Journal #34

Today's blog is all about me.  I have to describe my Self, not myself. I know that sounds confusing but I have an explanation that goes along with it. In English, we are starting to read about Walt Whitman.  Throughout his life, he wanted to figure out who he was and what his purpose was in life.  This self-discovering and self-evaluation came out in his poetry.  The self can be broken down into three categories: soul (spiritual self), self (personality, self-perception), and real me (other's perception and reality).  My spiritual self consists of being Catholic.  I belong to a Catholic church but I attend a Christian church with my friends.  I go to both churches and it all depends on what my parents want me to do.  I believe in the Almighty God and He is the only God I believe in.  There is a diagram that can be made from one of Walt Whitman's poems.  It is a rectangle with Son, Father, Spirit and Satan on each of its side.  In the middle is Self.  This means that your Self is made up of all four of those things.  Each "character" affects you in some way.  Next up is my personality and self-perception.  I am an outgoing, caring, funny, loving, trustworthy person.  I love helping others and being able to lend a hand to someone in need. I enjoy meeting new people and one of my best friends is because I went up to her and we just clicked.  Lastly is other's perception of me.  I think that this is what really counts because people judge you on how you act because they cannot see what is inside of you.  People tell me that I am a very caring person because I am nice to everyone.  I am especially nice to those who do not have many friends.  I try to befriend the students who are made fun of sop that they know that I am there is they need help.  

Journal #33

Stress.  It is a six letter word that causes much pain in people's lives.  It makes the days drag on and puts people in bad moods.  Stress can be caused if you have too many things on your plate at once or on your list of to-dos that you have to get done.  It can also be a result of relationships, school, sports, family, jobs, etc.  The biggest factor of stress is LIFE.  Life is stressful, very stressful.  It is stressful because you do not know what is going to happen in the next five minutes, days, months, or years.  The future is not predictable, which I wish it was because I am a Type A person.  I like to have everything laid out and planned so I can check things off the list as I go.  Life would be so much easier if it was already laid out in front of you.  You would know every twist and turn that would happen to you in the future. Back to stress.  When you are under a lot of stress, it is always nice to have some things to do to help you to relax.   A couple of things that I like to do are: lay on the couch and watch T.V., read my book, snuggle with my cat, clean or bake something.  All of these things have something in common and that is that it takes my mind of the things that are stressing me out.  My favorite thing to do when I am under stress is to back.  I pick out a recipe and get everything out.  Then I blare some music and focus all of my energy into making my dish delightful.  The best part about baking is that once it is baked, you can eat it! When I bake, I like to make a lot of dessert items and chocolate and sweets always put me in a good mood.  Gosh I love food. 

Journal #32

At first when I read this journal topic, I did not understand. I was then old that I was supposed to write about what it is like to change the way people think and how they do things. This foreshadows how Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson revolutionized the way people thought and did things during that time period.  Their writings most likely still affect people, but probably not as much as it did at that time.  At that time, everyone was used to seeing poems with iambic pentameter and themes of patriotism, love, nature, religion, and death.  From what I know about Emily Dickinson, I know that she writes with full rhyme and slant rhyme but also writes about the meaning of life.  I got to a youth group at my church and my youth leader always has good lessons to teach us.  Some of the lessons he teaches makes the people who are listening step back and have to reevaluate their life and how they are living it. That happens a lot because he knows exactly how to capture our attention make us realize that they way we are living is not the best way to live.  Today I have poms and I do not want to go.  This Friday is the last home basketball, which means that it is senior night.  On the poms team, there are six seniors. Everyone but the seniors has to bring in items to put in goodie bags for the seniors.  The school provides flowers for the seniors, so we do not have to do that.  That will save a lot of money because flowers can be expensive.  My mom told me she got some items for the girls, but I never found out what they were.  I will have to find out tonight what the items are because I have to bring them in tomorrow and give them to my coach.  WE have to start learning the dance tonight and it is going to be interesting.  Wish me luck.

Journal #31

Gossip is a six letter word that can do some deadly damage.  It is done everywhere at all times.  It is sad that it is that way but it is just such a common thing that everyone does.  I do not think I know one person who does not gossip.  Okay I may know a few who do not but out of all the people I have met in my life, there is only a handful who refrain from taking part in the act.  Staying away from gossip is very hard and I tried to come up with something cool to compare it to, but I am not that talented enough.  Oh well, I am still good at other things.  Back to gossiping.  Gossiping is done so much that people do not even realize that they are doing it.  Today I started to gossip and I did not even realize it.  I eventually saw that I was and I turned to the person I was talking to and I was like, "We were just gossiping."  Right before that, someone at our table was talking about how we had to write a journal on gossip in English today.  I am just glad that I realized that I was gossiping so I could stop myself before I got any further.  Gossiping hurts so many people and that is he worst part about it.  Most people are not gossiping to hurt someone, but there others who do gossip to hurt or get back at someone.  Sometimes when I am talking to my friends, I start to tell them stories of what happened in class and what people said, but that does not always mean that I am gossiping.  Telling stories of what happened is not considered gossiping.  For example, yesterday someone sat down in their chair and it broke (the chairs were old and I thought I was going to break one).  After it happened, I told my friends and we were making fun of the person who broke the chair, we were laughing at what happened.  There is a big difference in laughing at the person and laughing at the event.  

Journal #30

A civil right is a privilege or right given to people.  Some examples of civil rights are freedom of speech, assembly, and press.  The Civil Rights was this huge movement that took place during the mid 1950's to the late 1960's.  During this time, discrimination against African-Americans was a ginormous problem.  African-Americans were segregated from everything like: schools, water fountains, bathrooms, stores, restaurants, etc. An important figure was Martin Luther King Jr. He was an African-American activist who wanted to change the world's view of colored people.  Just because the people had a different colored skin did not mean that they should be treated differently.  Martin Luther King Jr. wrote and presented a speech called "I Have a Dream."  This speech changed the world and impacted millions of people.  Another important figure during the Civil Rights movement was Rosa Parks.  She was an African-American who one day got onto a city bus and sat down in the front.  The front of the bus was meant for white people and the back of the bus was meant for the colored people.  Rosa Parks went against those separations and sat down in the while section of the bus.  The bus began to fill up and white people told her to give up her seat and move to the back.  She refused to give up her seat and because of her action, she was arrested.  What she did though sparked other people's actions to stop the movement.  Colored people began to boycott the city buses to make a point.  Today is February 4, 2013 and on this exact day if she was still alive, she would be one-hundred years old.  ONE-HUNDRED YEARS OLD. Isn't that crazy?! If she were still alive it would be awesome.  She would be admired each and every day. Today is also Momma H's birthday.  This is Helena's mommy.  She is also my second mommy because I love her very very much.  Helena does not know how old she is but she thinks she turned forty-nine.