Monday, June 6, 2011

The End of Middle School Already?

A/N: As we come to the close of the two years we have spent in middle school we had to write on final piece about all of it so that would be what I am putting here.


Middle School. Lasting only a short two years but seeming so much longer while we are there and now that it is coming to an end it seems that it has gone by all to fast. Experiences that will be remembered forever and days that will just be forgotten and added into the abyss of other days. These days are the last days that we will ever be considered middle school student. This is where all of it ends.

Looking back now on these two marvelous years of life so much has changed, probably for the better too. Friendships and bonds with other people have broken just so new ones can form, others have been weak all along until now when they have been strengthened. All of the things that have been done are done and can both influence what happens going on in life and not influence it at all. Much has stayed the same and much has changed, it is almost hard to explain.

Looking at the people around you, they are all the same people with the same stories as they had back in elementary school butt now in this time it all seems to be completely different. Although the goof-off are still the goof-offs, the quiet people are still just as quiet, the people who excel in athletics are still in roughly the same position with the exceptions of the people who have moved to the school and been added in. Everyone is still the same only now they are older and have dealt with more difficulties and can handle all of this better.

Taking each step one at a time all of this may change going on in life. Being in high school with new people who have never been in the same school and in the same classes as you. It will be different maybe better and maybe worse but only the future will tell. Having had this class everything will be affected to a positive hopefully.

All classes in middle school have taught something but to tell the truth nothing has affected the future more than this class, the Advanced Language Arts class. Coming for nothing to something in writing skills, reading skills, and speaking skills. Each and every one of these topics has improved tremendously since coming in as a seventh grader not really wanting to learn anything and thinking that there is almost nothing to learn left. This was the way that I came into this class and looking back I am completely ashamed of thinking that way.

I have gone from someone who is unable to do anything that really interesting to myself without cranking it out to someone who may struggle but once find something to write about can breeze through it. Using topics found that are affecting me or even given to me has changed this year so much and has forced me to become a better writer all around. This class has by far taught me the most whether it was figuring out how to manage my time on my own, write a poem mocking a poet, or write a well thought out essay that has the ability to make the reader think about everything that is said.

Looking back now at before the time I had spent in this class, I have changed drastically at the way I even look at the world. Sure we didn't only learn about writing essays and spelling and all of the boring stuff that we did back in elementary school , but we learned about some of the things that we wanted to learn or had heard about but in depth more. Learning about the history of the English language or the symbolism of all of the fictional creatures that we are reading about in current literature. The workshop/ lecture style environment has been helpful for letting us accomplish this.

Going on into the future after having this class makes me think, what do I really want to do in life and how am I going to accomplish that? Back in elementary school and even the first semester of middle school if I was asked what I wanted to do when I grew up I would have the same answer every single time. When I grew up I wanted to go to a really good school that was out of state and after that I wanted to go into something in the medical field and that was set in stone for me. However now when I look ahead to my future I have little clue what I am going to do because having this class has made me think about what I want in my future. There are so many places I could go and so many things that I can do but now the only thing that I know for sure is that I will live for each day and hope that the future holds something that will intrigue me and keep me interested, and that I will for sure go to college somewhere.

Maturity. Yes that is present even more significantly present in my life now than it had been in the future. Not about the social point but the educational point. After going through this class I can listen to any person talk about almost any topic and be mature enough to listen intently and not make a side comment that isn't appropriate to the topic. Taking what people say into consideration, even if it has no importance to me is important and letting thoughts come together not just turning down things before knowing what the real reason is. This is all part of the long run and creating a reputation that I can hold to. All of this goes to show how much I have grown through the years now having the maturity that was not there previously.

Honestly middle school has been one of the best experiences that I have ever had. Especially with having teachers who have learned about the type of student that I am and learning that if I don't get pushed to my limits that I won't try hard enough that it truly effects anything. As much as the whole middle school experience has effected me, now I know for sure that the class I have learned the most in, the class that I have enjoyed the most, and the class that has forced me to challenge myself the most has to have been the class that I am writing this whole piece for, this Language Arts class.

The Power and the Glory Final Piece

A/N: This is the written component to our/my final project for The Power and the Glory. The book was much about making a decision and staying strong to your convictions. So we did a video asking people really tough questions that made them think and we ourselves had to answer a scenario in written form where neither of the choices would be ideal normally.



People almost always hold strong to their convictions whether they know it or not. Although people's convictions can be put to the test when a situation comes into play where neither option is one that would wanted to be taken. In the book the priest has to follow his convictions just like in life each person has to follow their own and stay true to what they believe.

It is just another ordinary day in your Language Arts class, and every thing is going normally or so I think. Just listening to the lecture that my Language Arts teacher is giving the class and all or the sudden I hear the announcements come on signaling the lock down drill right as some one slips into the room. "Lock the door." The man says. Since the creep is holding a gun one of my classmates quickly scurries to the door and does exactly as told. The man walks up to me and hold the gun up to my head all the while causing me to tremble. He then gives me a choice. "Either pick one of the people in this room to die or I will kill you followed by every other person in this room."

