The conclusion

        Just to start off this blog, I have written 28 blogs this year! How crazy(: So many thoughts and ideas typed on my computer and saved for other people to read... which many didn't but thats okay! Writing these blogs were actually really fun and I enjoyed some of the topics a lot. Anyway back to the assignment....

        I learned that my writing style changes depending on my mood and what time of day that I type it. Like if I'm having a bad day and it's night time, I tend to write shorter... plain blogs but when I'm happy than everything changes. I have written a lot on the topics that I liked and could really express in my writing. My blogs are really all about the topics and me.. I used myself in the blogs a lot and I noticed that every blog had a different feeling to them. Some would be really long and well written while others were short and not so complex.It was fun to look back and read everything that I typed. At some points I'm like... "Oh why in the world did I say it that way" or stuff like that. I also realized that towards the beginning I tried to write long blogs at times, I can't remember why but it looked kind of strange. Writing these blogs kinda reminds me back to 6th grade. In my block class everyday we would have to write a journal. Sometimes we had topics that we had to write about and others we could just write about anything. I loved that and I think that's part of the reason why I like writing these blogs, because I get that feelings of being able to say whatever I felt and no body would judge me (because they were private) and I could speak whatever was on my mind. On here I write about my own thoughts and opinions of the topics and I don't have to worry about sounding stupidif I were to say it in the class.
        I loved doing the blog assignment for animal farm. That was so much fun to me, I liked looking at the videos and looking at other people's work and seeing their ideas! I really liked how mine turned out. I thought that my pyramid idea was pretty cool and fit with the image that I wanted to portray. It may look messy but hey, I did it on the computer and it took my a while to get the animals in the position I wanted them. An assignment that I really liked was when we had to write about our poem for poetry out loud. I chose  Follow thy fair sun and when I was reading over what I wrote I found this, "I think that the meaning of the poem is to not let bad things in your day/life (the shadow) ruin your “sunshine” so to speak. Don’t let it bring you down even when things look their worst and nothing is going to get better. There is always something to shine down on you to brighten everything up. Don’t give up, its always worth trying and getting up stronger than before and keep going." This is something that I need to remind myself. Not to let these bumps in my road affect my whole like and futurewith the people that matter the most to me. I actually forgot that I wrote that until I reread it.
        "Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save." -Will Smith. I find that quote is totally true. So many people spend a lot of time trying to find out what they want in life and who they want to become. And in their frantic search they flew right by it. This relates to the end of my blog because my blogs, being typed this year has been the year that I started thinking about my life. Now that I'm in high school I need to start thinking about my future and what I want to be. I don't know what I want to do after college, I don't know what I want to major in, I don't know what classes I want to take later on in life. My blogs have all been typed through this time period so that idea has been on my mind this whole year and sometimes has come out in my writing.
        Overall this year, I'd have to say has had it's ups and downs. Good memories and bad, laughs and cries but coming out of my freshman year, I have grown stronger and know the kind of person that I am. That's all that matters (: Goodbye FRESHMAN year, hello SUMMER (:

Memorable assignment

        Gosh there are so many to choose from. I honestly... I can't even think of my favorite one. One that I will remember is my Great Expectations Essay. In the past I had trouble writing essays but I worked so hard on this one and got help from people. Even though my grade on it was a B, it felt better than a C or an F. I spent long countless hours on my paper trying to make it sound just right and make it so I had everything in order. The book wasn't all that spectacular to me, or wasn't my favorite book but knowing that the essay we were going to have to write at the end was real nerve racking for me. I didn't want to fail this assignment because my writing was crappy or because I had too many mistakes. This was one paper that I really wanted to do well on. I wanted to challenge myself and see how well I could do.
        By writing that essay and having the papers from my rough drafts, it was really helpful to me to look at them when we wrote our "Romeo and Juliet" essay. I had a tough time with this assignment. I wanted everything to be perfect. Everything to fit and flow smoothly. I wanted my paragraphs to be really really good and for my ideas in my head to explode out onto the paper. Some of those things happened and some of them didn't but overall knowing that my paper was a B grade made me feel so good inside and a lot of stress on my shoulders was lifted because I could tell my parents that I got a good grade instead of a C or lower. It made me proud and happy to know that hard work does pay off and that I can accomplish hard things (:

