Oh Yes I Can Magazine Apr 2026

He didn’t win the contest. A girl named Priya won with a glitter-and-foam diorama of a dolphin president. But Ms. Kowalski pinned Leo’s drawing to the center of the board anyway. She had to use four magnets. The caption beneath it, in Leo’s wobbly handwriting, said: “This is what trying looks like.”

It had no barcode. The paper was thick, almost cloth-like. The title, embossed in gold foil, read: oh yes i can magazine

And he felt it. A tiny, sad snap in his head. The bridge. He didn’t win the contest

His older sister, Elena, could. She could make a charcoal eye look wet, a hand look bony and real. Leo’s stick figures leaned like they’d been caught in a gale. So when Ms. Kowalski announced the “Dream Big” poster contest, Leo didn’t just feel defeated—he felt factually defeated. Kowalski pinned Leo’s drawing to the center of

“Oh yes you can.”