This decision makes life hard. Either way some one is going to die but how many is determined by my choice that I am being forced to make. Every person in this room has a value in life and to let them all die would be a shame but to be responsible for the death of one of these people that I have grown up with and known for almost ten years. This position is one that I wish I wasn't forced to be in.

Weighing the decisions with each and every person in the room looking at me with a worried face, I wish that someone or anyone could tell me what to do. Although this will never happen and the decision is mine and only mine. If every person dies that is the loss of about thirty people that could have made a huge difference in the world. However what would happen if the one person that dies was going to be the most important person in the future, this I just don't know.

Looking back and forth at the options I have in my mind I just don't know what to do I feel like melting down and just crying right here and now but that isn't one of the options I have been given. Frantically searching my mind for a loop hole I find none. There is nothing left for me to consider, I have to pick one or the other. The regret that will take over my form will be unending either way but knowing that I could have saved at least some of the people in the room that is the only way I can look at it.

I glance sideways at the man and tell him my decision of picking some one in the room to die. Before telling him who I mouth sorry to everyone in the class and hope that they are okay with my decision. I close my eye and point in the direction of where a bunch of people are sitting and here the gun shot and the man leave and I just crumble to the ground not knowing or caring who died but because I was the one who picked that they would die.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Clock


A/N: When we were told to write a poem in class today I thought of this old clock that has just been sitting around in our basement for almost nine years. I think that the real meaning of the poem has to do with time and not wanting it to stop when you are young and then when you get older how you wish that it would stop just so that you could cherish the last little bit of time you're here. Please comment and give me feedback on what you think of it.


Waiting and Wishing
Wishing and Waiting

Watching and Listening
Listening and Watching

The Ticking and Chiming
The Chiming and Ticking

Of the old Grandfather clock.

Sitting silently
Silently sitting

Reading and Thinking
Thinking and Reading

While the clock works.

Turning and Placing
Placing and Turning

The pages of the book,
As time goes by

Placing and Turning
Turning and Placing

The pages of the book
When the old clock stops.

Thinking and Reading
Reading and Thinking

Silently sitting
Sitting silently

With the old Grandfather clock

Not Chiming and not Ticking
Not Ticking and not Chiming

Listening and Watching
Watching and Listening

Wishing and Waiting
Waiting and Wishing

For all to go back,
To the beginning

Monday, April 25, 2011

Response to Truman Show Thursday

Truman's life is in fact a television show that many people enjoy, he however does not realize this. The people making the show stage many things including the death of his father while on a fishing trip. This made Truman terrified of water and left him thinking that his father was actually in fact dead.

Fear is necessary in life but there is a point in life when it comes to a point of it being too much. When fear gets to the point of destroying life that is when it have gone too far. For the television show the people producing it wanted to get the reaction from different set occurrences in their life. The faked death of his father being one of them.

In real life that would not happen. Truman really doesn't know what real life is even though he has one that is just filmed and tweaked in every which way. The people making it get reactions out of him that make it funny because of his fear, because of his reactions. Life is full of cause and effect and this "show" proves it.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Decisions

A/N: Another poem with the same background. All the poems fit together in one way or another but I can't seem to get them to all fit together in a publishable way. So again please give me any feed back that you can. Also located on the page A Song of Friends.

Turning in circles
spinning around
having no idea what to do next.

Sure
there are many options
but is there anything that
I
want to do,
No there really isn't.

How can I help people through their struggles
Not Just focusing all on myself
Sure I can pray for them
but will that really be enough?
There is no chance that they'd every listen to me.
Not today
or for a while at least.

How do they get straightened out?
How can I help?
By just being your friend?

Decisions are the hardest.
Especially when people are involved.

How do you keep them
uninjured,
unhurt
emotionally.

What is Drama?

A/N: Here is another poem that I wrote around the same time that I wrote the poem Dreams?, I wrote a bunch of seperate poems in one larger one and decided that they don't all fit together as well as I would have liked so please let me know what you think. Also located on the page A Song of Friends.


Drama is inevitable.

Drama exists
There is no way to escape it grasps

once your in
there is no way out
none

it can be a play
or even a performance
but what if it takes a turn for the worst
life

Dreams?

A/N: This is something that I wrote earlier this year and just never really made a decision whether topost it or not so I guess that now is as good as ever. Please leave feedback and let me know what you think. Also located on the page called A Song of Friends.


Dreams are supposed to help process your thoughts
The thoughts of the days events

but what if dreams are telling you
nonsense,
just confusing you more,
or overly eccentric?

What if
The answers dreams give are the opposite
Of what you want to happen?