Poetry

       I have always been into poetry. I used to write it all the time that also got me into writing songs. Poetry is one was that I can express how I'm feeling, it is honestly really hard to come up with something that sounds good but every once in a while I can write something that I like to share. I can't really say that I have had a positive experience with poetry. Besides writing it.. other than that... I don't really like to read poetry, I'm more up to being the author and having people read mine. When I write poetry or words on paper, I always know what I want to say but when I put it down on paper it just turns out all wrong and doesn't really make sense. When I do get something I like, it feels really good.
       I can't explain the way I feel when I write poetry because every time it is different. It all depends on my mood and what is on my mind. I know that I tend to write kinda sappy or romantic poems but every once in a blue moon I get a funny one. One time in 7th grade I was eating lunch and it was during the WASL. I had a pencil with me for some reason and I wrote one about the WASL right on my brown paper bag. People thought it was super good. I was gonna show my teacher but I forgot it was on there and I threw it away :/ But I did later on come up with a similar one. I can't really remember what got me into poetry, I have always liked Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein but not to the point where I looked up to them or they were my inspiration.
       When I think about the word poetry, I think about people. I think about sadness and fun and life and reality and dreams and wishes and love and everything. I think about personalities, I don't know... Poetry has a bazillion definitions and can never have a bad or stupid one.
       

Conflict in Romeo and Juliet ---l======> <======l--- [those are swords fighting (: ]

        After Tybalt kills Mercutio, that is the last straw for Romeo. Romeo can't going on being nice and refusing to fight. So he gets back at Tybalt by taking his life as Tybalt took his friends life.When the Capulets find out that Tybalt has been killed, Lady Capulet is devastated and she wants Romeo to die as soon as they can find him. She didn't care that Tybalt took a life, all she cared was that she wanted Romeo dead and she wanted him dead then and there. Now Romeo and Juliet's love is really forbidden, there is no way that now they can be together in peace because of what Romeo did. In the paraphrased section above, there are a couple types of the same conflict, person vs. person. The first conflict is Romeo vs. Tybalt, the two are fighting against each other because of the conflict of Tybalt and Mercutio that ended a life. The second conflict is Romeo vs. The Capulets.The Capulets now have total anger towards Romeo because he killed their nephew and now they want his life in return for their loss. This is important because now the chase is on, now the forbidden lovers sneak and try to find ways to meet one another without being seen. This is a big part to the romantic theme, people will do a lot for true love, and it's better to make friends not enemies (:
          In life we all have our problems and conflicts, whether it be a loss of a loved one, a bad grade, parents divorced, moving away, getting in a fight with your gf or bf, losing your best friend, losing your house, and so many more that could be listed off. Everyone and i mean everyone has problems, some just might be smaller or less effective than others. Romeo and Juliet's problem is their love, how it is forbidden and how Romeo is now wanted for death while Juliet is being forced into a marriage. In my life I have had person vs. person conflict so many times. With friends, family members, siblings you name it. My conflicts have never involved death and swords or anything like that but some have ended in fun ways. One time I was sitting in a chair wearing one of my younger sister's socks on. She was freaking out about it, telling me to take it off. I told her to relax and to calm down and that it was fine. That it was just a sock and it wasn't like she needed it for anything special. She kept pestering me and I just laughed and ignored her. She started provoking me and saying that she would take it off if I didn't take it off she would. I asked her playfully if she wanted to go and she said yes. So I stood up and so did she. She came forward (through out all of this, my mom is laughing) and i took her arms, wrapped them around her so she couldn't move, took her legs out from under her and sat on her(: She was laughing so hard because she couldn't move but overall I won.
Everyday I have conflict in my life, if it is big or small it doesn't matter, it is there. In my life, conflict just means another bump in my road that I have to over come and push my way through. People deal with conflict in all different ways. Some people deal with it in violence, some in fun ways (like I did), some in hurting themselves, and some don't deal with it at all. they just ignore them and try to work around the conflict.

