2nd Quarter Poetry Journal Reflection

The Last Wolf

Yes, I said.

 I know what they have done.

I jolt up from the concrete. Hard and cold, like me. My clothes are tattered, and my arms and face are full of scars from last nights' trek in the woods. Rubbing sleep out of my eyes, I look around. I can't believe it's almost been six years since the Wave and I'm the only one left...I think.

Now, you're probably thinking, what's the Wave? It was horrible. I still have nightmares: flashes of fear-stricken faces and screaming children here and there, parents unable to find their families. Trees being ripped to shreds.

The Wave hit my town the worst because it was right next to the. Freaking. Ocean. Maybe if we hadn't lived there, I would still have my family. Anyways, all I remember was the hundred-foot wave. The gray water contrasting against the black sky. It started coming down slowly. The faster. Faster. Faster, and I couldn't hear anything after that.  

_______________________________________

I chose to write this piece from a line I saw from the poem, The Last Wolf, and from that poem I chose the first two lines and put it in my story. Just like last time, I wanted to write something ominous, something catastrophic and it left the character with nothing but a small shred of dignity. It was the kind of story that I wanted to keep writing, or it left the reader thinking of an ending for themselves, so in a way, my story was kind of like a DIY story. I want to write more stories that have a darker theme next quarter.

2nd Quarter Independent Reading Reflection

For this quarter, I passed my goal of reading five books and read 10! I'm really happy because I didn't think I would reach my goal at all. I read the Color of Water by James McBride, all three books in the Shatter Me series by Tahereh Mafi, and The Selection series books one, two, and three by Kiera Cass. I also finished three of the four or five novellas from the Selection Series and those were amazing too! Obviously, this number is better than last quarter (8 more to be exact), so I'm thrilled to see that I made such an accomplishment. My books were challenging enough for the regular high school student, so it wasn't any pressure on me at all. I chose this challenge because I wanted to read something I was comfortable in reading, so it wasn't to easy or too hard. I can't exactly pick a best book, but the 2 series that I read were the best this quarter. Those books were the ones you couldn't put down, and I loved that feeling. They had a story, and they had characters that had developed different/stronger characteristics throughout the books. I think what I discovered for this quarter is that I love to read Dystopia/Utopia/world-conflict books that questioned society in the books, and how the characters questioned their life decisions too.

I reached most of my first quarter goals by reading more than five NEW books that were more than 150 pages long. I also read some of the series that I wanted to read (Thank goodness!). Of course, I always have new goals for myself because...why not, right? One of my goals is to read more than TEN books this time (that I haven't read), and to make sure they are at least 200 pages this time. I also want to read The Maze Runner series because I saw the movie and I have to know what's next :). I'm also planning to start the Harry Potter series, but I might not finish it because THEY'RE HUGE! Maybe until book five, so I'll be pretty busy this winter break too. One book that I'm dying to read is The Martian, and trust me, I'm sure to make it happen this time! I can't wait to start reading!!!

                              

Come here, Come all to the Globe Theater!

Isn't it a wonderful day? It's 1599 and I just heard that this new theater called the Globe Theater just opened. It was built by William Shakespeare and another company, and I heard that he writes the plays himself. I have to go see it because the first show ever, Julius Caesar, is playing.

When I look around, I see more than a thousand seats in a big circle. It's an open sky so natural light is used. I'm standing on the ground with hundreds of commoners like me who paid a penny to watch. I also see the rich wealthy nobles sit on the stage itself! They get a good view...Lucky. Up a couple of stories and I see the Gentry sit in galleries with cushions! I think they had to pay two pennies to sit there. There's a flag that has what seems to be Hercules carrying a globe on his shoulder. Totus mundus agit histrionem or "The whole world is a playhouse". There's lots of men here. I mean there are women, but only the rich ones, and they're using a mask to cover up their face. I also heard that The Globe Theater is also being used as a gambling home. Oh, SHH! It's starting!

The show is going good so far, but one thing that's bothering me is...where are the women? I only see young boys wearing bad makeup and plastic wigs to act as an actress.

"Excuse me, sir," I ask the man next to me.

"Yes, dear?" He replies impatiently, as if wanting to get back to the show.

"Would you care to explain to me on why there are no women acting in this play? It seems kind of wrong,"

"Are you crazy little girl?!" He whisper-yells. " Women aren't allowed to act, it's a terrible idea. Only boys shall act, and if necessary they'll dress up like a girl". With that he left, and I kept watching and started to get back into the show.

Overall, I thought it was an amazing experience! It was a good show that made me laugh and cry. It was also a great atmosphere with the open roof and circular theater. I can't wait to go to the next play in the Globe Theater!

