Origami is the Japanese art of folding paper into decorative shapes and figures. Only a few can master this art; you’ve either got it or you don’t, and Marco Bellestri, a freshman here at Monroe High School, sure does have it.

“When I first started, actual origami was back in, I want to say about sixth grade,” Bellestri said.

“When I make all of the pieces, it normally takes about a week or two. It depends on how big the project is.”

Bellestri created an origami dragon, and he says he thinks his dragon is about two-feet tall and a foot-and-a-half wide. This origami dragon was made because of a selection of a project in what his health class called “Genius Hour,” where they gather with teacher Leah Morelli in C122.

“I picked this project because one of my middle school teachers said my origami was a ‘waste of paper,’ so this is to try and change her opinion about it and to make her say it has some meaning to it,”Bellestri said.

Bellestri didn’t stop there. It inspired him to seek higher potential and start a new dragon in a serpent-like form, he says he already has the head made at home.

“This one will be bigger than the last” said Bellestri.