McCandless Project Journal

         

About two years ago, I got glasses to correct my double vision when I read. Since I don't really read a lot of books in the classroom, I don't wear my glasses around, so people don't know that I wear glasses and have never seen me in them. My experiment for the McCandless project was to see just how people would react if I wore my glasses for a full day at school. Right when I walked in the school doors and saw my friends, they immediately asked me if I have always had glasses and that I looked so different. From other people that I saw in the hallways, but didn't talk to, stared for a while because they didn't think I was the same person. Also, when people commented on them, they asked right away if it was for this project. I feel like people knew why I was wearing them. During the experiment, I felt very awkward for many ways. One way was because I wasn't used to having glasses on so it felt weird to have the weight on my face throughout the day. It also felt uncomfortable because a lot of people were staring at me because I never really wear them to school. I wasn’t really surprised by their actions because I knew everybody would be asking me the questions I wrote above because people have never seen me with my glasses on. I was really surprised at my reaction because I thought that right away I would want to take them off and give up because of what people might say. I felt like they would get annoying, but they didn’t. I felt fine with them on. I got used to the feeling of having them on.

I feel like I am free not to conform because people didn’t treat me any different than they would any day. Based on the reactions from the people around me, I would feel comfortable if I would wear them any other day because nobody really reacted negatively to my glasses.  I think that people should not care about what others think about them. That what others think shouldn't affect what they wear or what they do in life. This assignment made me feel like McCandless because of how he’s not afraid to go outside the box and not stick to the norm in life.

Quote Journal

        The quote that I chose to represent me is " The only person you should try to be better than, is the person you were yesterday." I chose this quote because I always relate back to it when I am in certain situations where the quote might appear to be true in present time. This quote represent me and who I am in many ways. One way where the quote comes into play the most is in sports. I play volleyball competitively and for Coffman. I always strive to be a great athlete when it comes to volleyball and to give it my best. This quote relates to volleyball because you always want to be the best you can be on the court and sometimes that comes into play when you have to be competitive with the person on the opposite team. You want to play better than them to win the point. But yet in practices, you have to work hard to achieve those goals. So each and every day that I work on my skills, I can only become better than I was yesterday. This quote also relates to me in school. To be better at a certain topic, you have to study the material to become familiar with it. So you can only be better than the person you were yesterday when it comes to academics. If I lived every second of every day like what my quote told me to do I would probably achieve great things because my quote is portraying a positive message to life. I also wouldn't be successful as well. I would only focus on what I was doing and not reflect off of what others around me were doing. I wouldn't be able to learn from my surroundings as much as I would if I didn't live every second like my quote told me.

Damaged : Short Story Essay

 Brooke Stevens

Mrs.Belden

Honors English 1

5 October 2014

                                                                Damaged

Jack was any typical 15 year old boy. He was medium height (5’9) with brown hair and brown eyes. He was caring, but shy. He got good grades in school, loved his family, and always did the right thing. There was just one trait that was a little different from the rest. He was born with oral-facial clefts. This is when the structures of an infants lip or mouth area does not completely fuse during development, causing the face to be raised and deformed around the mouth. Of course Jack wasn’t phased by this image because he had dealt with it his whole life. It took some time for people to get used to it, hence why he thought he didn’t have many friends to talk with. Getting ready for school was just like any other. But the actual school days were the hardest days of his life.

He was a sophomore at Red Wing Central High School in a little town in Minnesota. With not a lot of friends, high school was just as everyone described it, the hardest four years of your life. Although, Jack was really smart so he was a real teacher favorite. Unfortunately, he was not a big favorite with the rest of the people at school. A group that he called “the bullies” ran the school. Everyone wanted to be friends with them, but yet they were terrified of them at the same time. Everyone who was anyone was in that group...Jack wasn’t considered anyone by a long stretch. They weren’t all bad though. There was one girl, Molly, who just moved here this year that struck Jack’s eye of not being a typical “bully” member. Jack thought she was gorgeous and extremely nice. With long blonde hair and blue eyes, the group everyone wanted to be in quickly snatched her up. He knew then that he would never have a chance with her and that she would soon change into one of them. Luckily, he was wrong.

Between 1 and 1:15 was the worst part of the day. Its what he dreaded most about coming to school. This is when the bullies pop out of no where and surprise him with pushing and shoving, and sometimes punching. He always just assumed it was to get their anger out. Definitely not to be mean to him, like they have something against him. Today wasn’t any different. They would come out, scare him, and then beat him up until they got bored or the bell rang. This was when they decided to leave him there all battered and such. He would walk to his next class scared and fearful but tried to hold in his feelings so he wouldn’t get made fun of.

It was June 14, Molly’s birthday. The sound of the words happy birthday were echoing around school followed by the words thank you with an appreciative smile. He so desperately wanted to wish her a happy birthday, but he was afraid of the effects that could come of it. Maybe the bullies would pick a second time of the day to pick on him for trying to talk to the new girl in their group. Luckily, he wouldn’t have to go through the trouble because she saw him in the hallway first and came up to him to talk. He thought to himself that she hadn’t gotten the memo about how no one talks to him and if someone ever did they with get this strange disease that the bullies always tell everyone. But she talked to him anyways. It was brief, but it was enough to get him thinking if maybe she could be different than the rest. If she could be the one to finally tell them that what they did to him was hurting him more than they could imagine. But that was too much to hope for. So he made the conversation mean nothing in his head so he wouldn’t get too ahead of himself. Although it might be just what he needs to have hope.

