When I was in elementary school I was scolded for scribbling in my notebook. The teacher did not accept that I was drawing tornadoes and proceeded to teach me the “correct” way to draw them. Looking back, many aspects of my education, from art making to social norms, were taught in a canonical way. I’m realizing now how much it impacts the ways I think, and how difficult it is to break from this conditioning. A sewing machine scribbles tornadoes through the pages of this book violently disrupting images that symbolize my narrow-minded upbringing. As the dust settles, I imagine a world that is more inclusive and community minded; juxtaposing my experience learning multiplication with passages from Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, and exploring how trees prioritize the health of the forest over their individual success.