful sound to it?
Plus we have a lot more in common with gorillas than with bats, don’t we? Mr. Richardson told us that for a long time scientists thought gorillas were our closest relations among other animals. Now we know that it’s actually chimpanzees who are closest to us genetically!
I’m sitting here scratching Coco’s ear (and making her back leg do that funny thumping thing that dogs do — it’s adorable). It’s kind of funny, in a neat sort of way, to think that all animals are made up of the same stuff. I guess this is where last year’s science class on biology of the cell might come in handy. A bit of bat biology. Just what the doctor — Dr. Batgirl — ordered. Now, where’re my notes from grade 7?
My takeaways from my bat research are:
* Bats are stealthy.
* Bats can fly.
* Bats have a kind of sonar called echolocation.
* Bats can communicate with each other.
If you take all those points and throw in the toxic poo, bats ARE kinda fearsome after all.
Just like genes that aren’t working right and can change your body in bad ways, bats — and therefore Batgirl — can harm you without you knowing. They are stealthy and can communicate secretly and quietly and make trouble for bad guys. Watch out, Dylan!
OK. My little list of things I still gotta sort out (my need-to-knows):
* Exactly what kind of training do I have to look into? I need to make a plan of some kind here.
* How much time would it really take to become a superhero? I’m kinda suspecting more than a year!
* How important is having the genes for it? Jury is out on this so far!
Mr. Richardson said that “what’s in our genes is in our jeans.” He thought it was hilarious. But when we didn’t laugh he had to write it on the board for us to get it. Most of us just heard “what’s in our jeans is in our jeans.” Which is kind of a weird thing to say. Poor Mr. Richardson. He really does try SO, SO hard.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 24
Time to think about why and how Batgirl can be SO GOOD at so many different things. If I’m going to learn about this, I need to learn from the best. Since there aren’t any actual real-life superheroes I can talk to, I’m going with the next best thing — Olympic athletes! People are always saying athletes can do superhuman stuff, so I need to do some interviews to add to my training for Batgirl. Although it’s kind of scary to interview people, it’s good practice for my eventual career as a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist. Of course, I’ll just stick to interviewing them by letter. Talking to them in person or on the phone is way too scary to think about!
I remember watching speedskating at the Olympics one winter and Dad telling me that the red-haired athlete — Clara Hughes — also competed in the summer Olympics in cycling! Clara won four Olympic, six World Championship, and 13 World Cup medals for speed skating, and two Olympic, one World Championship, and three Commonwealth Games medals for cycling.
I couldn’t imagine how hard she must train all the time! So I wrote her a letter to find out.
Dear Clara,
My parents keep talking about how great you are and all the stuff you have done in sports. They said you are a great role model. You never know if your parents are right about stuff like that, so I researched all about you. And then I wanted to write and ask you about what it was like to be an Olympian in both the winter and summer games.
My Grade 8 project is about extreme human abilities. I’m trying to figure out if a person could train to become like the superhero Batgirl. Batgirl is really good at lots of things, and since you are too it would be great to ask you some questions! Also, Batgirl had to overcome lots of difficulties in her life to get so good at what she does. You are a great person to ask about that too!
For example, I read that you had depression, and well, my best friend Audrey, her sister Melissa (she’s 16) has had lots of stuff going on the last while. Her family just found out she has depression. So my questions have to do with persevering, I guess.
Thanks for helping me with my project,
Jessie
Thanks for writing to me, Jessie! I am very happy to answer your questions.
How did you figure out that you had depression? And how do you get through it?
I was sleeping so much and never felt rested; I was crying so much not knowing why and unable to stop; I put on weight and felt like I was enveloped in darkness. I seriously didn’t know anything was wrong with me and felt like I had to fix myself. It wasn’t until a doctor talked to me about what she saw—that I was depressed—that I even considered it a possibility. I was able to get better through the help of others. Through counseling and changing my ideas as to how I needed to train and how much I could push myself as an athlete. Eventually I was able to have fun again in training for spo
rt, but it took a long, long time. It was harder than anything I ever did in sport, getting through depression, and I could not do it alone.