Picture This

The book I chose to read for this unit is called I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai. It's basically her life story until she gets shot in the head by the Taliban because she is a girl going to school. She also likes to talk about how she stands up for girls' rights, and she believes that anyone can go to school to get a good education, boy and girl. The picture up above (I know my drawing skills are horrible) represents two sides of a common problem in Pakistan and all over the world: girls going to school. On the wide yellow path, you see 3 really happy girls . Those are Malala and her other two best friends. They are on the "path" to education. Literally. Now, the bridge on the side represents the Taliban, a group of people who go against God's teachings and basically ban everything. Their bridge also leads to education, in which they can destroy schools and ban girls to go there anymore. However, you can see that the bridge is broken. This represents on what Malala is currently doing to save girls's education: she's trying to break the Taliban's bond to education so that they don't do anything harmful, and you can also see that the Taliban is very angry on what she's trying to do.

The quote I chose from my book basically sums up my picture in words. She exclaims, " For us girls that[school] doorway was like a magical entrance to our special world...Yet, outside the door to the school lay not only the noise and craziness of Mingora, the main city of Swat, but also those like the Taliban who think girls should not go to school" (Yousafzai 4-5). I feel like this quote shows how she really feels about what goes on outside the doors of her school and what goes on in a Taliban's mind.

1st Quarter Poetry Journal Reflection

August

When the blackberries hang
ripe and juicy
It's seeds squeezing out
dark blood onto the ground

Thorns rip my skin
shred by shred
Each one carrying
my faulty venom

Dark leaves decorate a
pale and gray
sky
Casting a shadow
over the vast forest

My cloak carries myself
my burden and worries
I shield myself from
the dangers outside

I finally reach a lake
thick and murky
Unable to see my reflection
I step into it
Looking beyond

And the world erases me.

When I started writing this poem, I wanted something mysterious. I wanted the transition of summer to fall to be apparent, in dark way, you know? I also chose this poem because this poem doesn't have a definite ending. I want readers to create their own ending, and perhaps turning it into an excerpt in a story. One of the most consistent parts in this poem is after the first line of every stanza, I describe the first line with two adjectives. I did this because I like a little consistency in my poems but I also like describing things in a short way instead of creating one long line. I also wrote the poem like this because I wanted a poem where I could imagine myself in that situation. One of the other things I did is I like to make my pieces the opposite. When you read the actual poem "August", it's very happy and bright, while my poem leaves traces of mystery, and it's your job to finish the ending and add more details to make it a little more... unique.

1st Quarter Independent Reading Reflection

This quarter may come with new experiences for everyone, especially for me. Two honors classes, more homework, Science Olympiad. Since I spent too much time on school, I feel like I didn't devote myself to reading, which is one of my favorite hobbies. Sadly, in two months I only finished like two books: Fangirl and Maximum Ride Forever. I abandoned Looking for Alaska and I just set aside Extremely Loud, Incredibly Close on my table, never to be read again. Now, this number is nothing compared to what I read last year. In 8th grade, I read all of Pretty Little Liars, The Delirium Series (again), Heroes of Olympus, Maximum Ride (again, too), Carpe Diem and other random books here and there. My books weren't too challenging. Anyone who has read Fangirl and/or Maximum Ride Forever would probably agree that it appeals to the average 13-15 year old. If I had to recommend a book out of the ones I read this quarter, it would have to be Fangirl. A book by Rainbow Rowell, author of Eleanor & Park (an amazing book, BTW), it illustrates the story of Cath, who just started going to college with her twin Wren, but their relationship is strained at best. She meets her roommates' boyfriend, and a guy who loves attention and words. However, her only escape is writing fan fiction about her favorite series, Simon Snow. I could go on, but I'll stop. I loved the voices in the book and how there were excerpts from the fan fiction and the actual series, and that helped the story move along.

Going on, I have plenty of goals for second quarter's reading. One of the goals that I have is to read more than 5 books. I know that my reading was pretty weak this quarter, and since I love to read, I want to put in more effort by reading at least five books THAT I HAVEN'T READ YET. (See, I have this bad habit of re-reading books). Trust me, I have a long list too: The Martian, The Selection Series, Shatter Me, Mrs. Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, and many more. Another goal I have is to read a book that's more than 150 pages. This goal is pretty easy for me because I love books that have a long story line, so I binge-read it. And, the books that I usually read are about 250-400 pages, so it keeps me quite busy.

To be truthfully honest, I don't think any of the two books I read this quarter was "spiritual reading". Why? I just read them for pleasure. I wanted to read Maximum Ride Forever because the ending in the previous book was so abrupt, and since this book came out, I just needed to know it really ended. (It was a fair ending, BTW).  Eleanor & Park led me to read Fangirl. The humor, the voices, the conflicts and the budding romance made me thoroughly enjoy it. However, I felt like I didn't go deep enough. Something stopped me from reading it too deeply, and I think it was the fact that I read it for pleasure. So, this quarter, I want to try reading deeper into books, figuring out the meaning behind everything. But, we'll see how it goes!