Romeo And Juliet: Shiver

Romeo and Juliet, as we all know, has been the base of so many books, songs, movies and more. One of the references I found was a book called Shiver by Maggi Stiefvater. This is a book about a wolf and a girl who are in love but can't be together. He is human during the warm seasons and is a wolf during the cold. He has been watching her since she was a little girl but without her knowing. They can't be together and it's like Romeo and Juliet. Their love is pretty much forbidden by some force of law. In Romeo and Juliet it is their parents and their family feud but in Shiver the couple can't be together because of who and what they are. When Sam, the wolf, is human he and Grace, the girl, are always together. In their town, they have the best connection and it was defiantly love at first sight like our little lovers ( Romeo and Juliet). Both of these novels have main character deaths in the end, and they are both in the tragic category. Overall, these too books are similar in their romance but very different at the same time and they make a nice contrast. 

Romeo And Juliet

          Honestly I absolutely love reading the book in class. I get way way way more out of it and understand everything better. I don't know why but that's how I am with all books. Even the discussions from Great Expectations where better than not talking about the book at all.
          I can connect with the whole parent thing. I would rather have my friends come ask me whats wrong compared to my parents because it is so much easier telling them things that are going on, hard things and etc. There are also just some stuff that you don't tell your parents. You friends are there to support you and your parents as well but it is more difficult to let your parents know whats bothering you. Its nice to have your parents wonder if your okay but if they are on your case all the time about everything it is wonderful to get a break from all their nagging or reminders or "helpful" advice on everything that you do. My parents are mostly always wanting to know whats going on with me, how my day goes, what goes on, to fix something if I mess up and more! Its nice to know that they care but sometimes I just feel overwhelmed by their caring. This kinda relates to the fact that their parents do care about them but not enough to talk to them face to face. I think that they want their parents to show their concern more than through someone else. I love that my parents care for me but they care in uneven areas. I wish that they would care about the things that are important to me rather in some areas where I wish that they could cool off.
          Reading on my own... I'm okay with it. The words on the side help but when we read it aloud in class and when you point out things, I get it almost 100%. It helps me out so much. I do read at home and I can decipher the material but when we do it in class, it helps me catch important or funny concepts that I didn't on my own. I'd say that yes it is getting easier but that is because of the class work.That goal is defiantly being met for me, I mean it helps me out so much and I can't say it any simpler than that. I am not getting any other outside help besides the information on the left pages. Sometimes I will read out loud and that just makes it enjoyable for me because it's like my own little play and I can make voices and etc, and I am a dork in that way where I would read the lines as if I was acting it out. I also will read to my little sister but they don't get it so they end up walking away :/ but oh well (:

Wrapping up Great Expectations

This novel had many little inside things on life that have to do with happiness, money, love, shame/ guilt, mystery and family. This story is really about how you don't need the best things in life to be happy. You don't need a rich girlfriend or money flowing out of your pants or a new car (or carriage). All you need is family, love, support and happiness. Sure it would be nice to have the latest and best things but we don't need that in our lives. Surviving on the basics is good enough, people in the past did it so we should be able to too. Dickens expresses through his words that love is a powerful thing. Some people will do anything to look their best, that includes marring someone that they might not actually love. They just want to get with them because of their class status or wealthiness. He shows that some people do go through all the trouble to get what they want, when in the end, it hurts themselves and other people around them that cared for that person. I think the overall message is: "this is life, we make mistakes and wrong choices. We are humans and no ones perfect but you must make wise decisions. If you think your in love with someone, you can't just listen to your heart, you also have to listen to your mind." This book is relevant to people in general because in everyone's lives there is shame/guilt, love, happiness. We all have done something "bad" or "wrong" at one section in our life time, some might not like to admit it but it's true. From a little white lie to lets say.... stealing a car, the consequences might be different but the feelings inside are similar. Love impacts almost everyone at point in time. When your young there are little crushes on the cute boys and girls and the "dating" where their friends would ask you out for them and all that cute stuff. As you grow older the crushes and dating are still there but they go out to greater levels. Not everyone finds someone that they want to spend the rest of their life with and that's okay. They are happy where they are and that matters a lot. Happiness is another aspect that we all have. It is so important because if your not happy, then your not healthy. If your not happy then you don't enjoy like and start wishes for all the things that you don't have. Overall this book might be long and sometimes boring, it si full of little life lessons and messages.