It’s pretty amazing that you did all the things you have done. Did your depression affect your training and competing?
I had to change my ideas of how much I could train and push myself. I also had to change my nutrition and pay better attention to the food I ate. I began to realize that not just in sport but in life as well that food is fuel and it directly affects my mood. Things like sugar, gluten, and dairy are not good for me. But I still love all those things so it takes a lot of discipline. I always remind myself the reward is feeling better!
What was harder, training to win an Olympic medal or talking so openly about your depression?
It was easy to be open about my experience with depression. What was so hard was being depressed. To be honest, I live with a low-grade fear of becoming depressed again, which only makes me make good choices each day for my state of mind. Training to win an Olympic medal was difficult, yes, but much of that was in my control. What I’ve figured out is that when I feel good, I can make sure I continue to do all the good steps—I guess, in ways the training—to maintain a good state of mental health. Both take discipline, that’s for sure!
Did you find it difficult to train for speed skating and cycling? Did you do similar things for both?
The training in some ways was similar. I used the bike a lot for skating training. What I love most about cycling is that I did almost all my training outside in beautiful places. I skated indoors in circles and sometimes that was a bit monotonous. But the motion of skating is so beautiful . . . I still can’t believe I was able to skate like that. It’s like a dream.
When you were a kid how did you know you wanted to be an Olympic athlete?
I saw Gaétan Boucher skate in his last games and was hooked. Something inside me connected to the movement and I just knew, I felt it in my heart, that was what I was going to do in my life.
I have to know: do you have a favorite superhero?
I have a real live superhero and that is my mom. She is superhuman to me!
Wow. Clara Hughes proves that a person can be not just good but great — an Olympic medalist — in more than one sport AND overcome difficulties. It’s really cool that Clara was inspired by seeing someone else do something amazing, and now I’m inspired to do something myself because of Clara. Ms. King was right. Heroes, superheroes, and everyday people need (and can find) “inspiration for their perspiration.”
But it still means you have to DO SOMETHING to get somewhere.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30
I’ve skipped ahead a little in our science textbook. Okay, way ahead. I do that sometimes. Lucky chapter 13 (it’s a textbook so I’ll write this using my formal voice): “Genetics and physical traits inherited from your parents.”
So what do I have to work with, here?
* Me: Height 5-foot-4, weight 110 lbs, eye sight 20/20 (ish).
* Mom: Height 5-foot-8, weight 135 lbs, eye sight — seems good . . . so far. But she does lean in pretty close to the computer screen when she’s working.
* Dad: Height 6-foot-2, weight 210 lbs, eye sight — meh. He wears glasses for “computer work.”
My mom and dad are pretty active and in good shape. Me? Upper body strength? I can’t even do a single chin-up on the monkey bars. When I picked Shay up from her school yesterday, I waited until the elementary kids cleared out with their parents and tried to do a few. At least no one was there to witness my humiliation.
Except Shay. Who did 10. Grr.
Lower body strength? Not bad. Got Shay to time my 100-meter dash. Time = 14 seconds. Not fantastic. Reflexes? Slow-ish. SIGH.
At least I can blame a bunch of it on my parents, according to Steiner and Young, the writers of WORLD OF BIOLOGY: A GRADE EIGHT PRIMER. I already knew that the body and brain change with practice and training.
But how much I can change my body has lots to do with that whole “genes in my jeans” thing. Mr. Richardson said our genes contain the blueprint for telling our cells — all 37 trillion of them — what to become and how to work.
So, what have my cells been told? (And how can I get them to listen better?) How do we know our “genetic potential”? This came up in another nature versus nurture debate we had in class. Mr. Richardson challenged everybody to find out some examples of genes and performance.
We did a “U-debate” to see what everyone thought about this and what we could all come up with. It was actually pretty good considering we only had one night to look up stuff. Lots of my classmates weren’t too sure of their opinions and wanted to sit in the middle (at the bottom of the U) where you sit if you aren’t so certain of your position.