The next day she talked to him again. It became to be a regular thing at 12:00 by the gym. Luckily it was before 1:00 so she wouldn’t have to see him all battered after the bullies got to him. He thought if she talked to him so often at school, maybe they could extend it over the phone. He got her number from a “friend” of his that knew anything and everything you wanted to know about people. He texted her and of course she didn’t recognize the number so she asked who it was. She told him, but he was extremely scared about if she would think he was a creep and would stop talking to him altogether. Fortunately, that wasn’t the case. She texted him back in no time and just said hey! Like nothing was wrong.  This had been going on for while. Jack had realized he had developed true feelings for Molly. He needed to tell her but he didn’t know how to. He wanted to at school but he never knew the right time. Mostly because she was always with her group and there was no way that he was going to walk up to all of them at the same time and express his feelings for her. He was also nervous to tell her because he thought of what would happen if he told her and she didn’t love him back. He would lose her forever as a friend. Practically his only friend. He decided the next day he would text her and ask if she could meet him alone in the courtyard of their school.

Jack walked to the courtyard the next day at precisely 11:19, hopeful that she would go through with her words to meet him there alone. That her, so called “friends”, wouldn’t come and destroy his chances of telling her and destroying him. It felt like a year waiting for her to open the doors to the courtyard where he was waiting for her. Little did he know that the bullies were heading from class in his direction at the same time. He suddenly saw the bullies walking across the path towards him. He tried to hide in bushes to make them not see him. It didn’t work. They dragged him out of the bushes, tearing and ripping his clothes to shreds as he brushed up against the thorns. He screamed help because he knew that this time was much different than the times before. They seemed angry as devils and terrify to look straight in the eye. They started doing actions they had never done before. They kicked, punched, pulled, and stretched him until he was barely grasping onto life. Just in the corner of his eye, he saw Molly crying and screaming while she raced over to him. The rest of the bullies tried to fight her off but she broke through and scolded them to leave this instance. They unexpectedly left the scene and went straight off to class.

She fell down on the ground next to him while she poked and screamed at him to wake up and to stay with her. He slowly felt his heart rate slow down almost to a stop until he heard his final words that he would ever hear in his short 15 years of life.

Those words were, I love you jack.

  

Metacognitive Blog : And Then There Were None

      From my draft to my final paper, I changed many things throughout. The first thing that I changed was spelling and grammar errors. I wanted to make sure that every sentence made sense with the correct wording and spelling. My last thing that I changed from my draft was adding more detail. You can never have enough detail in a paper, so I added extra and important information to give my story more depth and for it to be more intriguing. I looked over the rubric and extended paragraphs with more detail. I believe the best system of support that helped me my improve my ATTWN essay the most was between the peer review checklist and sharing my essay with an adult. The peer review helped because they helped my find spelling errors and they also helped me look over my rubric more closely to see if I was missing any requirements. I really enjoy having my mom look at my essay because she can help me with my word use and can also catch grammar errors. She can tell me if my prompt makes sense because she hasn't read the book. She can look from a different point of view to see if everything lines up in my essay. I feel that more practice will always help me to improve my writing skills. I think I have a lot of room to improve in writing this year like adding more detail. I need to make my essays and stories stronger with details. Also with adding better words. An essay always looks better when you have more complex and intelligent words instead of the basic words u may use. A goal that I have will probably be on my short story. I want to expand my imagination a little further to get a great story out.

Timed Writing Revision

         For my choice read, I read the book The Fault In Our Stars by John Green. The theme of this book is within love there is tragedy.
         The first detail for the theme in the book is the loving relationship between Hazel and her mom.  They both love each other very much, but they have to deal with a big burden that is that Hazel has severe lung cancer. She has gotten through it for a long time and has kept strong through it all with the help of her loving, encouraging, and supportive family.  Within the book, they face many challenges between one another.  One of those challenges is with what to do next with her treatment.  She is not progressing and her parents don't want to face the fact that she isn't, but they both keep fighting together like a true family.  The last reason is with the support group.  Hazel didn't want to go, but her parents insist because they think it would help through her depression.  Little did they both know the support group would be the place Hazel would find her one true love.  The theme is showcased within this idea by expressing the love and care that her parents have for Hazel.  Through all of the struggles and tragedy they endure, they are still a strong family.
        The final detail for the theme in the book is the boyfriend/girlfriend relationship between Hazel and Agustus Waters.  Hazel and Agustus met at support group when Hazel's friend Issac brought a guest named Agustus.  From the moment they met, they had an instant connection between them.  After the program, he asked her if she wanted to go to his house and watch a move, and she said yes.  It all started on that day.  Agustus had cancer previously and lost his leg.  He was now cancer free and enjoying life.  Hazel and Agustus were drawn to each other and quickly became boyfriend and girlfriend.  When Hazel had her episodes of not breathing well and cancer taking over her body, he was always there, right beside her.  He event spent his one trip for her to meet her favorite author of all times in Amsterdam.  During Amsterdam, Agustus told Hazel that his cancer had come back and that it was really bad this time.  Hazel returned the favor and stuck with him through the hardest and most stressful times in their relationship. At the end of the book, Agustus unexpectedly dies tragically.  Hazel is heartbroken because her love for Agustus was so strong, meaningful, and important.  The theme is expressed through this detail by explaining the true love Hazel and Agustus had for each other and that nothing that ever came their way would ever tear them down, but only make them stronger.