Do You Know Who I Am?

Be Yourself
Ellen Bailey

Why would you want to be someone else
When you could be better by being yourself
Why pretend to be someone you are not
When you have something they haven't got

Cheating yourself of the life you have to live
Deprives others of that only which you can give
You have much more to offer by being just you
Than walking around in someone else's shoes

Trying to live the life of another is a mistake
It is a masquerade; nothing more than a fake
Be yourself and let your qualities show through
Others will love you more for being just you  

Remember that God loves you just as you are
To Him you are already a bright shining star
Family and friends will love you more too
If you spent time practicing just being you

My narrative, for those of you who haven't read it, is about something that most people can't relate to. Ready?... it's about anime (more specifically, the first time I started watching it).Weird, I know. But that's just who I am as a person, and I like who I am. The theme that people can take away from my story is that you should do what you want to do, and nobody should judge you for that. I know that most people find anime pretty weird, but it's something I enjoy watching. 
In my narrative, there's a scene where my sister is talking to me. This is the part where she finds out that I've been watching anime. She says, "Not a lot of people watch anime, and some people can make fun of you for that... You should start telling people so you don't have to carry the worry anymore. If you tell someone, they either laugh at you for five seconds, or they just won't care". I was so worried about how others may think of me if I told them that I watched anime, and that made me think about how that's just who I am, and people either laugh or they don't care.
 Another way my story helps my theme is that I talk about how anime has changed me as a person, and my very last sentence in my narrative, which is my last piece of evidence, states,"This is me...and I'm not scared to show the true colors of myself".
I'm combining these two together because they share the same reasoning to why it goes along with my theme. Anime has turned me into a better person, and it has turned me into the person that I wanted to become, and I just felt like I wasted too much time worrying about others judging me. So I feel like anime is something that I like to do, and no one can criticize that.

Okay, enough of the that, let's move on to the poem that's on the top of this post (now, take the time to ACTUALLY read it, and then you can come join me :P). Based on the title, I think that the theme is pretty obvious... You should just be yourself, and if others judge you because you're different, then they can go mind their own business. And this theme is pretty similar to the theme of my narrative. One piece of evidence that supports the theme of this poem is when it says, "'Why would you want to become someone else/when you could be better by being yourself'". Like I said, it doesn't matter who you are, just do what you want to do. The last two pieces of evidence also tie in together too, "' Be yourself and let your qualities show through/others will love you more for being just you'". "'Family and friends will love you more too/If you spent time practicing just being you'". These pieces are basically saying if you let your true personality show through, others will accept the real you instead of the fake you. 

Never Quit...

"There comes a moment when it's more than just a game, and you either take that step forward or turn around and walk away." ~ Meredith Grey, Grey's Anatomy

This quote is spoken by Meredith Grey in the show, Grey's Anatomy. This comes from the very first episode in the first season. Meredith is starting her first day at Seattle Grace Hospital as a first year Surgical Intern. She steps into the operating room and is intimidated by her surroundings and co-interns and this makes her have second thoughts about why she picked this career. She thinks she is not good enough to be a surgeon like her mother once was. She portrays the surgical field as a playing field and shows that it is up to you to decide to play or quit. If you love what you do, you will never quit. 

This quote is very personal to me. Even though it comes from a television drama series, it holds an inspirational meaning that I connect with. From this quote, I learned it's not easy to become what you want to be, and that true dedication and hard work is needed. My dream is to become a Cardio Surgeon, and the path to become one is nothing close to easy. At first, goals like these are just in our heads, where we think it would be nice to become one. Then once, you're in school, you start learning material to enhance your knowledge. Then that dream, starts becoming more of a path to reality. You start choosing courses that are of interest, applying to colleges that seem fitting for your career and then one day earning that degree that you've worked so hard to achieve. 

Although I am still at a very early stage to be thinking about what kind of doctor I want to become, I have the aspiration in my head. Our lives are a playing field. When you are playing the game, you know the path and the rules of how it's supposed to be played. But sudden occurrences happen where you have little to no control of. That is when you decide to either keep playing or walk off the field. When times get rough, the only thing you think about is...quitting. When you do quit, you carry that guilt and anger with you. The important thing is to believe in yourself and gain that confidence to keep going. The game that you were playing becomes more than just a game, it becomes a life choice. Based on the choices you make, your life will have those consequences, whether they are good or bad. 

In Meredith's eyes, her playing field was the surgical room. How well she played the game of surgery was all up to her. In my eyes, my playing field is school. How well I choose to play, can decide the path ahead of me to become what I want. There is constant competition, constant obstacles and constant consequences around me. However, I choose to stay in the game, no matter how hard, and push through to get what I want. I choose not to quit. I choose to step forward and NEVER walk away.