Since the ends of the U are for extreme or very certain opinions, I usually sit in the middle if I can. I don’t like to be controversial or flash my opinion too much, even when I do have one. But today sitting in the middle was actually correct.
Audrey told everyone that scientists have studied this kind of question by looking at the lives of identical twins. She read about some real twin athletes. And she was all set to tell us about them when Cade couldn’t contain himself anymore and interrupted her!
Which turned out to be great because he interrupted with the most amazing thing! It was about this girl from the Ukraine that Cade learned about from a TV show he saw. She’s named Varya Akulova. And she’s really, really, strong, just like her mom, her dad, her dad’s dad, his dad’s dad’s dad . . .
Holy crazy strong family, Batman.
How crazy strong? I couldn’t believe what Cade told us, so I looked it up myself on Varya’s own website. Here’s a little list of what Varya could do when she was a kid:
* At three years old, she performed with her parents as a circus acrobat!
* She could CARRY HER DAD on her back when she was six!
* At 14 she could lift four times her body weight! She weighed about 90 pounds, so that means she could lift over 350 pounds. Yikes.
* It isn’t listed, but I bet she could do more than one chin-up and 13 push-ups. So she’s likely got me beat there too . . .
Apparently her whole family is strong and they train and train all the time. Could I get THAT strong? How about just get stronger than I am? I told Mom all about this. Then she told me she ALREADY KNEW this story! She was at a conference last year on “genetics and exercise performance.” They talked about a scientist guy named Dr. Schuelke — from a university in Berlin, Germany — who did a study on a different kid who was missing a certain gene. Mom said this is called “gene deletion.” This kid’s missing gene is called myostatin.
Normally myostatin keeps muscles from getting too big and too strong! Weird. So, it’s my myostatin that is keeping me from becoming as strong and huge as the Incredible Hulk! (Or She-Hulk.) Apparently if you don’t have myostatin, your muscles can get a lot stronger. At the conference, they talked about Varya but since nobody had done the gene test on her, they didn’t know if she had the myostatin gene or not.
The thing Mom wanted me to “appreciate” (her word) is that you can have whatever genes you have (your nature). But if you don’t do any training, nothing happens. The genes need to be turned on (she said “expressed”) and your body needs to be trained (the nurture).
So you actually do need nurture to go along with nature.
How the body works seems so cool but so hard to understand at the same time. But it’s all good stuff for my Superhero Slam project. I like to understand stuff and what I’m understanding is that training takes time and you can only do so much. But you don’t know how much you can actually do until you try.
Time for a few more push-ups . . . and maybe some chin-ups . . . and sit-ups I guess. I’m not fantastic but I have potential!
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10
Well, I haven’
t had as many chances to hang out with Audrey and Cade as usual. It’s not like they’re ignoring me, it’s just that they have a lot of extra swim team practices. Since they’re both on the team and I am not (I’m not really a good swimmer, as it turns out), it’s totally to be expected. But it still sucks and I miss seeing them outside class.
But at least I did some video chatting with Audrey today! I was so excited to tell her about Clara Hughes!
Me: “I got an awesome answer back from Clara Hughes! She told me all about training for summer and winter Olympics, winning medals in both games, and that her mom’s her superhero!”
Audrey: “That is so cool! You are like celebrity grade 8 journalist girl!”
Me (humbly): “Yeah! But even more interesting! Clara has depression too. But she got helped and worked through it like Melissa. And Clara has done awesome, just like Melissa will! Please tell her about that!”
Audrey: “Oh for sure. I will. It’s just like Cade told her at dinner last night. He was doing some reading about depression and how nowadays more people understand it and it’s not something to be afraid of.”
Me (in my head): “Told her at dinner? What dinner? Did I miss an invite here? I guess since their parents take turns driving after practices they’ve stayed for dinner a few times.
Sounds like good hanging-out times. That I am missing. ☺ If only I were a better swimmer, I’d try for the team too!
Me (out loud in a normal and hopefully not hurt-sounding voice): “Yeah. Great. Cade. He’s a great guy. Very supportive.”